There’s nothing wrong with wanting to build a house without getting your hands dirty, but that’s not why I watch Grand Designs NZ.

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Grand Designs NZ returned for its ninth season last weekend, kicking off another round of passionate New Zealanders doing whatever it takes to build their dream home. Sunday’s first episode, then, was a curious choice to launch with, given that the owners wanted no part in the building process until it was completed. Host Tom Webster traveled to Waiheke Island to meet recruitment consultants and empty nesters Dale and Maria, who were determinedly “hands off” on their dream home project to be built at the top of a steep hill overlooking the Hauraki Gulf. 

“The less we have to be involved, the better,” Dale told the ever-pleasant Tom, before confirming the budget for their dream home was a “scary” $3 million. “Like a lot of people, we’ve worked really hard to get to where we are,” he added, tearing up. I’d be emotional too if I was about to pour three million smackeroos down the side of a steep hill, but Dale was philosophical. “It’ll cost what it costs at the end of the day.”

Spoiler: at the end of the day, it costs $5.5 million. The budget-blowing home was inspired by a dream of Dale’s, which featured him standing on a deck with a beer in one hand and barbecue tongs in the other, looking at his pool and saying “shit, this is my house”. Grand Designs often features people with large budgets, but that financial privilege is usually balanced by personal stories of ingenuity, tenacity and passion. Here, not so much. Dale and Maria left the architect and builders to it, as dedicated tradies clambered up the steep hillside during Auckland’s wettest year on record and building costs continued to climb.

Meanwhile, we watched Dale drive through Auckland in a restored classic car and win a bodybuilding competition wearing a pair of sparkly budgie smugglers. This episode of Grand Designs was more about the perfect end result than the bumpy but rewarding journey, a vibe that the show appeared aware of. “Can we simply pay for a great design and stand back,” Tom asked at one point, “or do we need to experience the toil and turmoil in order to have a sense of achievement?”

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to build a house without getting your hands dirty, but that’s not why I watch Grand Designs. I love it for its hope and ambition, its celebration of creativity, resourcefulness and imagination. There’s no way you could spend a mindboggling $5.5 million and not get a spectacular house, but what makes Grand Designs compelling is the connection between the owners and their homes, and the sacrifices people are willing to make to turn their barbecue sausage dreams into reality.

This episode comes at a time when local television is dominated by luxury property shows like Phil Spencer’s New Zealand’s Best Homes or Find Me a Country House NZ. We’ve said goodbye to rough and ready reno shows like The Block NZ, House Rules NZ and Our First Home, which all featured New Zealanders at the other end of the property ladder who didn’t have the luxury of multi-million dollar budgets. Shows like Ground Force, Marae DIY and Mucking In are long gone too, with their focus on bringing communities together to celebrate the value of a home in ways that felt far richer than the number of zeros on a spreadsheet.

Now, our young homeowners are taking their DIY skills to social media, sharing their own grand designs through trends like #NZRenotok. Is television missing out on telling these stories, simply because a suburban three bedroom do-up is less appealing than a shiny mansion with a car turntable and unsymmetrical breeze blocks? In the midst of both a housing and a cost of living crisis, I wonder what the Venn diagram of these rich property shows, the New Zealanders who can afford these homes, and those who still watch terrestrial TV, might just look like. 

Back on Waiheke, Dale and Maria finally enjoyed that barbecue on the deck of their completed hillside home. “If you dare to dream, you can pull it off,” Dale told us, without adding that it also helps if you have six million bucks. They refused to let the overspend define them, instead focusing on their impressive handcrafted ceiling and their snazzy vehicle stacker that puts one car on top of another without munting either of them. This grand design was indeed Dale’s dream come true. A sausage by any other name would never taste as sweet.  

Grand Designs screens on Sundays at 7.30pm on TVNZ1 and streams on TVNZ+.