Grand Designs host shared update on ‘saddest house ever’ years after tragic episode

The host of Grand Designs has shared an update on the ‘saddest house ever’ on the show years after the tragic episode aired.

Back in October 2018, Edward Short seemed to have the worst luck with his property.

Pretty expensive bad luck at that.

The bloke was dealt setback after setback and ended up falling into millions of pounds worth of debt.

Short actually admitted to feeling ‘cursed’ as Channel 4 viewers couldn’t get over just how sad it was to watch.

Take a look at the property here:

Things seemingly got worse as four years after the episode was shown, as Short told the Daily Star that he had battled through ‘the banking crisis, the Brexit years, which were very hard, the coronavirus pandemic and then the pingdemic’.

He told the publication in 2022: “It's a very long list and sometimes you do feel cursed by it all.”

Short spent over a decade getting his lighthouse-inspired property ready in Devon - ending up with quite the impressive pad.

But it failed to sell and he decided to split it into two listings.

In October 2023, Grand Designs host Kevin McCloud revealed that he still keeps in touch with Short.

“Ed and I still communicate by email now and again,” he said last year.

Channel 4

“It’s not always the case you keep in contact with people, but in his case, it was such a special project and we had a lot of shared interests in common and we share a mutual friend.”

And despite all he’s been through with the gaff, Short is still hopeful the right buyer will come along.

McCloud went on to say: “He is still battling along with it.

“We went back for the revisit which was great and rather redemptive and now I think it is still on the market.”

Adding: “I haven’t checked in with him recently, but he is hoping for a bite on the line, as it were.”

Fingers crossed, mate.

Channel 4

Once the property is sold, Short has - perhaps unsurprisingly - suggested that he’d never take on such a large project again.

Speaking in 2022, he shared: "I can not make any plans of what I do next until it is sold - but I would be very surprised if they involved any more big build projects. I think I need a physiatrist and help with PTSD.

"I’ll always be proud to have finished this. I owe it to my family to have a real end result, but the time has come to move on.

"I will have achieved what I set out to do, never deviating from the plans, and for that I’ll always be proud.

"These past ten years have been a marathon slog - and I have got used to being a millionaire in debt."

Topics: TV and Film, Grand Designs

Jess Battison

Jess is an Entertainment Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include keeping up with the Twitter girlies, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021 and has previously worked at MyLondon.

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