Grand Designs Season 24 is yet to be announced by Channel 4

Dan and Nina want to build a unique family home, but their plot is dominated by a pond filled with local drainage. Will their West Sussex house be sublime and sleek or a Shrek-like swamp?

Kevin McCloud meets master carpenter Olaf, who is facing the biggest challenge of his career - creating an oasis for himself and partner Fritha on a small slice of land in West Sussex, which happens to be surrounded by a mainline railway and a busy A-road. Not only that, but half of the plot can't even be built on due an underground mains sewer. All they're left with is a very small triangle on which to build their future life together. With £190,000 in the bank, Olaf and Fritha must use all the ingenuity they can muster to make their triangular three-bedroom house come to life.

Kevin McCloud visits a couple planning to build a home that looks like a work of art overlooking a valley in south Devon. Joe and Claire's new home will be a giant sculpture inspired by the local landscape, 70 metres long and featuring 34 enormous angled zinc shards jutting out in all directions. It will also be complicated to build and equally as expensive. And although Joe is wealthy, ambitious and fearless, his team quickly come up against problems and the budget virtually doubles the first walls go up. Is his dream home in danger of become a nightmare?

Kevin McCloud revisits professional deep-sea diver Adrian Corrigall and his wife Megan, who planned to build their new family home in rural East Sussex almost entirely out of concrete, with construction involving cutting-edge technologies conceived in Switzerland and never used to build a house before. With both the schedule and the budget under strain, Adrian was forced to resume work as a North Sea diver, leaving Megan juggling this messy and challenging build, all the while looking after three young children. By 2018, water leaks were still to be addressed, the majority of the spaces were raw and unfinished, and the family were still a long way away from moving into their concrete dream. Two and a half years later, with the house now fully complete, Kevin returns to see what living in a cutting-edge concrete bunker is really like.

Kevin McCloud follows an ambitious build in Cornwall, as Leigh and Richard transform a derelict 17th century flour mill into a contemporary, three-bedroom home. They employ traditional craftsmen to start work on restoring the exterior, but it's not long before the true scale of the damage to the structure is revealed, and as the costs rise, they are forced to take more of the work themselves.

Energy conservationist Andrew plans to build a radical, self-heating home by storing the warmth of the summer sun into insulated earth banks. But will this gigantic thermal experiment work?

Nathan and Amye are building a cathedral-like home modeled on local Dutch barn houses with a sleek twist and a 5000-tile armadillo roof. But the pressure mounts for project manager Nathan.

Greg and Georgie plan to convert a cavernous, dilapidated, 35-year-old barn in Georgie's parents' garden in Kent into a peaceful safe haven. But budget-squeezing building work soon sets in.

Kevin McCloud follows more of Britain's most ambitious self-building projects, as intrepid individuals attempt to design and construct the home of their dreams. In this first edition, Kevin meets former army captain Justin, who has spent £1.8million on an abandoned neo-Gothic cemetery keeper's lodge and adjoining ex-council toilet block in south-west London. Justin's vision is to restore the lodge but demolish the ugly toilet blocks and replace them with an enormous luxury ground-floor extension, with an added moat and a giant basement with a swimming pool - all just metres from the nearest grave.

Six years on, Kevin returns to Scotland to see Colin and Marta's incredible metal home, inspired by aircraft hangars, now that the construction is finally finished

Edward and Hazel plan a shining white art deco lighthouse on a rugged beautiful clifftop. But almost immediately their wildly optimistic plan runs into trouble.

In one of Grand Designs most disaster-laden projects, Edward and Hazel Short looked to build a vast lighthouse-inspired home in Croyde, on a crumbling clifftop the North Devon coastline. The grand plans for the build saw loans of £3 million taken out to fund the project, but with setbacks and delays, the money was soon gone, leaving the building half-finished. Edward estimated that it would take another £2 million to complete the build.

After recovering from leukemia, Toby is driven to build a complex home around an old oak tree. But can he balance high architecture and health with a comfy family place?

Richard and Felicia almost single-handedly turn an underground water reservoir in the Humber Estuary into a family home. It's an epic task. And then a life threatening illness strikes.

Design engineer Mark Butler is paralysed from the waist down and needs a cutting-edge, wheelchair-friendly family home. Making it for £600k proves a huge emotional strain.

Kevin McCloud meets entrepreneur Paul Wilkinson and his wife Amy, who are building a giant new home on a 16-acre plot in Lincolnshire. The superstructure will be comprised of five circular buildings made up of interlocking timber cylinders, linked by raised wooden walkways that hang over a fishing lake. The complicated build proves difficult for Paul's local team, and their ambitious schedule of completing the project in a year soon looks out of reach.

Kevin McCloud meets Andy Stakes and Jeanette Hardy, who are building a new house on top of a sheer cliff on the west coast of Scotland. The pair want to spend £250,000 on a two-bedroom, glass-fronted and earth-sheltered home for themselves and their two beloved Newfoundland dogs. However, construction on such an exposed site is fraught with danger and the pair face no end of problems throughout the build, and a last minute design change that begs the biggest question: even if Andy finishes the house, will Jeanette actually like it?

To celebrate 20 years of Grand Designs, Kevin McCloud reveals his top five buildings from the show, revisiting the buildings and people who have most inspired him over 180 episodes.

Kevin McCloud returns to Devon to meet Kevin McCabe, a man who wanted to build one of the biggest houses the programme has ever seen. Finally, seven years after it began, the herculean task of building this giant cob castle is complete. Has it proven to be the great home he originally intended, and does it prove as he hoped that cob is a viable material for contemporary architecture?

Professional deep-sea diver Adrian Corrigall is obsessed with concrete. He fell in love with this cold uncompromising material in the skateparks of Scotland. Now he's convinced his wife Megan to agree to build their new family home in rural East Sussex almost entirely out of the stuff - both inside and out. No cladding, no carpets, no plaster or wallpaper - this will be as pure a concrete building as possible. Construction involves cutting-edge technologies conceived in Switzerland and never used to build a house before. The hope is these new mix recipes will overcome the historic negatives of concrete and keep costs down. However, the perils of being a pioneer soon become evident. With both schedule and budget under strain, Adrian is forced to resume work as a diver, servicing North Sea oil installations and taking him away for a month at a time. With Megan now left juggling the build, all the while looking after three young children, the concrete dream seems a long way off.

Identical twins Nik and Jon Daughtry run a graphic design company together. They drive the same car and even own identical dogs. Now these two brothers are building two near identical houses next door to each other in Sheffield. Raised up on steel stilts on the site of an old corn mill, the houses pay tribute to Sheffield's industrial past. Huge steel frames with exposed blockwork and black steel cladding should create two sleek and modern family homes. But Nik and Jon's plan is incredibly ambitious. Not only do they want to build the two houses for the price of one, but the materials and finish have to be absolutely perfect. With a tight budget, it's an almighty stretch from the start. As delays, overages and imperfections hit, it's clear the twins' intuitive and incredibly close relationship will be tested like never before.

Chiropractor Steph Wilson has spent 20 years dreaming of living on her grandfather's farmland in Leominster, Herefordshire, which was sold when she was 16. Steph and her husband Alex have re-mortgaged their current house to buy back 27 acres of the farm. Steph has secured planning permission for a sleek contemporary cantilevered farmhouse in the old gravel pit where she played as a child. She is determined to give her two young children a version of the blissful childhood she had. Steph and Alex are told their ambitious design will cost £500k - twice what they can borrow. Regardless, the family take a leap of faith and move into a draughty old caravan on site. It's supposed to be a temporary solution. But after six months, caravan life is starting to look like it could become permanent. The family are in desperate need of a saviour, or their dream could turn into a nightmare. Then along comes Steph's oldest friend.

In the first 'healthy' home project ever seen on Grand Designs, gallery owner Elinor and fitness entrepreneur Born set themselves the near impossible task of creating Britain's first hypoallergenic house in a leafy back garden plot in south west London. Driven by the need to alleviate their two young sons' life-threatening allergies, their new part-submerged, shed-inspired home, will be constructed using low toxin materials and deploy cutting-edge filtration systems to clean the air they breathe. Right from the start, Born and Elinor are up against it, with access issues to their plot and the need to be super strict concerning suitable materials. It's an immense burden and with the children still suffering weekly allergy attacks, a race against time to get moved in. But will their innovative new house deliver the benefits Elinor and Born are hoping for?

Harry and Briony Anscombe have made a radical change to their lives, moving with their three young children from London to Cornwall - and setting up an outpost of their media business at the same time. It's a bold attempt to emulate the positive work-life balance and lifestyle they experienced in California. But even bolder is the giant five-bedroom house they want to build, heavily inspired by an American modernist house Harry saw in the 80s teen comedy Ferris Bueller's Day Off. All floating steel and glass, Harry by his own admission has become 'obsessed' with living somewhere just like it. But creating such an architecturally ambitious home would typically cost over a million pounds, and Harry and Briony have just £400,000 to play with.

Kevin McCloud returns for a new series of the show that follows intrepid individuals trying to design and build their dream home. In Buckinghamshire he meets young Spanish architect Jaime and his wife Mimi as they embark on an epic mission to convert a Grade II* listed folly into a family home. Originally designed to exhibit a fossil collection, but gutted by fire and left in ruins for the last 200 years, the crumbling mini castle beguiles Jaime and Mimi. Giving themselves a wildly optimistic six month deadline to finish before the birth of their second child, it's not long before the couple hit trouble. The Saxon burial ground the folly is built on throws up some macabre surprises. Their stonemasons from Madrid let them down and local builders with no restoration experience have to take on the crumbling stonework. Jaime puts all his energies and creativity into the project, using innovative 3D mapping to squeeze living spaces into the tower, but it's an exhausting struggle.

