I’ve had a bit of an insanely stressful and busy week. A month or so ago I agreed to write an article for a magazine about social networking, having forgotten just how stressed I get when I have to write formal articles for people, and why it was that I gave up doing it for a living many years ago. Blogging is so much easier, more immediate, simpler. So I’m afraid I’ve had my nose in that all week, with little time for thinking about Kits and Mortar.

But whilst I was searching for something else in my personal blog’s archives yesterday, I came across an old post from 2005 talking about Grand Designs, and caravan holidays and self-building.

One of my favourite TV programmes is Grand Designs, a Channel Four production that follows people following their house-building dreams. Tonight, the programme followed a couple who had bought a derelict church in County Mayo, Ireland, and were restoring and converting it to a house. Amongst a slew of really crap house design shows, Grand Designs stands out as the one with serious taste and standards. No MDF. No lurid colours. No shock-value interiors. Just people trying their hardest to realise their dreams.

Watching tonight, I found myself filled with wonder at how beautiful the building was, how picture-perfect the scenery, and how fantastic it would be to wake up every day in a building with such soul. The photos can only give a glimpse of how beautiful it must actually be.

It’s funny how little has changed in the last three years, except, perhaps that I can now imagine myself building a house. Then, I couldn’t.