The rear of one of Martin's bungalow projects, before and after

It’s not always practical, nor possible, to remodel your home in this fashion. That said, with the housing market the way it is, more people are deciding to stay put and build on what they’ve got, rather than incur the costs and stress associated with moving house.

The new bungalow is almost unrecognisable, but comes at a cost

The Home Show is a programme founded on this very principle. While architect and presenter George Clarke is usually unable to overhaul the facade of a property, his work on the interior architecture is right in line with Martin’s own aim of creating a flexible, usable and downright gorgeous living space.

A large detached house transformed

Whether or not such a drastic approach to home improvement can prove to be profitable is dependent on so many factors that it’s impossible to give a definitive yes or no answer. I seem to remember an episode of Property Ladder in Poole, in which developer Rebecca made stacks of cash on this type of total aesthetic overhaul. That said, she chose her properties exceptionally well, and was working in a rapidly rising market. For most homeowners undertaking this type of development, the motivation tends to be quality of life and creating a long-term family home, rather than turning a quick profit.

Like George Clarke, Martin's aim is to produce bright, stylish and practical interiors

If you’d like to see more examples of dramatic exterior overhauls, check out our exterior facelifts photo gallery, or visit Martin Swatton’s website.

Seen a great exterior facelift? Want to give your house the ultimate curb appeal? Share your thoughts by leaving comments below…

For the episode guide, click here.

Put simply, MyBuilder allows you to post a building job for free on their site. There are over 30,000 registered tradespeople in the MyBuilder community, so you’re likely to get a range of quotes. You can then view feedback from each builder’s real-life clients before choosing which company is right for you.

Of course, the number one bit of advice when looking for a builder is that word of mouth counts for everything. MyBuilder have essentially captured this in a handy online tool.

You can get started finding a builder, plumber, kitchen fitter or any other tradesperson here.

Let us know what you think of the MyBuilder service by leaving your comments below…

The film focuses on mildly hippyish West coast architect Michael Reynolds, who has dedicated his entire adult life to studying, experimenting with and finally perfecting sustainable building methods. He specialises in earthships, much like the Brittany Groundhouse Grand Design.

Mike’s wind turbine design – so effective he had to put a building around it to prevent it taking off

Michael’s story is remarkable – over the past 30 years he has built several communities of totally self-sufficient homes, mostly in the New Mexico desert. Able to comfortably protect residents from the baking summer heat and bitter chill of winter, his homes were at first highly experimental, and some of his early projects look frankly dangerous. Despite this, through years of trial and error he’s more or less perfected many techniques which allow homeowners to live off-grid with enough electricity, water, heat and even food to be totally independent from the traditional structures that allow us to live.

In some ways Garbage Warrior is a damning indictment of the archaic planning regulations of the western world, as well as the woefully slow-turning wheels of governance in which they exist. To his credit Michael drafts a radical Bill and, after an unbelievable amount of lobbying off his own back, gets it passed through New Mexico’s legislature. The aim of the Bill? To provide architects with the legal ability to try and test bold new methods of housebuilding, in the same way that car manufacturers and bomb makers are able to test their latest madcap ideas. It’s a truly impressive accomplishment.

Part of one of Mike’s experimental New Mexico developments

The most moving sequences of the film occur when Mike and a couple of his architect buddies head to post-tsunami India to share the knowledge they’ve accumulated over their lives with local people whose homes were razed to the ground by nature. They spend a few weeks showing people how to build houses that will be warm in winter, cool in summer and will provide drinking water, using little more than discarded rubbish, common sense and elbow grease. Tellingly, Mike revels in a country where planning regulations don’t stifle him and he can use his brilliantly creative mind to its full potential.

A few months after leaving India Mike heads to New Orleans, where US citizens are suffering the same plight as their Indian counterparts halfway across the world. Immediately it becomes clear that he won’t be able to have anywhere near the same impact as he did in India, because some of his ideas are so far removed from the entrenched norm that US building regulations simply don’t allow them to be implemented. Looking at a few of his ramshackle creations this may be for the best, but Mike’s mantra is that if you don’t experiment then progress cannot be made. Quite right he is, too.

If you get the chance, I’d recommend taking a look at this film. Apart from anything else, the desert landscapes make for fabulous viewing. If you have even a passing interest in architecture and eco building methods, this film is for you.

You can watch a trailer for the film and get hold of a DVD copy on the Garbage Warrior website. Have you seen the film already? Interested in new ways of building sustainable houses? please leave your comments below…

As well as the regular episode information, we’ll be going all out to bring you plenty of step-by-step DIY advice from George. He’s also provided us with lots of his top 10 tips for various renovation jobs, all of which can be found on The Home Show’s homepage.