Ten years in the making, this is the longest running Grand Designs ever. In 2007, Ed and Rowena Waghorn started to build a handcrafted five bedroom house on an eight acre smallholding in Herefordshire. Their budget was just £100k. Made from individually carved wooden beams and walls of straw and clay, the heart of the house was to be a huge medieval style hall, complete with massive stone fireplace and a glorious cathedral-like window with panoramic views across the valley. Ed decided to do most of the work himself. Progress was slow. Four years in, the house was still a shell. In 2012 Kevin McCloud decided to follow the build for another five years. In the end, it's just possible this house might turn out to be a masterpiece.

Joe and Lina's clever space-saving low-budget build may be the smallest two-bedroom house you're allowed to build in London, but it'll be stylish, and theirs - not a landlord's.

Fred and Saffron build a home in the Peak District on a 30 degree slope, with the top floor in plain sight and two post-industrial style floors buried into the thick limestone below

This is one of the most ambitious homes ever seen on Grand Designs - a scaly, curving house that's reminiscent of a giant coiled snake. Stephen Tetlow is head of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Stephen's wife Elizabeth is a committed horticulturalist. Together they want to build a home that reflects their passions - one that pushes Stephen's engineering skills to the limit and embraces Elizabeth's deep affinity with nature. Taking inspiration from an ammonite shell found on their land in the beautiful Blackdown Hills in Devon, the house spirals onto the landscape over two levels and mixes natural materials with cutting edge technology. Construction of such a complex curving structure proves a huge challenge and progress is tortuously slow.

Beth and Andrew rescue a crumbling Victorian dairy, hoping to make it into a 'shabby chic' family home fit for modern life. But is the building simply too derelict?

Chris and Kayo build an intricate, radical and complicated home on protected land close to one of Britain's most historic abbeys.

We are a nation that loves our sheds - but not many of us would want to actually live in one. In Northern Ireland, young architect and shed fanatic Micah Jones has the chance to re-invent a dilapidated old agricultural building in the rolling countryside of County Down. Micah plans an upside down four bedroom shed using new techniques and materials. Micah and family move into a caravan on their windswept site for the duration of the build. But their limited £200k budget runs short and Micah is forced to do more and more of the work himself. And then news of a new baby on the way adds yet more pressure.

Penny Talelli has a passion for cutting-edge contemporary architecture, while husband Mark Edwards loves period buildings. Somehow, these two neurologists want to build a family home that satisfies both their tastes. But will it be the best of both worlds or just an appalling mishmash? Taking the plunge, they buy a derelict Victorian gatehouse on a very steep hill in north London, that currently sits abandoned and unloved. The plan is to restore it, paint it white, and then add a giant black zinc-clad box at the back, marrying their love of old and new. But they run into problems. The gatehouse needs knocking down. Excavating the sloping site takes longer than expected. Increasingly struggling to balance their busy working lives with project managing the build, the future of Penny and Mark's unconventional home hangs in the balance.

Few people would be brave or foolish enough to buy a building plot without visiting it first. But that's exactly what ex-RAF pilot Jon and GP Gill Flewers did. Returning to the UK after a four year stint in New Zealand, this intrepid pair want to build a Kiwi-style hill house on the slopes of the Malvern hills in Worcestershire. Their ambitious three storey upside-down home will be clad in wood and stone, clinging to the hill and designed to take advantage of and enhance the surrounding scenery. But there are problems. The site is so steep that builders don't want the job. So, despite a complete lack of experience, Jon quits his job to run the project himself. It proves an emotional rollercoaster ride.

Kevin McCloud returns one year later to see the progress of private chef Ed Versluys and Pilates instructor Vicky Anderson, who wanted to convert a concrete cowshed in the Somerset countryside into a three bedroom home. With the help of one young builder and the knowledge they can learn from the Internet, the couple planed to project manage the conversion themselves. However, they had only seven months and a budget of just over £200,000 to make a warm and comfortable home with straw bale walls and wide expanses of glass.

How do you turn your small bungalow from a 1960s dormer into a generous 21st-century piece of slick architecture, all for £175k? Stuart and Rosie Treasurer from the Wirral plan to decapitate their bungalow - cutting the roof off to leave just the walls - then balance a big new floating timber box on top, containing five bedrooms. To keep costs down, they take on the plumbing and electrics themselves, spend as little as they can on insulation, and leave elements of the building unfinished. The hope is to get a stylish industrial look in the process. But the stress levels spiral when their neighbours grumble about the ultra-modern wooden box going up in the middle of their traditional suburb.

Kevin McCloud meets Mark and Candida Diacono, who have set about building a home in the shape of a plough on their 17-acre smallholding in Devon. With its complex curved roof, timber-clad exterior and steel-framed working barn, the ambitious project presents a unique technical challenge.

Can you really build a Grand Design when you've only got £500 to start with? That's what Simon and Jasmine Dale had in the bank when they started to build their unique three bedroom family house high up in the hills of rural Pembrokeshire. This is their take on 21st century low-impact self-building, featuring foraged and recycled materials. Despite the budget, their house will be open plan, have underfloor heating, an inside flushing loo, and a set of greenhouses that wouldn't disgrace Kew Gardens. They are part of a pioneering, government-backed, sustainable village called Lammas, which has a fierce planning condition attached: in return for the right to build on open farmland, they must become self-sufficient on their seven acre plot in five years, or lose everything. It's a huge double challenge.

Paul Rimmer has worked with bricks for 40 years renovating Victorian houses in Bolton. But now he plans to hand-build a state-of-the-art wooden home. If his funding holds up that is.

After artist and teacher Michelle Parsons recovered from serious illness, she and her architect husband David decided it was time to seize the day and build the private hideaway they'd always yearned for. David devised a sleek, black-clad, three bedroom house for a beautiful plot in an Essex woodland, with a separate studio for Michelle. The couple project manage the build, which gets off to a sticky start, including a dangerous gas leak and torrential rain. As the building finally starts to take shape, the big question remains - by choosing to eliminate windows on two sides of the property, could their new home turn out to be just a gloomy bunker?

Tom and Danielle Raffield's lifelong passion is steam-bending wood into extraordinary curvy shapes. They've spent much of their working lives using the technique to make furniture and lighting. Desperate to escape their tiny gamekeeper's lodge, they've decided to build a spectacular wavy wooden house in South Cornwall, with curvy cladding, twisty furniture, and interior walls covered with naturally-weathered timber. With only a £100k budget to play with, they decide to do a lot of the building themselves. But have they taken on too much?

Why are our homes so often designed to be so serious and purely practical? Surely there's space for a bit more fun? That's what Matt and Sophie White from Sussex believe. They want to build a giant family house of fun for themselves and their children. It will be a mysterious black home kitted out with a revolving bookcase door, secret dens, hiding places behind one-way mirrors and a fireman's pole. Matt wants the house to evolve, so he uses a steel frame system which means they can change the layout whenever they want. There are other changes too - like amending the window shapes and sizes and adding a new half floor to create a James Bond room. Just what will this house look like in the end?

A new run of shows starts with an overgrown, neglected half-acre site in the heart of a Gloucestershire town. It could be the perfect plot to build a house - if you were allowed to cut down its 27 protected trees and clear the site. But local plumber Jon Martin and ceramicist Noreen Jaafar have a much better solution. They love trees and they love their home town, so they're going to build a big modern tree house. The house will be way up in the trees, with stilts screwed into the earth and featuring balconies that see for miles. The only problem is building it, especially on a tight budget. It takes almost two years to crack the engineering as the project becomes an epic self-build, 40 feet up, as an exhausted Jon and Noreen battle towards the finish.

Kevin McCloud returns to north Cornwall to see one of his favourite Grand Designs, and discover whether Rebecca Sturrock and Gregory Kewish have been successful with their ambitious plans. Their project, to reinforce the walls of an old bungalow and put a new living space on top made entirely of cross-laminated timber, soon ran into difficulties, but now fully complete both inside and out, Kevin finds out whether this innovative house is really big enough to accommodate a growing family.

Kevin McCloud revisits Andy and Nicky Bruce who were building an experimental amphibious house on a small island on the Thames in Buckinghamshire. They spent £1.2 million on one of the most ambitious Grand Designs ever, but the logistical headache of building on an island only accessible by a narrow footbridge soon became clear. Heavy machinery was swept away by the river, contractors were changed, and the site was hit by severe storms, causing delays and resulting in an unfinished and untested building. Kevin returns to find out what living on a regularly flooded piece of land is like, and whether the floating home performed when the river burst its banks in January 2015.

Kevin McCloud follows the progress of Stephen Yeoman and Anita Findlay, who want to build a cutting-edge, post-industrial house covered in rusty metal. However, their prominent riverside plot in the traditional and architecturally conservative area of South Downs means everyone will be watching. The project proves to be a real rollercoaster when the fitting of the rusty steel cladding goes wrong, cash flow problems threaten to bring work to a halt, and the couple announce that a baby is on the way.

Kevin McCloud follows the progress of private chef Ed Versluys and Pilates instructor Vicky Anderson, who want to convert a concrete cow-shed in the Somerset countryside into a three bedroom home. With the help of one young builder and the knowledge they can learn from the Internet, the couple plan to project manage the conversion themselves. However, they have only seven months and a budget of just over £200,000 to make a warm and comfortable home with straw bale walls and wide expanses of glass.

Kevin McCloud follows the progress of teacher Michele Long and architect Michael Howe, who want to restore and transform a 100-year-old blacksmiths in County Antrim near Portrush,near the coast of Northern Ireland. With virtually no practical experience, Michael wants to do as much of the project as possible by himself. However, the weather on the coastline is fierce, and the freezing weather coupled with a tight budget of £150k means the build is stretched from one to three years.

