Grand Designs' 'saddest ever house' owner breaks silence on surprising biggest regret

Edward Short's dream home in Devon ended in disaster as he was left saddled with debt and his marriage broke down after appearing on the Channel 4 show

The proprietor of the 'saddest house ever' on Grand Designs has shared his biggest regret.

Edward Short appeared on the popular programme years ago with aspirations to construct his ideal home. The Chesil Cliff House in Croyde, Devon, was envisioned as a haven for Edward, his wife Hazel, and their children.

Yet, despite the project's completion, it culminated in the end of their marriage and an overwhelming £7million debt, a consequence of Edward's relentless pursuit to create the house he had always dreamt of. In an exclusive chat with us, Edward revealed the most significant remorse he harbours about the endeavour.

"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 expressed.

"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.'"

Currently, the property is on the market, with Edward seemingly resigned to its fate, reports Devon Live.

"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 said during his appearance at Grand Designs Live, where he joined a reunion panel featuring stars from the past 25 years of Grand Designs.

Kevin McCloud, the show's presenter, has recently provided an update on the house. He shared: "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.

"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