GRAND Designs fans brand naval captain ‘smug’ and ‘arrogant’ after building a £1million underground eco-property himself.
Monday’s episode of Grand Designs saw Dorran, 47, and his wife Vereuschka, 50, invest in an underground house set next to a protected Saxon hill fort near Canterbury.
The couple take on an eco-property
Viewers slate Dorran’s attitude
Viewers brand their property a ‘Teletubbies house’
The couple hoped a building team would be able create their vision – but delays and rising costs meant that Dorran felt forced to take control of the build himself.
Dorran vowed his would complete the property himself to his wife and three young children.
He tackled the huge task of installing internal walls himself.
Dorran said: “Once you get off shore there’s no-one there to help you and anything that happens we have to be able to deal with it ourselves.
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“I am quite happy to be able to take on a certain element of risk and deal with it myself, and it is very challenging, that is definite, but it’s a duty to us to get the job done.
“Otherwise what’s the option, walk away, that’s not what we came here to do, we came here to build a family home.”
The couple’s aim was to create an underground eco-property.
It would blend with its surroundings that, once completed, it would be barely visible to passers-by.
But viewers slammed the property saying it looks like a “Teletubbies house.”
They also labelled Dorran too much of a “perfectionist”.
Taking to Twitter, one said: “He built it himself because no body would work for him… simple.”
Another wrote: “Dorran… wouldn’t like to work with him on the Oil Rigs at Sea, be tempted [to] throw him in with his perfectionism.
“No wonder builder left, having not seen the level of Doran’s detail on a build.”
A third penned: “Weird smug **** ran out of cash so had to get Ikea in for the hot tub.”
An original schedule of ten months soon became years as Dorran battled with the engineering.
Years into the project, the father-of three quit his job so he put all his time and energy into the new property.
He decided not to seek help from contractors as he feared they would get it “inaccurate or wrong.”
Dorran said: “We decided to invest in ourselves and the ones we can rely on is us, as a team.
“We were going to end up spending a lot of money and actually achieving something and if we do achieve it that would be very sub standard and we weren’t going to except that.”
Vereuschka confessed they had spent more than £1million building but did not reveal the total cost.
Presenter Kevin McCloud estimated it could be anything from £1.1million to £1.9million.
Dorran chimed in: “It’s not that much. But we have upgraded and I think we actually got a lot more for our money.”
Grand Designs is available to watch on Channel 4 and All 4.
Dorran refuses to get help from contractors
Vereuschka confessed they had spent more than £1million building
An original schedule of ten months soon became years