Kevin McCloud follows the progress of 37-year-old Angelo Mastropietro, as he transforms a damp, dark and abandoned cave in Worcestershire. Having recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Angelo wants to create a retreat to help him cope with the news and become a 21st century caveman. He has a budget of £100,000 and plans to almost single-handedly carve, cut and drill into the hillside to make the cave comfortable for contemporary living. However, there is no manual for a project of this kind, and the unique challenge soon becomes an obsession.

After recovering from a life-threatening brain haemorrhage, Bram Vis, his wife Lisa and their two children want to build a house for sharing on a seaside plot on the Isle of Wight. Kevin McCloud follows the family's progress as they build an ambitious home complete with entertaining spaces and a swimming pool. However, the sheer scale of their project soon becomes clear when their original £850k budget spirals out of control.

Boat enthusiast James Strangeways invites Kevin McCloud to survey progress on the construction of his new home, which his architect nephew Ben Hebblethwaite has designed to be as 'un-houselike' as possible. James has spent the past 35 years travelling the canals and waterways of Britain, and despite never liking houses, has decided now is the time to put down roots on dry land. Ben hoped a home standing on stilts above a marsh, and incorporating ship-like qualities such as a keel-shaped roof, will be enough to satisfy his boat-mad uncle. However, Ben's contractor goes into liquidation a few months into the project, taking £87,000 of the £300,000 budget, and when James decides to make a few tweaks to the design, alarm-bells begin to ring for the young architect.

Kevin McCloud meets Clinton Dall from Sussex, a self-made businessman and father of four aiming to build one of the largest homes ever featured on the show. Dall wants the end project to be perfect - from the finish of his mirrored cruciform steel columns, to how the floor tiles line up with the dining room table, and is willing to spend whatever it takes to achieve his vision. However, the construction represents a huge risk, as down one road lies abject failure and financial ruin, while down the other, is the creation of something sublime and almost heroic.

Kevin McCloud looks at the challenges of self-building in the countryside, where design must embrace and enhance tradition, yet often overcome stringent planning constraints. Drawing on footage from the show's 15-year history, as well as new visits to extraordinary homes, he finds out how pioneers at the forefront of architecture are transforming agricultural and historic buildings, and bringing cutting-edge contemporary design to rural parts.

Kevin McCloud reveals how self-builders in the suburbs are transforming this most maligned of residential environments. He draws on some of the best examples from the 15-year history of Grand Designs, talks to experts in the latest architectural thinking and reveals the designs that have reinvented the suburbs as a place where home-owners really can have it all.

In the second of four special programmes, Kevin McCloud looks at the challenges of self-building in the UK's most remote places, where beautiful landscapes often meet savage weather. Drawing on footage from 15 years of the programme, as well as new visits to extraordinary and incredible homes, Kevin reveals which designs work best, and why. Along the way, he interviews pioneers at the forefront of architecture in the wilderness and sees the astonishing lengths people go to live on the edges of society.

Kevin McCloud presents the first of four special programmes inspired by 15 years of Grand Designs. He begins with a look at the challenges of self-building in the city, where space is at a premium and architects have to be at their most ingenious. Kevin uses footage from the best urban builds from the show over the years, meets pioneers at the forefront of the latest architectural thinking and looks at clever innovations that continue to transform people's lives to reveal which designs work best and why.

Kevin McCloud returns to Devon for an update on an inspirational build. Royal Marine Captain Jon White and his wife Becky were living happily in a small cottage when in June 2010, while serving in Afghanistan, Jon stepped on an improvised explosive device, losing three limbs. Every part of their lives had to change - starting with where they could live. Their architect came up with a cutting-edge, semi open-plan building with a dramatic wing-like-roof - and crucially no obvious signs of adaptations for Jon's disabilities. Has the new home proved as enabling for the couple and their expanding family as they had hoped?

Kevin McCloud revisits a unique Japanese-Welsh fusion home in the Wye Valley, completely transformed from a damp old forester's house in 2013. Tamayo Hussey has missed Japan ever since she moved to the UK 15 years ago with her husband Nigel. To stave off the homesickness they decided to turn the property into a one-of-a-kind home, complete with roof bath, tatami room and sliding paper walls. Kevin finds out how this somewhat improvised building weathered one of the wettest winters on record and if it has brought the calm and tranquillity Tamayo remembers from her childhood in the Far East.

Kevin McCloud revisits a memorable restoration project in the remote Creuse region of central France. Back in 2003, when Denise Daniel and Doug Ibbs gave up everything in the UK to start a new life abroad, they couldn't have known what was ahead of them. Falling in love with a dilapidated manor house with just four crumbling walls and half a roof, they embarked on a mission to transform it - working day and night, doing everything themselves, year after year - until slowly but surely they created a magnificent edifice out of the ruins they bought off the internet. It's now the 70th anniversary of the destruction of the original 19th-century building by the German army - and the house is finally finished.

Kevin McCloud follows software executive Andy Bruce and garden designer Nicki Bruce, who are planning to build a "floating" house on the River Thames, which would be the first of its kind in the UK. Their architect has come up with an ambitious, experimental design that would see the whole property magically rise up with the flood waters. However, no one knows whether it will work, and the project soon becomes bogged down in the logistical challenges of bringing to fruition such a complex structure on a small island that is only accessible by a narrow footbridge.

Natasha Cargill wants to build a home shaped like two enormous periscopes in rural Norfolk, but to obtain planning permission, she has to ensure not only that the materials are sustainable, but also agree to measure the transportation used to deliver them. If these strict criteria are not met, she won't be allowed to live there, and to add to the pressure, she has just £330,000 to spend on construction and six months to complete the project

Tracy Fox and husband Steve want to build an "urban shed" featuring two studios, three bedrooms and a double-height space with a walkway, made out of industrial-style materials including corrugated cement fibreboard and 20ft panels of polycarbonate sheeting. Having discovered an old milk yard tucked away behind some flats and shops in south-east London, their long-held desire to build a highly unconventional family home and workspace begins. But their choice of unorthodox materials proves challenging and costly.

Architect Patrick Bradley has come up with an unusual £100,000 house design built out of four 45ft shipping containers, welded together to form a giant cross and cantilevered over the top of a stream on the family farm in County Londonderry. His mother is hoping the new home will help her son find a girlfriend, but the small budget and tight schedule soon pose problems

GP Peter Berkin and his wife Chard, an alternative medicine practitioner, have decided to build a new home at the bottom of their garden, but cannot agree on any part of the design - even the basic shape. Peter is a keen hobbyist who wants the house to feature a workshop where he can build a plane, and he's planning to spend twice the £200,000 budget Chard has in mind. Kevin McCloud follows their progress.

Product designer Rebecca Sturrock has returned to her family home in Cornwall with her partner Gregory Kewish and a highly ambitious plan. Together they hope to transform a small, damp bungalow into a cutting-edge home to share with their twin three-year-old daughters - all for just £80,000. The design is radical - to reinforce the walls of the old property and add a new living space on top to take advantage of the views. This extra floor will be made entirely of thick wooden panels engineered in Germany and normally assembled by a crew of specialist installers. However, budget constraints mean the couple are determined to do it all themselves.

Rob Hodgson and Kay Ralph plan to build a sleek glass-fronted house on a crumbling clifftop in Gwynedd, taking inspiration from the villas of California. However, access will be extremely difficult and expensive because of a low bridge over the narrow track to the site, and problems arise when one of the heaviest storms in recent history batters the coast. To make matters worse, erosion specialists predict the property could fall into the sea within just 60 years and the pair are prohibited from reinforcing the cliff face.

Six years ago Lucie Fairweather and Nat McBride began to build an affordable eco home in Woodbridge for themselves and their two young children. However, their journey was to be about more than bricks and mortar. Just before they got started, Nat discovered he had cancer, and after just a few months he died. Lucie decided to carry on with the project Nat had devised. Kevin McCloud returns to find out just how life has moved on for Lucie and to discover whether her wonderful and striking house has become part of the landscape.

Around ten years ago Gil and Hillary Briffa retired to southern Spain. Instead of creating a home like the traditional old fincas in the area, their architect son designed them a confrontational, modernist glass box, surrounded by boldly colourful connected rooms, behind a giant citadel wall. A few years ago, Gil died, but now Kevin McCloud revisits Hillary to find out whether her home has settled into its landscape and how life is treating her as a British widow living abroad.

Michael Butcher and Phil Palmer fell in love with Christmas Farm, near Newbury, and decided to give up their urban media jobs and move to the country. Michael and Phil want to bring a touch of urban glamour to their new home at Christmas Farm by creating a modern farmhouse that combines an open-plan party pad with functional spaces below. As the builders set to work on the handcrafted flint exterior, complete with a vast trapezoid window, the pair juggle construction with farming the land, and in an attempt to make the project work financially, they set up a microbrewery in the barn.

Kevin meets Kevin McCabe who wants to build what may be the largest Cob structure in the world. With 6 metre-tall walls, McCabe fights a battle with the weather and his implausibly small £350,000 budget. He plans to form the huge property out of two vast curved roundhouses - the largest of which is inspired by the natural geometry of a snail shell - connected by glazing and topped with wildflower meadow roofs to mirror the surrounding countryside. However, the project involves mixing and laying a mind-boggling 2,000 tons of cob, all during warm, sunny weather - and the sheer scale of the task soon becomes clear.

Ben and Rachel Hammond have spent a year searching London for somewhere exciting to live with their two daughters, and they have finally stumbled on a 1950s home on a unique plot, situated within the leafy depths of a park in the south of the city. The only problem is the house itself - an ugly, inefficient and uninspiring property - and their solution is to radically redesign it into a sleek, modernist masterpiece. But this is no easy task, as Kevin McCloud finds out.

