Man With ‘Saddest House Ever’ Says He Feels 'Cursed'
The owner of a home branded the ‘saddest ever’ on an episode of Grand Designs says he’s hit further delays on the project but now hopes to finally have it on the market in the next few weeks.
Edward Short, 52, featured on the Channel 4 show back in October 2019 where viewers were left feeling sorry for the homeowner and his family after they hit with setback after setback, plunging them into millions of pounds worth of debt.
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After it aired, many viewers said it was the ‘saddest ever’ episode after seeing the toll the lighthouse-inspired property in Croyde, Devon, took on Short - and years on it's still not ready for sale.
He said: "It is not finished yet but it is due to go on the market in May or June so hopefully we are near the finish line.
"The main thing that has affected it now is the tiling of the swimming pool which is weather dependant.
"That's the very last thing. If we do it when it is too cold it becomes a health hazard."
Last year property consultancy Knight Frank announced the launch of the sale of the main house and its annexe known as The Eye to the open market - with a combined guide price of £10m.
But a year on from the pre-publicity it is still yet to be fully marketed.
Short added: "I've been doing this build for more than ten years - so have gone past headaches now and built a lot of resilience.
"It's nothing too bad though, also for somewhere like this, if you pick a month to market it is always better to do it in the summer."
The dad-of-two, said he had no option but to sell the property to cover the large amount of money he had to borrow and said the total costs were set to reach £6m.
Speaking to the Daily Star about the problems the project encountered, Short said he had battled through ‘the banking crisis, the Brexit years, which were very hard, the coronavirus pandemic and then the pingdemic’.
He added: “It's a very long list and sometimes you do feel cursed by it all.”
Looking to the future and the property - hopefully - finally being sold, he said: "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: UK News
Claire Reid