A couple who achieved their dream by featuring on Grand Designs with their breathtaking home have left the UK and sold their property.
Maite Alegre had always told her children that she would “be on there” one day since the show first aired in 1999. Her dream seemed to be within reach in 2017 when she purchased a plot of land in Graven Hill, a self-build village in Oxfordshire for £220,000 after five years of searching.
It was after buying the plot that Maite spotted a scout for Grand Designs hanging around outside the plot. She had an architect send over plans for her dream home and within days the producers and camera crews arrived ready for filming.
Over the next four years, Maite and her husband Carlos Dean found the show becoming intertwined with their life. The couple, who were paid £1,500, had film crews and producers over “every week” with presenter Kevin McCloud visiting once a month.
The couple formed a close bond with the presenter, having “spent an afternoon drinking Spanish wine and eating chorizo” together, according to the Independent. However, their Spanish-inspired home began to take over their lives, reports Wales Online.
Maite, 61, says she was juggling “10 jobs”, including shifts at a local ice-cream parlour, the Red Cross, and the nearby Soho Farmhouse. She says the couple “needed the money” as the costs of the project started to skyrocket.
The couple’s relationship was pushed to the brink while building their dream home, with 61 year old Carlos admitting “you either break or become stronger”. Their project finally racked up a jaw-dropping £569,000 in costs.
That hefty sum was a staggering £400,000 above their initial £150,000 budget. Just laying down the foundations cost them a cool £70,000, £36,000 more than they bargained for and torpedoed their emergency funds within a mere three weeks.
(Image: No credit)
But for Carlos, flipping the property was never the goal; it was all about realising Maite’s keen eye for design. The pair aspired to “create a legacy home” to pass down to their grandchildren, without any inkling of selling it someday.
They envisioned an audacious project: a sleek three-bed pad with a glass facade, combining aluminium and larch cladding, seven-meter high ceilings and a mezzanine perched above the kitchen.
Their pad clinched an architecture accolade at the UK Property Awards, earning praise as “breath-taking” from Kevin McCloud. Yet, after three laborious years, they opted to list the house for £550,000 through The Modern House, a £19,000 cut below its construction cost to relocate to Spain for Maite’s folks.
(Image: Channel 4)
Carlos shared with the Independent: “This was going to be a legacy space that our grandchildren would grow up in. We didn’t think we would ever move.”
He continued: “If we had waited to sell, we might have got more for the house but life and age have meant that isn’t possible. But it was never about money anyway.”
Maite confessed that leaving their self-built abode will tug at the heartstrings, but building it was a joyous chapter in her life. She’s even got the itch to start anew, revealing: “I have it all the time. At the moment, because we are here in Spain with my parents, and we don’t know where we are going to end up.”