Kevin McCloud meets Tamayo Hussey, who has missed Japan ever since she moved to the UK 14 years ago with her husband, quantum physics professor Nigel. The couple want to transform a 1960s forester's lodge into a unique Japanese house, complete with a tatami room - decorated in her homeland's traditional style - sliding paper walls and a bath on the roof. Keen to keep costs down, they have decided to engage only the design skills - rather than the full services - of an architect, so with no previous building experience they tackle the project alone.

Colin Mackinnon and his partner Marta Briongos take on an ambitious project to build a bespoke metal home next to an airfield runway, designed by one of Scotland's most eminent architects and inspired by aircraft hangars. They have to contend with violent rain, snow, 100mph winds and the worst storms for 100 years, and the couple have to draw on their reserves of mental energy as what was supposed to be a 12-month build heads into a third year.

Marine captain Jon's life changed for ever when he stepped onto a land mine in Afghanistan and lost three limbs. After viewing many uninspired specialist homes and considering awkward conversions, he and partner Becky realised their best option was to build a property themselves. The design is cutting-edge, with sleek glass walls, open-plan spaces and a dramatic wing-like roof, and the couple want there to be no noticeable adaptations. However, they soon use up their budget of £250,000 and encounter problems with their incredibly tight schedule. Kevin McCloud follows their progress.

Commercial architect Martin Walker and his art-director wife Kae want to build the ultimate family home near York, inspired by a giant farm shed. However, her idea for a warm and cosy design conflicts dramatically with his penchant for building large square warehouses, and finding something they both agree on proves extremely challenging on their tight budget. Kevin McCloud follows the couple's progress.

Jonathan Broom, one of the founders of Ecoigo, and his wife Deborah have put everything on hold while he pursues his dream of building a miniature Hollywood Hills-style mansion. They stumble across a scrap of land in north London, but it's fraught with problems and the only way they can complete the £1million home is by sinking half of it six metres below ground. Surrounded on all sides by their neighbours' back gardens, the couple have to dismantle walls and fences and promise to put them back together again, and that's just the start of their difficulties. Kevin McCloud follows their progress.

Kevin McCloud follows a project to renovate and extend a classic 1920s cinema in Thorne, South Yorkshire. With little knowledge of restoration, Gwyn and Kate boldly set about turning the dilapidated building into a family home using masses of concrete after taking advice from an architect friend. The couple are hoping to create a hydraulic glass wall that opens up one side of the house to form a UV-filtered canopy, and there are also plans for a white roof extension that resembles a diving board.

Kevin revisits the co-op. Started in 1998, this development of ten timber frame houses is based on the Walter Segal method of construction and was led by Jenny and Paul Crouch. They incorporate high levels of Warmcell insulation and benefit from south-facing solar gain. The roofs are of sedum. Episode Revisited on 13 March 2001.

Kevin revisits artists Freddie Robbins and Ben Coode-Adams who converted a large, Grade II-listed timber-framed barn in Essex into a family home and work-space. Their plans involve few interior walls to display their collection of toys, but at seven times the size of an average three-bedroom house, the transformation of the 500-year-old building proves extremely challenging.

In 2010, Claire Farrow and Ian Hogarth built a home containing a sauna, spa, dance floor and DJ booth on a small patch of land in London. It was a notorious project, with several setbacks - including their digger smashing into a neighbour's wall and the re-emergence of the old river under the building, which threatened to prevent them completing the project. Kevin McCloud revisits the couple to see how they are getting on two years later.

Two years ago, architectural designer Lincoln Miles and his wife, artist Lisa Traxler, found an uninspiring 1970s bungalow on a plot on the Isle of Wight surrounded by ancient woodland. As part of their renovation project, they added a three-storey "tower" extension and used a range of unconventional techniques and alternative materials. Kevin McCloud returns to find out whether the couple's methods led to success.

Architect Henning Stummel and his partner Alice Dawson plan to convert a dilapidated joinery workshop in north London into a contemporary family home and office. They want to preserve the building's original steel frame, but to restore it they will have to take it down, which means carefully extracting it from the neighbours' walls without causing damage to their property - and that's just the start of the couple's problems. Kevin McCloud follows their progress.

Kevin McCloud meets artists Indi and Rebecca, who are planning to build a modern, larch-clad home on the Isle of Skye, with a second hand-crafted building alongside to use as their studio, all on a tight budget of £150,000. They have been saving for years, but making it happen will mean taking on the savage weather, not to mention the sceptical locals - and as if that weren't enough, most of the work is being done by one man, local builder Donald.

Kevin McCloud meets Audrey and Jeff, who dream of living in one of west London's most exclusive areas. However, the only way they can afford it is to go underground. Their plan is to transform a listed Edwardian artist's studio - along with 5,000 sq ft of derelict basement - into a bespoke subterranean home, complete with supersize kitchen, mezzanine sitting room, four en-suite bedrooms, a gym, cinema, steam room and wine cellar. As if the task weren't tricky enough, they are doing it without proper architect's drawings and Audrey is project managing - and the difficulties begin almost from the start.

Kevin McCloud marks the 100th episode with one of the programme's most ambitious projects to date. Leigh Osborne and Graham Voce want to convert and extend a landmark 150-year-old water tower in central London into a luxury home. Grade II listed, derelict and with 6ft-thick walls, it's a huge challenge for the pair, who also plan to build two structures at the base - a lift shaft connected by a series of glass tunnels, and a modern living space. The result will be a four-bedroom property over nine floors, complete with a room at the top offering spectacular 360 degree views across the capital. The tower, which is located directly above London Underground's Northern line, was originally built for Lambeth Workhouse in 1877 and became a Grade II listed building in 2008.

Kevin McCloud follows Lysette and Nigel Offley, who are knocking down an old Thames boathouse and constructing a cutting-edge home in its place. Taking inspiration from the river itself, they have designed a building of waves and curves with a huge glass porthole for a roof light. But problems begin almost from the start, as they can't find a contractor willing to build over the water, their architect leaves unexpectedly and the costs turn out much higher than expected. To make matters worse, the neighbours aren't happy about such a radical sight in their traditional community. As they begin to compromise, Kevin wonders if the couple's dreams will ever be realised.

Mary Martin and Carl Turner want to build a home that resembles a giant stack of glass cubes in Brixton, south London. The couple are hoping the structure will become an instant landmark, while on the inside they are planning a Zen retreat. But to succeed, their finances must be pushed to their limit, so Carl takes on as many of the specialist jobs as he can to save money. Kevin McCloud follows their progress.

Kevin McCloud meets a pair of civil-partnered university professors who have decided to build their first home from scratch. In addition to all the complications this usually entails, Celia Brackenridge and Diana Woodward have also enlisted the services of industrial designers who have developed a new computer-assisted method for cutting precision-engineered building blocks from scratch. However, though the technique may be clever, its creators have never created a building before - meaning everyone involved with the project is taking a giant leap into the unknown.

Kevin McCloud meets more people trying to build dream homes, beginning with Sean Simons, who bought the ruins of Cloontykilla Castle in the Irish county of Roscommon with a view to using them to create a spectacular mock-16th-century home. However, the outlandish plans - including jacuzzis in the battlements and water-spouting gargoyles - have Kevin worried the project could become a garish nightmare, and his scepticism increases when he realises Sean has not consulted an architect. Disaster seems to be looming as the contractors get frustrated and planning regulations are ignored, but somehow things begin to slowly take shape - until a national economic crisis plunges everything into chaos.

Kevin McCloud revisits a couple who took on the task of constructing a sustainable two-storey timber house heated by glass panels in the Kent countryside. Mimi da Costa managed the project despite a lack of experience, while her husband worked, and intended to have it completed in 16 weeks. But as the complex build threatened to drag on for months it became unclear whether their home would succeed in blending into the landscape and providing them with a greener, healthier lifestyle.

Kevin McCloud revisits Alan and Judith Dawson in west Cumbria, where they began constructing a prefabricated home in 2009. They employed a method of building that should have allowed them to assemble the home in just 15 days on a budget of £300,000, and the presenter returns to find out whether they were successful.

Kevin McCloud revisits Denise and Bruno Del Tufo, who hoped to transform a concrete water tower designed by Edwin Lutyens into a contemporary home. Kevin was originally far from enthusiastic about their project, believing the original building to be ugly and brutal in its design – but the couple soon had other problems to worry about, as rising steel prices forced them to make drastic changes to their budget.

Kevin McCloud revisits an arch-shaped home made of clay tiles in the Weald of Kent, built by Richard Hawkes, who designed the property, and his wife Sophie. It was intended to be self-sufficient in energy and supply some to the national grid but serious problems occurred when the arch collapsed during construction, so the presenter returns to see if their innovative home has lived up to its promise.

Kevin McCloud revisits Robert and Milla Gaukroger, who were in danger of their bank foreclosing on their unfinished timber house with views of Lake Windermere when he last saw them. They had begun construction with only a quarter of the £400,000 budget needed, and the physical effort of turning the 1980s property into an eco-home that mirrored the surrounding mountains had begun to put Robert's health at risk.

Kevin McCloud meets Claire Farrow and Ian Hogarth, who are trying to construct a home containing a sauna, spa, dance floor and DJ booth on a small patch of land in London. They have applied for planning permission to include a basement and started work on the construction, but setbacks including their digger smashing into a neighbour's wall and the re-emergence of the old river under the project threaten to prevent them completing the build.

Stonemason Adam Purchase and his partner Nicola Brennan try to restore a dilapidated Grade II-listed engine house in Cornwall, which was formerly part of a silver mine. With a budget of £100,000, Adam takes a year off work to transform the property into a new home, but has to rely on favours to complete the project before he runs out of time.

