‘Curse of Kevin’ hits £450,000 dream home
Was Grand Designs house jinxed?
‘The programme showed it was a bit of a struggle’
AS a showcase for the nation’s most stunning properties, it is the TV show every ambitious homeowner dreams of appearing on.
So Jo McLean was overjoyed when Channel 4’s Grand Designs decided to chronicle the construction of her Scottish dream home.
But from then on it seems the unusual four-bedroom home with spectacular views of the islands of Arran and Bute fell victim to the show’s so-called ‘Curse of Kevin’.
A string of properties featured in the series presented by Kevin McCloud have appeared to be jinxed – and Miss McLean’s was no exception.
During filming over a three-year period from 2004-7, the project suffered a series of setbacks as the cost more than doubled to over £400,000.
First, digging the foundations was delayed for weeks because of stability problems with the site, high above the Dunbartonshire village of Kilcreggan.
Then the kitchen floor had to be ripped out after too much concrete was laid over the under-floor heating, taking the height of the building beyond the planning permission limit.
On completion, despite being hailed by Mr McCloud as one of his all-time favourite designs, the Nordic-inspired house failed to sell at an asking price of £440,000. And parts of the new home disintegrated in the freak storms that caused chaos throughout Scotland in January 2012.
Now seven years after completion, with £65,000 slashed off the price, the repaired house is still on the market.
‘It was a bit of a struggle for us, and the programme documented that,’ said Miss McLean, who appeared on the TV show with her ex-partner, Scottish Opera orchestra leader Tony Moffat.
‘When we moved in, the house was half-finished. It was a continuous process of trying to get things finished while we were living in it with two young children. It’s never easy.’ But Miss McLean, a producer with a Glasgow-based arts organisation, has no regrets about appearing on the prime time show, despite the ‘Curse of Kevin’.
She said: ‘It was great being a part of the programme. The crew were lovely, Kevin was great and everyone was helpful and supportive.’
The owners of a nine-storey water tower in Kennington, London, which was featured in Grand Designs in 2012, knocked £2million from the asking price of £6.5million after it failed to find a buyer.
And in 2011, Dean Marks blamed the exhaustion he suffered converting an 18th century Midlands church for breaking up his marriage.