Grand Designs host Kevin McCloud ‘dreads’ return to lighthouse-inspired dream home that threatened couple with bankruptcy-Sabrina Barr-Entertainment – Metro

The process of turning a property into a dream home can sometimes be years in the making… without the promise that all of the blood, sweat and tears that went into it will be paid off.

In the latest episode of Grand Designs on Channel 4, Kevin McCloud does some digging to discover if a 10-year project to transform a pile of bricks into a lighthouse-inspired wonder has come to fruition… but even he admits that he doesn’t have high hopes for the outcome.

In an exclusive clip shared by Metro.co.uk, the designer – who’s presented the programme since its debut in 1999 – explained that all the way back in 2011, a couple called Edward and Hazel first put their plan into motion to create their lighthouse-based structure on the north Devon coast.

The couple wanted to build a house ‘in a place they loved and spent so much time in’, and so ‘they chose, for their architecture, a robust building, a design which mimicked something so traditional and important on our coastlines – a lighthouse’.

However, Kevin pointed out that the symbol of a lighthouse can be ominous, as the light-emitting buildings are used to ‘warn of impending danger’.

As it turned out, Edward and Hazel had gargantuan obstacles in their path hindering their dream from becoming the smooth-sailing reality they’d hoped for.

It was a big risk knocking down a 1950s family home (Picture: Channel 4)

The couple had ‘no compromises’ with their architectural concept (Picture: Channel 4)

Kevin witnessed the progression – or lack of it – over the years (Picture: Channel 4)

‘Edward and Hazel’s project felt it may run onto the rocks from the moment they knocked down their 1950s home,’ Kevin said in a voiceover, as the couple’s traditional family home was shown being demolished in a risky move.

Edward admitted he was feeling a ‘strange set of emotions’, given their coastline house had been a family home, as the builders excavated ‘deep into the cliffs’ to develop ‘a great complex of art deco maritime buildings’.

Edward and Hazel emphasised that there were no compromises they could have made when they came up with their idea.

Nonetheless, their costs ‘ran into the millions’, as the shell-like structure of their potential future home remained looking cold and unfinished.

Construction was in full swing (Picture: Channel 4)

Edward and Hazel had a vision for their home on the coast (Picture: Channel 4)

In 2022, how will their idea have transformed? (Picture: Channel 4)

‘The pressures to keep their dreams alive were horrendous,’ Kevin said, while Hazel revealed that all of their money was ‘gone’, having been ‘borrowed’ and ‘gambled’.

Having begun construction in 2011, following seven years of work, the building was still looking more like a gasholder than a cosy, seaside lodgings.

‘The whole project mired in debt had finally run aground,’ Kevin said, as Edward expressed his fear over bankruptcy.

It’s been over a decade in the making (Picture: Channel 4)

The house was looking like a lighthouse… but a dream home? (Picture: Channel 4)

Three years after last seeing Edward, will Kevin’s fears turn out to be true? (Picture: Channel 4)

‘Edward and Hazel’s hopes and dreams were but a wreckage,’ the host added… but what about now, in the year 2022, when Kevin caught up with how they were doing?

Having last seen Edward three years ago, the TV presenter returned to the site to see with his own eyes whether there had been any positive progress… but he didn’t sound too optimistic.

‘I’m rather dreading it to be frank,’ he admitted at the end of the clip.

So will Edward and Hazel have managed to succeed in creating their dream home, or has their fantasy been left in tatters?

Grand Designs airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 4 and All 4.

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