Kevin McCloud meets estate manager Ed Waghorn and his wife Rowena, a couple living an almost self-sufficient life with their four children on a smallholding in Herefordshire. They have been constructing a timber-framed house using recycled materials, wood from nearby forests and stone from around the site, but as construction becomes a way of life for Ed they seem to have lost sight of their goal.

Kevin McCloud follows the conversion of a large, Grade II-listed timber-framed barn in Essex into a family home and work-space by artists Freddie Robbins and Ben Coode-Adams. Their plans involve few interior walls to display their collection of toys, but at seven times the size of an average three-bedroom house, the transformation of the 500-year-old building proves extremely challenging.

Kevin McCloud meets Tim and Philomena O'Donovan, who are trying to convert a lifeboat station in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, into a contemporary home and preserve the historic building for posterity. A weather-worn, rusting and rotting hulk that was never designed for habitation, it is perched on a steel pier 40ft above the sea and can only be reached by crossing the sandy beach at low tide.

Kevin McCloud meets Paul and Penny Denby, who are demolishing their mock-Georgian home on an exclusive south London estate to replace it with a contemporary mansion. The couple have no building experience and they struggle with many design decisions, finding themselves £250,000 short of the amount needed to finish the property.

Kevin McCloud looks at the transformation of a derelict mill cottage in Northumberland into a contemporary family home, the longest-running project ever featured on the programme. Stefan Lepkowski and Annia Shabowska began work in 2006, and their ambitious plans involved restoring the Georgian building, reconstructing a watermill and adding a steel-and-glass atrium, but their budget of £250,000 was completely inadequate.

Kevin returns to see how Pru and Richard Irvine fared one-and-a-half years after they began building their bespoke home in the Midlothian countryside.

A couple, Pru and Richard Irvine, decide to build a family home on an industrial site in the Midlothian countryside complete with lime kilns, but are only allowed to do so if they become custodians of the kilns and their house blends in with the landscape. This proves challenging for the pair as they want to build a modern property that could be seen as a blot on the landscape to the locals. The task is made all the more demanding when they underestimate the long hours needed to be a project manager.

Over ten years ago, as one of Grand Design's first projects, Andrew Tate and Deborah Mills found a site with a monstrous, dilapidated, 100 foot tall water tower on it. Unusually, they saw it as the perfect spot to build a contemporary family home and convert the old water tower into a seven-storey bedroom wing. Andrew is a commercial architect and so the modern new build went up in just four months, using fast-track methods alongside unconventional building materials. However, things were not so easy when it came to the three feet thick water tower: a doorway they expected to be made in two days, took two weeks. Kevin went back to see Andrew and Deborah three years after they had moved into their contemporary extension, but they had still made no progress on the water tower, and were living with minimal bedroom space. Now Kevin returns again to see if the water tower conversion has finally happened, and if their dream home has worked out just as they envisaged all that time ago.

Kevin McCloud returns to see the Sampson family in France.

Mark and Deborah (Debbie) Sampson and daughter, Tilley, like to practice an ecologically sound way of life. Together, the family's over-riding desire is to make a statement about who they are and how they choose to live their life, and to be accepted for the way they are by the local people.

Six years after his first visit, Kevin returns to see how the O'Hare's fared with their split-level home cascading down a practically vertical hillside in Belfast.

This is Belfast, one of the great cities of the industrial revolution, and home to Thomas and Dervla O'Hare. They've lived here for 18 years, and although they still love their tiny cottage for its compactness, they're about to build something much, much bigger. They're building a 21st century answer to the Roman villa, with a copper roof, glass and concrete walls and vast amounts of living space all arranged around a central courtyard. In order to cope with the incredibly steep slope the house was divided across three levels. At the base of the building there is a garage and all the utilities. Through the front door a double-width processional staircase leads up to the living and dining areas.

Kevin returns to see whether Bill Bradley has completed the work on his two timber houses in south London.

Bill and Sarah Bradley are a couple whose dream of living mortgage-free rests on building not one, but two timber framed houses in south London. Building on the site of Bill's old wood workshop, the couple plan to sandwich the houses in between two existing rows, leaving them overlooking, and overlooked, by over twenty neighbours. To get around these difficulties Bill and Sarah's houses will use oblique windows, skylights and double height glazed courtyards to create two beautiful but private homes. But before long the budget is soaring and Bill's desire to go more luxurious and high spec leaves their dream of debt free living looking ever more remote.

Kevin returns to see how Daren Howarth and Adi Nortje's project has fared four years after they decided to build an earth-sheltered home in Brittany.

Robert and Milla Gaukroger plan to extend an old 1980s house overlooking Windermere.

Alan Dawson attempts to build house like a giant Meccano set, in that he will make the pieces in a workshop and then assemble it all on site.

Following Kathryn Tyler as she designs and builds her Scandinavian-inspired eco house in Falmouth.

Lindsay and Jonathan Belsey hopes to build a house that aesthetically pleasing, cheap to run and ecologically sound.

Kevin follows Simon and Jill Bennett's conversion of two timber framed barns. However, one has turned out to be a medieval guild hall.

In Woodbridge, Lucie Fairweather and Nat McBride plan a responsible, low impact, ecologically sensitive home for their young family. Nat tragically succumbs to cancer early in the build, leaving Lucie to continue on her own with a downsized version of the original design.

Helen and Chris Seymour Smith get planning permission to build a house in open countryside.

Lincoln Miles and his wife Lisa Traxler modernise a stone-clad bungalow on the Isle of Wight.

For 10 years, woodsman Ben Law fought for planning permission to build himself a house in the heart of the woods where he worked. But there was a condition attached: he could never sell the house; only pass it on to his successor. Ben wanted his home to be totally self-sufficient with no mains services, and decided to build it using only materials from the woods, using techniques pretty similar to those used a thousand years ago. Kevin catches up with Ben to see how he and his house are doing.

In 2005, businessman Jim Fairfull and his wife Simone set out to build a glass pavilion by a loch in Scotland. Jim was suffering from a stress-related disease and hoped that living in a tranquil setting might cure him of his condition. But there is nothing calm about the process of building; and with such a beautiful location, it was a challenge to find a design that would do it justice and appease local planners. Kevin catches up with the couple to see how their build was getting on.

Kevin McCloud revisits Alex and Cheryl Reay, who eight years previous had left London for a new life in the New Forest. They bought a run down medieval thatched cottage and lovingly brought it back to life. Then just before Christmas, with Cheryl pregnant, disaster struck. A fault in the chimney caused a massive fire which destroyed the entire building. Overnight Alex and Cheryl had lost almost £400,000. Whilst most people would have walked away from this, Alex and Cheryl couldn't let go of their dream. Nine months after the fire, they decided to start all over again and rebuild the cottage, bigger and better than before.

Barry Surtees, a self-made property developer, his wife Julie and their teenage children live in a large comfortable house in Brighton's most moneyed suburb. Barry decides to build a four storey modern mansion, complete with pool, gym, artist's studio, fantasy bedroom and Japanese roof garden.

In 2005, Kelly and Masoko Neville set about building a spectacular oak framed and straw baled hexagonal house in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Kelly, a carpenter, had always dreamed of building an eco-friendly home that could provide a base for a new self-sufficient life where he and Masoko could produce their own food and energy from the land. Kevin returns to see their progress from series 7.

Not everyone gets to live out their childhood dreams, but Francis Shaw did exactly that when he bought a crumbling castle on English Heritage's Buildings at Risk Register. Little did he know what he was letting himself and his family in for. In the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, the peel tower dates back to the 15th century and was protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Kevin McCloud returns in this program to see if their dreams have become a reality.

Mimi D'Costa and her husband Andre have moved to the Kent countryside to bring up their two boys. They have bought a large plot of land and want to build a home on it that is functional enough to serve their young family, but that will also blend beautifully into the landscape.

Kevin McCloud meets dairy farmer Andrew Ainslie and his artist wife Meryl, who runs a gallery on their farm in Wiltshire. But their farmhouse has been separated from their land by the expanding village, and Andrew and Meryl want to build a new house at the heart of their farm, so they can keep an eye on their herd of 200 cattle.

Daren Howarth and partner Adi Nortje live in Brighton, and are champions of sustainable living. They want to build an earth-sheltered home from recycled materials, based on ideas pioneered in the 1970s in New Mexico. But land prices and planning laws have forced them out of England, across the Channel to Brittany, in France.

Young architect Richard Hawkes and his wife Sophie have decided to move out of London to live the good life in the Kent countryside. They buy a plot of land on which they plan to grow their own food, and lead as sustainable a life as possible. For Richard it's an opportunity to experiment and build the house of his dreams; one that embraces cutting-edge green technologies and is capable of providing almost all its own energy.

Sarah and Dean Berry grew up on a council estate in Newport. Having moved away to London and made good, they have now returned home 17 years later and bought an 18th-century folly – a castle perched on a hilltop. They not only plan to restore the folly to its former glory, but wrap a large modern extension around the original structure, with lots of glass to capitalise on the amazing views.

Inspired by an illustration on a yoghurt pot, Chris Ostwald decides to build a New England-style water mill in the Chilterns, on a hill and nowhere near any water. Londoner Chris bought the plot 20 years ago and it has always been his dream to build a retreat for himself and his family.

Ian and Sophie Cooper met at university and have since spent their time together enjoying life in London. Ian works as a marketing consultant in telecoms and Sophie is a sales manager for a fashion firm. Both are passionate about design. They've done the usual thing of renovating flats and moving on... but three years ago they realised they wanted a different kind of life in a different kind of building.

In Maidstone, Jean and Bill Letley, a septuagenarian couple plan a highly contemporary bungalow complete with underfloor heating and prototype steel foundations. The project would test even the most accomplished workmen, but is left to their daughter and son-in-law, who have little building experience and have to make personal sacrifices.

