Edward Short's plan to build his dream home was featured on Grand Designs - but it quickly became a disaster for him and his family(Image: SWNS)

Grand Designs 'saddest house ever's' owner reveals biggest regret

Edward Short's plan to build his dream home was featured on popular Channel 4 property series Grand Designs - but it quickly became a disaster for him and his family

by · DevonLive

The owner of Grand Designs' saddest house ever has shared his biggest regret.

Edward Short came on the show several years ago to build his dream home. Chesil Cliff House in Croyde, Devon was meant to be a dream home for Edward, his wife Hazel and their family.

However, the build - whilst now completed - ended in a marriage breakdown and a crippling £7million debt caused by Edward's ambition to build the home he had always wanted. Speaking exclusively to us, Edward shared his biggest regret from the build.

"My regrets are probably things that happened around the round that impacted the build, which are out of my control. If I could have avoided things like COVID and Brexit it would be a very different story," he said.

Edward Short's plight was documented on Grand Designs(Image: Tom Wren SWNS)

"COVID has a huge impact on the price of materials, and Brexit had a huge impact on the imports and exports, and has continued to. And then everyone goes, 'Well, all my figures I’ve given you are out the window, Mr Short.'"

The property is now up for sale with Ed seemingly hinting he knows how it will all end.

"Well, right now Hazel and I still own the house. I could be fairly sure what the ending is, but I don’t know," he shared at Grand Designs Live, where he appeared on a panel to reunite a number of Grand Designs stars from the last 25 years.

The show's host Kevin McCloud recently gave an update on the property.

Grand Designs' saddest house ever now looks very different(Image: Match Property)

"As far as I know, it's still on the market. Ed is in neutral waiting for that to happen. He's very busy. I don't think he's suffering in the way he was. When we did a revisit to that project, and the original was about overreaching, to an extent he was far more humble about it and there was a degree of resolution I guess. That's the best way of describing it," he said.

"Ed's story shows if you screw up, it's not the end of the world. Only the end of the world is the end of the world and everything else can be dealt with. It was a sad story but we've got people with terminal cancer and people who lost partners sometimes during the filming process, and you come to realise the problems they face - not having enough money, being in by Christmas - these are all not important. They're huge in the moment but when you're dealing with a life threatening illness and it's going to knock years off their time here, actually there are far more important things on the planet to deal with."

*Ed was speaking at Grand Designs Live, where he took part in panels to celebrate 25 years of the Channel 4 show.