The first programme sees George tackling a troublesome house in swanky Parsons Green, London. Tired, dilapidated, and in some respects downright dangerous, Anthony & Alicia’s family home is in shabby shape. Fortunately this couple have a huge budget to play with, although even this is stretched by some nasty surprises in the roof. Once they hand the cheque over to GC his very capable hands set about working their magic, with wonderful results.

Catch The Home Show on Thursdays at 8pm on Channel 4, or watch any time you like at channel4.com/catchup.

You can give it a try on the Rate My Room page. This is all new to us, so any comments and feedback from our users would be wonderful. You can leave comments below…

It’s an enormous bit of kit, and is virtually all you’ll need if you’re planning an extension, self build project, or, like me, you still harbour long-failed ambitions of becoming a world-famous architect.

The kitchen of the Ross-On-Wye Barn Grand Design

The first thing I should stress is that this is the real deal – unlike freebies such as Google’s Sketchup, Grand Designs 3D allows you to meticulously plan everything in your project, from exterior wall textures to what type of taps to fit in the kitchen. There’s loads of furniture options, countless doors and windows, excellent garden planning tools, and the sheer size and scale of what’s possible is quite overwhelming. Once you’re done, you can even take a 3D walkthrough of your creation, and see how the shadows will fall at different times of the day.

The Belfast Roman Villa Grand Design

This blog post is in part illustrated with pictures of my favourite feature, from a non-self builder’s perspective – the program comes ready-loaded with real Grand Designs houses that you can play around with, alter and deconstruct (yes, I mean ruin). On a serious note, if you are planning a major project then it’s well worth considering shelling out for this type of software.

By me: a quintessential Grand Design (open-plan glass-walled box, half finished!)

You can win a copy of Grand Designs 3D Self Build & Development on 4Homes (RRP £195.73), and the publishers have also kindly provided a 4Homes reader-only offer of 15% off – details as follows…

Reader Offer
To celebrate Grand Designs Live, Eleco Visualisation Software, the publishers of Grand Designs 3D home design software, are offering visitors to 4Homes a 15% discount on their Grand Designs 3D software range. To receive your discount, enter coupon code ‘4hom1′ when prompted during your purchase at www.3darchitect.co.uk

Find out some of the key features of Grand Designs 3D Self Build & Development here.

Amongst the usual conservatory, bi-fold door and insulation companies, I picked out my five favourite products from the show. Here they are, in no particular order…

1. Kit Homes
There were loads of kit home manufacturers at the show, but I had two favourites. First was the Zenit by Potton, a company associated with traditional-looking houses. The Zenit is a departure from this, with an ultra-contemporary look which on some models includes the pitched roof more often associated with the Huf Haus.

The second kit home manufacturer that caught my eye was Meisterstück Haus (pictured above). They’re a 100 year old company from Germany whose designs range from contemporary, timber-clad boxes to modest bungalows, via ski lodges and mock-castles. Their energy performance credentials appear to be impeccable, and they really do have a kit for all tastes.

2. Focus Fireplaces

A French company specialising in fancy floating fires with exposed flues – c’est belle, non? Similar, in fact, to the iconic fireplace in the Bristol Modernist Grand Design.

3. Feature Radiators

This stand caught my eye for their show-stopping collection of contemporary radiators. They had seemingly limitless desirable designs, and their staff informed me they provided heating devices for the Big Brother house. A favourite of mine was their Twister, shown here horizontally rather than upright for the benefit of the blog!

4. Solatube

For a long time it’s been a mystery to me why these aren’t fitted in everyone’s homes. They’re relatively easy to install, pretty cheap, and will lower your electricity bills. Their stand also had lots of nice diagrams and demonstrations about how they work – all very Tomorrow’s World.

5. Castello Luxury Baths

Pictures don’t really do these baths justice – you need to touch and feel them to properly understand the quality and care that goes into them. No one’s going to pretend they’re particularly affordable, but if you want to make a splash with a beautiful free-standing bath then they’re well worth a look.

You can win a year’s subscription to Homebuilding & Renovating Magazine with 4Homes.

The episode features some of my favourite Grand Designs staples: living in a caravan on-site (and through winter nonetheless), a mid-project baby, and Kevin McCloud explaining some engineering principles using small models. I loved every minute.

You can watch Grand Designs tomorrow (Wednesday) at 9pm on Channel 4. If you miss the show, catch it on Channel 4’s Watch Online service.