Kevin McCloud revisits Helen Gould and Phil Reddy five years after they built an earth-sheltered home in Cumbria. The presenter finds out if the house has survived without leakage and whether it has delivered the eco-friendly life the couple desired.

Kevin McCloud returns to a Surrey village, where brain tumour sufferer Philip Traill and his wife Angela created a high-spec contemporary house in the shell of a barn. The design involved two bedroom pods connected by a walkway, leaving an open-plan living space between. Five years on, the presenter discovers whether the couple have managed to turn the building into a relaxing family home.

Checking on the progress of a couple, Greta and David Iredale, with a building background who replaced the timber house they designed themselves more than 40 years ago with a Huf Haus that was constructed by an efficient German construction team in just six days. Kevin McCloud finds out how successful the pair were in personalising the inside of the property.

Five years ago, John and Terri Westlake built a timber box that even they weren't sure about on the edge of a forest in the middle of open countryside. Now Kevin's back to see whether they've warmed to the design, and what life is like living the modernist dream in splendid rural isolation.

Kevin McCloud revisits artists David Westby and Leonie Whitton three years after they bought an olive farm in the Puglia region of Italy and planned to convert it into a home on a budget of £25,000. The project proved difficult due to their lack of experience and problems with Italian planning laws. When the presenter last visited they had built a guest house but their own residence was untouched.

Rather than go down the traditional building route, Tiffany and Jonny Wood opted for a German pre-fabricated kit house with great green credentials. Before they could even think about building their house they had to prepare their site: a fiercely steep hillside. Tiffany and Jonny embarked on the biggest ground works project Grand Designs has ever seen, costing around £300,000. And, just when they were about to complete these mammoth works, the weather turned bad and disaster struck. Their neighbour's wall collapsed in a storm. The resulting damage could have cost them nearly £100,000. Determined to carry on, even through 80 tonnes of extra mud, Tiffany and Jonny persevered, and a year into their project, were finally able to go to Germany to choose their house. Every fixture and fitting had to be decided and, once made, no changes were allowed. Now, with the promise of the house taking only five days to go up on site, and with no possibility of landslides, hopefully their build will now run smoothly...

A couple, Pru and Richard Irvine, decide to build a family home on an industrial site in the Midlothian countryside complete with lime kilns, but are only allowed to do so if they become custodians of the kilns and their house blends in with the landscape. This proves challenging for the pair as they want to build a modern property that could be seen as a blot on the landscape to the locals. The task is made all the more demanding when they underestimate the long hours needed to be a project manager.

A couple, Jo and Shaun Bennett, with a love of gothic architecture and horror movies plan to use their budget of £250,000 to build an Addams Family-style house, complete with a stained glass window, a stone fireplace and an oak staircase featuring gargoyles. However, completing the five-bedroom house on limited funds proves difficult.

An architect, Martin Pease (and Katherine) plans an unusual home for his family where everything is white and open plan. He calls upon his experience of designing commercial buildings to build the house and uses materials and systems more commonly used in office projects. The biggest risk is that his house may look more like a car showroom than a comfortable retreat.

Kevin McCloud meets a commercial surveyor, Henry Chopping, with an £800,000 budget who is planning to build an unusual home in Oxford. His chosen plot is situated behind a listed wall and strict planning conditions mean the house has to be only one storey high. With the help of an architect, the owner comes up with a design that makes the most of the land and available light, but his perfectionist nature causes the project to run behind schedule.

A couple, Zoe and Tim Bawtree, who live in a Regency house in Cheltenham that is expensive to run decide to sell up and build a modern low maintenance house in their back garden. However, height restrictions mean they have to build 60 per cent of their new home underground and neighbours make 90 complaints about their planning application. Undeterred, the pair continue as planned, but the project encounters further problems including the departure of the builders.

Bill and Sarah Bradley are a couple whose dream of living mortgage-free rests on building not one, but two timber framed houses in south London. Building on the site of Bill's old wood workshop, the couple plan to sandwich the houses in between two existing rows, leaving them overlooking, and overlooked, by over twenty neighbours. To get around these difficulties Bill and Sarah's houses will use oblique windows, skylights and double height glazed courtyards to create two beautiful but private homes. But before long the budget is soaring and Bill's desire to go more luxurious and high spec leaves their dream of debt free living looking ever more remote.

Kevin McCloud meets a couple who bought a ruin and moved to Italy in 1999, hoping to start work building their dream home in Tuscany. Since then they've spent all their time trying to get planning permission, but finally, after four years, they are about to start work. And it's an epic project: they have bought a derelict 1,000-year-old castle in the Tuscan hills. Now, the couple face their biggest battle of all: rebuilding this massive ruin into a comfortable and luxurious five-bedroom home.

Kelly and Masoko Neville set about building not just a spectacular oak frame and straw bale house, but a whole new way of life in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Kelly is a carpenter by trade and has always dreamed of building an eco friendly home with his own hands. This highly sustainable house, sitting in harmony with nature and its surroundings, will become the base for Kelly and Masoko's new self-sufficient life where they will produce their own food and energy from the land.

Musicians Tony and Jo Moffat began building a home on the west coast of Scotland, investing in an architect who developed an experimental design emulating a Norwegian longhouse, using a medieval-style oak frame. However, the project soon hit problems, with rocketing costs leaving them struggling to continue. Three years on, Kevin McCloud revisits the couple to see how their creation has progressed.

Here we see an extraordinary and inventive project in South London revisited. This house proves that even in the most crowded areas of our cities, there is potential for Grand Designs. When Monty Ravenscroft and Clare Loewe began looking for a house to buy in London they soon realised that the only affordable option was to build one themselves. They snapped up a dirt cheap slither of land in Peckham at an auction only to be told it was too small to put a house on. Undeterred, three years ago, engineering whiz Monty began building an extraordinary experimental bungalow that filled the site to bursting point.

When Pilots Andrew Berry and his wife Helen bought their cottage near Guildford in Surrey 7 years ago they always planned to add a small extension. But over the last few years the modest extension has evolved so much that retaining any of the original cottage simply wasn't practical. Now it's being completely demolished to make way for a new five bedroom Art Deco style house.

Dean Marks has dreamt of living in a church for as long as he can remember. After searching for the right building for years, he came across St Martin's near Birmingham, a huge 18th-century grade II listed church which looks more like a mausoleum. The church wanted £25,000 for it but Dean knocked them down to £12,500. Now, after fighting for planning permission for four years, Dean and his wife, Hilary, are about to transform this derelict monstrosity into a family home.

Kevin McCloud returns to rural Wales to visit Andrew and Lowri Davies, who dreamt of replacing their cramped cottage with an environmentally friendly farmhouse built using state-of-the-art eco materials. The couple needed to reduce their mortgage and work to a strict budget - but after an argument with the architect, they found it increasingly difficult to balance the books.

James and Katrin Gray live in Bournemouth on the south coast. James runs his own book distribution business and Katrin works for an investment bank. They used to live in an apartment on the second floor of a former Victorian hotel. But three years ago, James bought the top floor flat. It was originally built as a solarium for the hotel in the 1920s where holiday-makers could soak up the sun. Now James and Katrin plan to convert it into a modern, luxury penthouse. The first project was to build a large rooftop extension which became the main living area of the new penthouse. This steel frame structure was cleverly knitted between all the obstructions on the roof and leads out onto a fabulous roof top terrace with exclusive views along the coast.

Chris Miller and his wife Sze Liu Lai lived in a tiny flat in East London with their two children Alexion and Tayszea. It was very tight for space and as the kids grew they really felt in need of more room. Chris and Sze are both social workers on low incomes and they have very little in the way of savings. They did however own a small narrow boat, which inspired a solution to their 'no money, no space' dilemma. They decided to build a houseboat which would give them more space for a fraction of the price of a home on land. They began with an 86ft steel barge moored in a boatyard on the River Medway...

Eight years ago Alex and Cheryl Reay left London for a new life in the New Forest. They bought a run down medieval thatched cottage and lovingly brought it back to life. Then just before Christmas, with Cheryl pregnant, disaster struck. A fault in the chimney caused a massive fire which destroyed the entire building. Overnight Alex and Cheryl had lost almost £400,000. Whilst most people would have walked away from this, Alex and Cheryl couldn't let go of their dream. Nine months after the fire, they decided to start all over again and rebuild the cottage, bigger and better than before.

Every Englishman's home is his castle, but for Francis Shaw this is quite literally true. He and his wife, Karen, and their two young daughters, bought the ruins of a 14th-century castle in North Yorkshire and took on the remarkable challenge of turning a pile of stones into a beautiful home. Surrounded by rolling green fields, the location is idyllic; however, the castle itself was little more than four crumbling walls.

Kevin McCloud revisits David and Anjana Devoy's who's tiny coach house was proving too small for them and their two children. So they decided to build a new house in their own garden, which was big by London standards. But this particular grassy plot came with problems. It was overlooked by huge blocks of flats, and in the middle of it stood a chestnut tree they weren't allowed to cut down. They came up with an inspired solution: they would build a curving house along the borders of their plot. What's more, they would do a lot of the work themselves.

Charting the building plans of Peter and Christine Benjamin, who are hoping to construct a small retirement home within a walled garden in the grounds of the Edwardian manor house where they used to live. The proposed property has floor-to-ceiling glass on one side, with a traditional potting shed-style exterior on the other, but Peter's ambition to design as they build causes problems.

Kevin McCloud revisits Nicky and James Dobree. Nicky was raised in France, James in Beirut – both have fond memories of the mountains as children. So it was natural for them to one day look to buy a place amongst France's tallest peaks, the Alps.

The journey moving the family, including their two young sons, Fabian and Felix, from South London to a renovated 300-year-old farmhouse in Les Gets was to have its ups and downs. It was never meant to be a permanent move. The original plan was to develop the top two floors of the chalet so the family could spend the summer there, overseeing the completion of the bottom floors. They would then be able to rent our the whole chalet in the winter months. The family were only planning to use their new home for the summer seasons.

