George Clarke's Building Home: Season 1, Episode 2

1 - 2: Episode 2

Keith and Kate decided to up sticks with their children from their home in Glasgow and move to Dunoon on the Firth of Clyde, where Kate's dad grew up and where she came on annual holidays. Dunoon rose to prominence as a Victorian holiday destination and many fine Scottish families built grand homes there. Following that trend, businessman Walter Bergius and his wife Agnes - of the Teacher's Whisky family - built an impressive house with a castle-like tower in 1878 and named it Bonnie Blink. Once the family moved out after World War II, Bonnie Blink became a hotel and now, for the first time in decades, it's set to be a family home again. To make it work as a 21st-century home, Kate and Keith have set about extensive renovations - creating a huge new open-plan, modern kitchen from what was three small dark rooms, turning a guest bedroom into a dining room complete with new French doors onto the stunning views, and a smart snug that harks back to the house's history. But repairing a historic house comes with many expensive surprises. Will they derail their budget before they finish?