Build a New Life In the Country Season 3, Episode 5: Norfolk Barn

Norfolk Water Tower

David Forster is converting a Victorian watertower in the woods into a family home where he and his family can withdraw from modern life and commune with Nature. His first year on this project made one of the most popular programmes in the first series of Build a New Life in the Country. Now we are back to follow him again for a whole new programme as this eccentric inventor and his fantastic project enter their third and final year. David’s enthusiasm hasn’t waned one bit. He presses on, spending what little money his wife releases for him, and relying on free labour from his reluctant teenage sons. All his family and friends question whether the tower will ever be finished. But David is determined to see his romantic dream through to its glorious end.

60 min

Coventry

Richard and Jane snap up an incredible bargain – an abandoned historic building in a grand country estate sitting in 8 acres of Capability Jones designed grounds. For the price of a 4-bed semi, they plan to create a magnificent family home fit for a Lord. But the building is a ruin, and a Listed one at that. Jane is a first-time project manager, running the entire restoration on her own. And they may aspire to a home fit for Kings, but they have a budget that’s definitely for Commoners.

60 min

Dumfries

Following a heart attack scare aged 29, workaholic Mick Wilmer from Grimsby needs a complete change of life. He’s given up his job in a chemical plant to move to the rugged south west coast of Scotland with his wife Jenny and their two children. Their dream is to set up and run a small farm, and build a home from the ruins of a 600 year old farmhouse. Their budget is a mere £90,000 pounds, which quickly disappears, leaving the family with rising debts, and Mick facing exhaustion as he battles night and day to hold onto their dream.

60 min

Spain

After Nick & Lesley’s business collapsed in the UK, they wanted a fresh start and new challenge. They’ve moved to the South of Spain with their two boys to turn a 400 year old Andalucian Palace into a chic boutique hotel. It’s a big risk. They have no experience of the hotel business, not a word of Spanish between them, and even Nick’s 20 years as an architect can’t prepare him for what this renovation throws at them…. Deadlines come and go and costs spiral and the kids hate it, but this couple are not for turning.

60 min

Hexam

We rejoin the hardest-working grandparents in Britain, Terry and Marilyn, in the next phase of their epic battle to restore an ancient farmhouse in the heart of the stunning Northumbrian Dales, returning from full-time jobs to do all the work by themselves. Another highly popular couple from Series 1, we make a brand new programme with them as they are about to tackle the oldest and most challenging part of the house – the crumbling 16th century bastle. This 2 storey ruin will be transformed into a wonderful family kitchen and dining hall, the centrepiece of their new home, where all their children and grandchildren can gather together. It will be another astonishing labour of love as this couple enter their 3rd year of long dark nights and freezing weekends, continuing to amaze with their endurance and passion and determination to create the best family home they can.

60 min

Newton Stewart

Dave and Debbie from Blackburn want to spend more time with their two daughters and disabled son. So they’ve decided to pursue their life long dream to set up an antiques business for the family to run together. They’ve found the perfect place, a historic school house in the Scottish town of Newton Stewart. But before they can move the family up and open for business they need to bring this derelict building back to life. With a tiny budget, they attempt to do all the work themselves, whilst holding down full time jobs 3 hours away in Blackburn. And when tragedy strikes the family, they have to decide whether to continue, or look for a different future.

60 min

South Wales

Andrea, GP and Neil, pharmaceutical sales manager are having their first baby. They’ve found the perfect country location to start their new family life. Whilst the setting in the Monmouth Dales is beautiful, the house is a rabbit hutch of a 70s bungalow. They have grand plans to transform it into a spectacular modern glass-fronted home, and they want it complete in time for the baby’s arrival just six months away. But with no planning permission, and Neil determined to press on regardless doing most of the work himself, the clock’s ticking for a building-site birth.

60 min

Ireland Revisit

In 2005, Chris and Rebecca Palmer, made a radical life change. Fed up of being mortgage slaves, they sold their Bradford home, quit their jobs and headed to Ireland, with their daughter Demelza. Their dream was to live a simple, rural life, becoming totally self sufficient life, growing their own food, and keeping livestock. But first they had to turn their derelict farmhouse into a family home – and they had just 14,000 to do it. Over the year, working the land and the house, tested them physically, and emotionally they were at the end of their tether, as 5 year old Demelza hated her new surroundings. When architect George Clarke last saw the Palmers, they had managed to create a lovely home, but they were penniless, and their plans to be self-sufficient had barely got of the ground. A year on, George returns to see if living off the land has been a success, and whether they have found a way to secure their future.

60 min

Gweek Revisit

Simon & Carol Morley traded in careers in the IT industry in Cambridgeshire to move to the Cornish coast, with their three kids. They had plans to convert a rusty old 80ft barge into a floating family home, and start a diving business for holidaymakers. But the pressures of starting a business, and renovating the barge on little money led to Carol and Simon splitting up. Carol was left having to get a job as a door to door sales woman to make ends meet and get enough cash in to finish the barge on her own. Two years later, George Clarke returns to see how Carol and the kids have fared going it alone in Cornwall.

60 min

Dumfries Revisit

60 min