Kevin McCloud revisits Denise (Deni) Daniel and Doug Ibbs. The couple, in their mid-50s and from Dorset, bought a 19th-century manor house in Creuse, Limousin – in central France – on a Sunday, having seen it for the first time ever on the previous Tuesday on the Internet and visited it on the Thursday. They don't mind hard work too, which is even better news because the house was a wreck.

For six years Bruno and Denise Del Tufo stared at the large concrete water tower at the bottom of their garden trying to figure out what to do with it. It's a very rare object – a square water tower on stilts designed by architect Edwin Lutyens, who built it to supply the manor house nearby. It's not exactly beautiful but Bruno and Denise feel very protective towards it. When they sold their house, they were worried that someone might knock the tower down, so they decided to try and find a way to live in this huge, concrete monster.

Theo and Elaine Leijser hoped to bring a bit of Dutch style to Scotland in the building of their first family home – a colourful, contemporary three storey house, with a striking cedar clad exterior. The couple stumbled across the perfect plot overlooking the beautiful Campsie Fells near Glasgow, bought it and began to plan their dream build.

Robert and Jane Ellis decided to convert an isolated hilltop ruin in the Forest of Dean in Herefordshire. Adding modern steel and glass they created a mouthwatering contemporary structure. They decided to keep as much of the old barn as it is. The new additions are clearly modern and new, with a clear line separating old and new. The old barn was very dark with no real windows and since planners ruled that no additional windows can be added, they had to use as much of available light as they could. The result is a surprisingly bright space, filled with lots of steel, stainless struts, glass and the best of modern furniture, where new and old are sitting in a very easy dialog.

Jim Fairfull considers himself a very lucky guy. He was out fishing with a friend when he came across a beautiful, secluded loch. It's a magical place with stunning views over the nearby hills. He got chatting to the farmer who owned it and discovered the site was for sale. Within a week, he'd done a deal and bought the land. Jim runs a successful wholesale fruit and vegetable company in Glasgow and his wife, Simone, looks after their two girls, aged 11 and eight. Jim and Simone were not intending to self build. But they fell in love with this dramatic location and decided they wanted to live here.

Andrew and Lowri Davies embark on a project to build an environmentally friendly farmhouse in rural Wales. Encouraged by their architect, they opt for some state-of-the-art experimental building materials; but do their builders know how to use them? As the budget spirals out of control, they find it increasingly difficult to balance the budget with their desire for a sustainable home.

Kevin McCloud meets Julie and Mark Veysey, whose Grand Design is a stunning Miami-style beach house on a beachfront plot overlooking the south Devon coast. Julie and Mark have had several holidays in Miami, and Julie wanted to recreate the outdoor beachfront lifestyle back in England, living in a house full of light and sun, within easy reach of the waves. The house is very much Julie's vision and she is passionate about the design. It is a series of dazzling white interlocking boxes topped with a flat zinc roof.

This is Belfast, one of the great cities of the industrial revolution, and home to Thomas and Dervla O'Hare. They've lived here for 18 years, and although they still love their tiny cottage for its compactness, they're about to build something much, much bigger. They're building a 21st century answer to the Roman villa, with a copper roof, glass and concrete walls and vast amounts of living space all arranged around a central courtyard. In order to cope with the incredibly steep slope the house was divided across three levels. At the base of the building there is a garage and all the utilities. Through the front door a double-width processional staircase leads up to the living and dining areas.

Kevin McCloud returns to West Sussex to see how Ben Law's woodsman's cottage has changed. The house was built on a low budget, using methods dating back to the early medieval period with raw materials from the surrounding countryside. During the past 18 months the upstairs has been completed and the outside has been landscaped. Kevin also discovers how the property has changed Ben's life since the original programme was broadcast.

For the last 20 years, Pat Becker has been living in a large Georgian family house overlooking the sea in Devon. Now that her family have flown the nest and the house has grown too big for her, she's decided to build a new home at the bottom of the garden. Shaped like a curvy seashell, the new house has concrete and polystyrene walls, which spiral down from the central staircase. Her architect has promised it will take only six months to build but constructing a round house is never straightforward!

An update on Louise and Milko Ostendorf, who embarked on a project to convert an old violin factory in London into a luxury home. The work was threatened by a battle with their orchestral neighbours over a jointly owned wall, and Kevin McCloud returns three years later to find out whether their dispute has been settled.

Kevin McCloud revisits John Flood and Eleni Skordaki, who completely gutted their Victorian terraced house in Hackney, London, to create an open, light, modern space. He discovers whether the struggle to modernise their home while dealing with an Anglo-German conflict between the builders was worth it.

John Cadney and Marnie Moon have never had a permanent home. So John, a carpenter, has rolled up his sleeves and decided to build a house for his family with his bare hands. For 16 years, John, Marnie and their children have camped on land owned by Marnie's parents, because they could never afford to buy a house in the area where they live. So now they're building their own place. After much searching for the right kind of house they settled on an environmentally friendly four-bedroom log cabin. The whole thing was imported from Finland as hundreds of pre-cut bits of wood. All John had to do is figure out how this kit house fits together!

When lawyers Jeremy and Louise Brown walked into Upthorpe Farm in Gloucester, they couldn't believe their eyes. It was like stepping back in time. Apart from a few minor alterations, the Grade II listed 16th-century farmhouse had barely been touched for over 400 years and was completely unmodernised with lots of original features. Now that they've purchased the property their ambitious design plan is to bring the farmhouse into the 21st century, blending the original historic features with modern simplicity and luxury. Kevin watches on intrigued as they tackle the challenge of reconciling the very old and the very contemporary.

Here we see an extraordinary and inventive project in South London. This house proves that even in the most crowded areas of our cities, there is potential for Grand Designs. When Monty Ravenscroft and Clare Loewe began looking for a house to buy in London they soon realised that the only affordable option was to build one themselves. They snapped up a dirt cheap slither of land in Peckham at an auction only to be told it was too small to put a house on. Undeterred, three years ago, engineering whiz Monty began building an extraordinary experimental bungalow that filled the site to bursting point.

April Marr and Reuben Welch. Kevin McCloud revisits a thrill-seeking couple who bought a derelict 19th-century stone house in Edinburgh with the aim of restoring it to its former glory. He hopes to discover whether their lack of building experience hindered their ambitious project or if their energy and enthusiasm managed to pull them through.

Amid 55 acres of organic farmland in the New Forest, Lizzie Vann and Mike Thrasher set out to build an idiosyncratic home. They wanted a house that would reflect their love of travel and eastern cultures, yet blend into the very English countryside around them. Their first proposal, for a wooden Japanese house, was refused planning permission, but after three years of adapting their ideas with architect David Underhill, they were finally ready to build. Their ingenious design was in three sections: a living wing, a bedroom wing and a romantic tower.

Tony and Jo Moffat, musicians with Scottish Opera, had long dreamed of a home in the countryside. They found a perfect site on the Clyde estuary in Argyll and Bute. Located in a small village on a hillside, it had glorious views as far as the isle of Arran and was less than an hour's drive from Glasgow. Inspired by local oak-framed barns, they gave architect Andy McAvoy an open brief. In return, he gave them a design that fused medieval and modern and promised a beautifully simple interior. However, the construction was anything but simple...

Tom Watkins and Darron Copping wanted to build a house that would be home to them, their art collection and their two large dogs. Darron's passion for surfing meant it would also have to be near a beach. They already shared a timber beach house in a hamlet on the Sussex coast, and when a neighbour's bungalow came up for sale, they decided to buy it, demolish it and build a dazzling white modernist house in its place.

David and Anjana Devoy's tiny coach house was proving too small for them and their two children. So they decided to build a new house in their own garden, which was big by London standards. But this particular grassy plot came with problems. It was overlooked by huge blocks of flats, and in the middle of it stood a chestnut tree they weren't allowed to cut down. They came up with an inspired solution: they would build a curving house along the borders of their plot. What's more, they would do a lot of the work themselves.

When Reuben Welch and April Marr came across a ruined 19th-century house amid the tower blocks of Leith, Edinburgh, they saw it as their future home. They had no clear idea of how to restore it, and precious little building experience. Still, they were young and fit (they had met on Reuben's climbing wall) and they liked a challenge. So they bought the crumbling shell and set about transforming it with their own hands.

Tom and Judy Perry wanted more than just a home for themselves and their two children. On a site of outstanding natural beauty in Buckinghamshire, they set out to build an ambitious house – a symphony of angles, glass walls and exposed steel, with a dramatic inverted roof. Tom made himself site manager and main contractor. He had no experience but he liked a challenge – and, after all, how difficult could it be?

David and Greta Iredale loved their home, a modernist structure in Surrey that they had built themselves almost 40 years ago. It was filled with things they'd chosen over the years – design classics, mementoes, David's paintings. But that house was falling apart and had to come down. Meanwhile, they had lost their hearts to a German post-and-beam house, designed by architect Peter Huf and available as a customised kit (Huf Haus).

Louise and Milko Ostendorf wanted to build the home of a lifetime. Milko's job as a well-paid City banker meant they could think big, so Louise set up her own architectural practice and they bought a disused violin factory in the heart of London's Waterloo. The crumbling building was hemmed in on all sides and had no views, but Louise had a vision of a spectacular loft-style home that would combine stunning design with utter luxury.

Kevin McCloud catches up on retired couple Denys and Marjorie Randolph, who had decided to embark on their final building project, a brand new, green oak, barn-style house.

