Kevin McCloud shares his concerns for the owner of Grand Designs’ ‘saddest ever home’-Pierra Willix-Entertainment – Metro

Kevin McCloud has shared he had concerns for the owner of Grand Designs’ ‘saddest ever home’ (Picture: S Meddle/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

Kevin McCloud has admitted he was worried about the wellbeing of the owner of Grand Designs’ ‘saddest ever home’.

In a 2019 episode of the long-running Channel 4 series, viewers were introduced to Edward Short, who had aspirations to transform his family’s 1950s home located in North End, near Croyde on the North Devon coast into a lighthouse-style mansion.

The plan was to complete the renovation in 18 months and spend £1.8million.

However, when McCloud met Edward, he’d already been working on it for over a decade.

The music industry executive faced a string of challenges, including being left with an incomplete home and £7 million in debt, as well as a broken marriage to his wife of 20 years.

He finally completed the property in 2022, and it was originally put on the market for £10million but its price has been slashed several times since then.

Edward Short appeared on a 2019 episode of the Channel 4 series (Picture: SWNS)

Over the years McCloud has kept in touch with Edward and has now spoken about how worried he once was as the problems kept piling up.

Speaking at Grand Designs Live at London ExCel on Monday, McCloud was asked if he had concerns about the home when he first met the owner.

‘I had more concerns about Ed’s wellbeing and his family’s wellbeing. But yes, I did have concerns about the house halfway through,’ he said.

He and wife Hazel divorced in the midst of their building project (Picture: Channel 4)

‘It was unfinished, and because he couldn’t proceed with works. The water was getting in, and it cost him tens of thousands of pounds to remediate the steel work and glazing because it was damaged. The building wasn’t fully watertight and that’s a great shame.

‘You go forwards to go backwards to go forwards again, but goodness me, he (Ed) got there in the end didn’t he, so that’s great.’

The TV host previously told Metro.co.uk he and Ed ‘still communicate by email now and again’.

McCloud has kept in touch with the former music executive over the years (Picture: Mark Bolton Photography)

‘It’s not always the case you keep in contact with people, but in his case, it was such a special project and we had a lot of shared interests in common and we share a mutual friend,’ he explained.

Despite his once grand dreams, Edward eventually conceded he’d never be able to live in the home because he had ‘money I need to pay back’.

He then pointed to his ‘overconfidence and arrogance’ seeing him push forward with plans over the years despite the mounting setbacks.

In 2022 Edward told Devon Live it was unlikely he’d ever tackle any big building projects again, instead saying he would probably need to instead spend money on ‘a physiatrist and help with PTSD’.

Grand Designs is streaming on Channel 4.

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