Kevin McCloud revisits a couple who converted a disused electricity substation in Sunderland into a four-bedroom family home, armed with just £50,000 and ideas from a book about Moroccan interiors. Despite a number of setbacks, Anne and Richard Curtis created a living space which, three years later, has had a sumptuous rooftop garden added to it.

Kevin McCloud catches up with Sarah Wigglesworth and Jeremy Till, who constructed their experimental central London house out of straw bales, springs, cloth cladding and sandbags. They laid themselves on the line, both professionally and personally, as their build slowly advanced from one architectural style to the next. Kevin returns to this award-winning house to find out whether it is well and truly finished.

Kevin McCloud catches up with Rupert and Julie Upton. The three-year build on the picturesque slopes of the Berkshire Downs was wracked with hold-ups, set-backs and spiralling costs but the gardens have now been landscaped, and the timber frame has aged in colour from honey to silver as the property settles down into its outstanding rural setting.

Merry's family have been Herefordshire builders for generations, so she knew that the county was rich in traditional building crafts. She and Ben Albright decided to combine these with technology for a new house with a genuinely rural feel.

Helen Gould and Phil Reddy wanted their home to make the most of spectacular views, but they also wanted it to be ecologically friendly. Their solution was to build an earth-sheltered home, with most of the house built into the hillside.

After 10 years of living in a small house in east London, John Flood and Eleni Skordaki hankered after modern, open-plan living. They didn't want to move, so they decided to give their Victorian terrace home a radical redesign. The house was situated in a conservation area, so the outside had to remain unchanged. However, inside they decided to rip out everything; walls, ceilings, floors, and start completely a fresh.

Tom and Judy Perry wanted more than just a home for themselves and their two children. On a site of outstanding natural beauty in Buckinghamshire, they set out to build an ambitious house – a symphony of angles, glass walls and exposed steel, with a dramatic inverted roof. Tom made himself site manager and main contractor. He had no experience but he liked a challenge – and, after all, how difficult could it be? And it turns out to be very difficult.

Philip and Angela Traill set out to convert a 150-year-old barn near Surrey. The barn is grade two listed which means they have to keep the outside intact but are free to do what they please on the inside. They didn't want to do another typical barn conversion, so they decided to build their "house" inside instead. A helical stairway leads to a suspended curved walkway, with master bedroom on one side and the children bedrooms on the other. The kitchen is in an adjacent stable block, which was integrated into the main building. The house is also packed with computer wiring a central stereo system and ambient lighting system consisting of 188 lights. Everywhere you look curves interplay with straight lines. The result is a beautiful mixture of new and old, exquisitely finished in detail.

For 10 years, Ben Law lived in tents and caravans in a wood in West Sussex. As a woodsman, he needed and wanted to live among the trees, but now he wants a house for some creature comforts. Ben has invited volunteers to help him build a sustainable house by hand, from the materials growing around him.

The 1930s derelict water works Chris Jones and Leanne Smith fell in love with was huge and its design had clearly been inspired by Gilbert Scott's Bankside power station, now better known as the Tate Modern. But nothing would deter the couple. 'We looked at it,' said Chris, 'and saw our home.'

Kevin McCloud is in Cambridgeshire, where John and Terri Westlake intend to knock down a derelict house and commission commercial architects to build them a new one.

Kevin McCloud returns to south Devon to revisit Sue Charman and Martin Whitlock whose dream was to create a family home which feels part of the earth, using old English building techniques. They were not starting from scratch, but rebuilding two ancient run-down barns. Environmental concerns were extremely important to them, but did they manage to realise their vision of rebuilding the barns in same meticulous way they were built originally, whilst incorporating energy efficient, 21st century technology?

Kevin McCloud returns for a second visit to The Water Tower. As one of Grand Design's first projects, Andrew Tate and Deborah Mills found a site with a monstrous, dilapidated, 100 foot tall water tower on it. Unusually, they saw it as the perfect spot to build a contemporary family home and convert the old water tower into a seven-storey bedroom wing. Andrew is a commercial architect and so the modern new build went up in just four months, using fast-track methods alongside unconventional building materials. Kevin went back to see Andrew and Deborah three years after they had moved into their contemporary extension, but they had still made no progress on the water tower, and were living with minimal bedroom space.

Kevin McCloud revisits Sharon and Tony Relph a couple who hoped to restore a dilapidated Georgian house in London to its former glory. Once 200 years of redecoration and refurbishment had been stripped away, the property boasted elegant period features, but the pair still had to overcome daunting interior decay problems.

Kevin McCloud returns to Wales to visit Adrian and Corrina, who have decided that their first home will be a 300-year-old ruin. The cottage is set in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Corrina and Adrian have a very small budget and an enormous amount of work to do to return the ruin to its former glory but they are eager and seemingly undaunted by the scale of the project. But how will they cope when the elements suddenly turn on them?

Started in 1998, Kevin revisits a development of ten timber frame houses is based on the Walter Segal method of construction and was led by Jenny and Paul Crouch. They incorporate high levels of Warmcell insulation and benefit from south-facing solar gain. The roofs are of sedum.

Kevin McCloud revisits a housing scheme in Birmingham. It's near impossible for many people, particularly those on a low income, to buy their own home. However, a Birmingham Housing Association along with Angela and Peter has set up a scheme that allows people to build one instead. The group of 11 men and women will build, not just their own property, but each other's homes as well. None of these budding self-builders have previous experience in the trade and have undergone extensive training to teach them the ropes.

Jeremy Till and Sarah Wigglesworth built their experimental central London house out of straw bales, springs and sandbags. Nearly nine years after its conception, Kevin McCloud returns to the award-winning house to see the finished property and find out if an adjacent railway line is causing a disturbance.

Kevin travels to Suffolk to revisit the build of an environmentally friendly house by Alida Saunders and former tax inspector Rob Roy

Kevin McCloud returns to Doncaster to catch up with Michael Hird and Lindsay Harwood, who set out to build a futuristic glass and steel house on the edge of a conservation area.

Kevin McCloud travels to south Devon to meet Sue Charman and Martin Whitlock whose dream is to create a family home which feels part of the earth, using old English building techniques. They are not starting from scratch, but rebuilding two ancient run-down barns. Environmental concerns are extremely important to them, but will they manage to realise their vision of rebuilding the barns in same meticulous way they were built originally, whilst incorporating energy efficient, 21st century technology?

Kevin McCloud visits a couple who are looking to build their hi-tech modern house in a quiet north London street. Sarah Jordan and Coneyl Jay have long dreamt of the perfect work and living space. Unable to find what they were looking for they decided to build their own. However the site they have found is situated in a predominantly Edwardian street. While they wait to see if the council approve their plans, they employ architect Mike Tonkin to realise their vision but can their ambitious project ever become reality?

Kevin McCloud checks out a housing scheme in Birmingham. It's near impossible for many people, particularly those on a low income, to buy their own home. However, a Birmingham Housing Association along with Angela and Peter has set up a scheme that allows people to build one instead. The group of 11 men and women will build, not just their own property, but each other's homes as well. None of these budding self-builders have previous experience in the trade and have undergone extensive training to teach them the ropes.

Kevin McCloud meets Rupert and Julie Upton, who are building a very experimental idea in the Lambourn Valley. Their dream is to create an amazing cross-shaped house made of oak and glass, strikingly modern with the most superb views. But each piece of wood has to be custom made and the design itself is incredibly complex. Few people would have the courage to take on such an experimental build – will Rupert and Julie's bravery pay off?

Kevin McCloud travels to Wales to visit Adrian and Corrina, who have decided that their first home will be a 300-year-old ruin. The cottage is set in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Corrina and Adrian have a very small budget and an enormous amount of work to do to return the ruin to its former glory but they are eager and seemingly undaunted by the scale of the project. But how will they cope when the elements suddenly turn on them?

Kevin McCloud meets Chris and Jill Heleine, who have chosen to build their dream home in Huddersfield. Some time ago they bought a deserted textile mill, which they dream of giving a light, modern interior. The build has been organised like a military operation, their filing system has left nothing to chance and Chris will even be doing some of the work himself. But will their dream home turn out exactly as they expected?

Kevin McCloud visits the Sussex Downs to follow the construction of a New England-style kit house bought and designed entirely on the internet. Self-builder Jane Warren loves the New England style, and when she discovered that she could replicate it in the UK by buying an entire kit house, she just had to have one. Will Jane realise her dream of celebrating her first anniversary with her new husband Willem Mulder, in her new home or will her New England kit house become a living hell?

Kevin McCloud meets a woman determined to build the house of her dreams, an enormous Georgian-style mansion. Helen Saunders and her husband Mark Eisenstadt finally found the perfect plot of land in Farnham, and have spent years planning every aspect of their new home. Having undergone extensive preparation, they don't foresee too many problems, but once the build gets underway their dream soon turns into a nightmare.

Michael Hird and Lindsay Harwood build a glass and steel home in Doncaster. Episode Revisited 8 November 2001.

In Islington, Jeremy Till and Sarah Wigglesworth are building a house of sandbags and straw. Episode Revisited 13 March 2001.

Kevin travels to Cornwall to see the conversion of an old chapel by Gavin Allen and Jane Fitzsimons.

Kevin travels to Suffolk to see the build of an environmentally friendly house by former tax inspector Rob Roy. Episode Revisited 15 March 2001.

Kevin travels to Amersham to see the conversion of an old water tower into a stylish new home by Deborah Mills and architect Andrew Tate.

Started in 1998, this development of ten timber frame houses is based on the Walter Segal method of construction and was led by Jenny and Paul Crouch. They incorporate high levels of Warmcell insulation and benefit from south-facing solar gain. The roofs are of sedum. Episode Revisited on 13 March 2001.

Kevin travels to Berkshire to see the conversion of an English barn by Denys and Marjorie Randolph.

Tim Cox and Julia Brock want to build their home on a clifftop in Newhaven.