If he was honest and said, "We've realised we really like going on luxury holidays and Cot wants a massive Hello! style wedding (despite only separating from her last husband a couple of years ago). We've realised we can't afford to all of that AND this expensive and time consuming renovation, so we need to downsize, cut our losses and sell up." I'd have more respect for them. The idea of commenters setting up crowdfunding for this pair to get wed or patch up that pile is a sick joke. Mind you, GFM seems to only be used for ludicrous tit like this these days.
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I think I became aware of him via Katie comedowntothewoods and aren’t they just peas in a pod?
Huge houses, far out of reach for most, filled with ad/gifted stuff and always on the make for more more more, whilst pleading poverty and being “relatable” between their last luxury trips of a lifetime.
I feel (hope!) that this wave of instagrammers are on their way out. It’s too transparent, too overt, lacking in any value for a follower, who isn’t going to get gifted a handmade kitchen and Ruggable rug and can’t afford their own either.
Huge houses, far out of reach for most, filled with ad/gifted stuff and always on the make for more more more, whilst pleading poverty and being “relatable” between their last luxury trips of a lifetime.
I feel (hope!) that this wave of instagrammers are on their way out. It’s too transparent, too overt, lacking in any value for a follower, who isn’t going to get gifted a handmade kitchen and Ruggable rug and can’t afford their own either.
He did get the house for an absolute steal i think something like £350k. I'll have to check the records (if still available)
Less than that I think, sure it was something like 275k property in Plymouth is relatively cheap
This is it. I'm obviously not showing the address as I don't want to be accused of doxxing even if he makes it clear where he lives and this is publically available information.
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…and just like the awful Katie he’s now popped up on Substack as well.
Yeah, it was v cheap per sqft but it was a renovation project, so that £485k was never going to be the end of it. He bit off more than he could chew. As others have said, he got greedy and vain and quit his real-world sales job, expecting IG to take the brunt of the financials. I'm not sure it's quite working out that way for him, especially now he's got the big stuff like the handmade kitchen in. Electricians, plasterers, roofers don't really accept payment in promotional IG posts, so he'll have to put his hand in his pocket. The book was obviously a flop. A few copies sold/gifted to his IG chums (cdtw, that irritating couple who run an exmoor b&b with hunting wallpaper in the bathrooms...)
Does Cot have a real-world job, or do they both live in IG fantasy land?
Does Cot have a real-world job, or do they both live in IG fantasy land?
Dunno about Cot she certainly seems to have quite a curated insta. He should have kept the job even if he went part time and he should have hopped onto YouTube earlier he probably would have fairly quickly been monetised and having a cheap membership option would have probably made it worth the effort for him
I mean, it's a NINE bedroomed house. He's not having children. Even if they stay and the place gets renovated what's he doing with it? Say the bottom floor is converted to a flat and rented, that's 2 beds dealt with. They've got 7 beds left. There's lots of other reception space in that house so it's not like beds need to be given over to that. It's just a waste of space, like the Forth bridge that will need to be constantly (and expensively) maintained due to its age. People can of course live in as large/small properties as they want but they'll rattle around in that, surely?
It wouldn't make a great hotel/B&B air bnb as there's no private parking/drive. It's on a private, gated estate and as a PP says, it's leasehold, so that adds extra layers of complication to getting the right permissions.
He saw this big, beautiful house and it looked affordable at the time. His ego took over and I think, 6yrs down the line, he's starting to realise that it's unrealistic.
It wouldn't make a great hotel/B&B air bnb as there's no private parking/drive. It's on a private, gated estate and as a PP says, it's leasehold, so that adds extra layers of complication to getting the right permissions.
He saw this big, beautiful house and it looked affordable at the time. His ego took over and I think, 6yrs down the line, he's starting to realise that it's unrealistic.
I wonder how long the lease is?! It will be tricky to sell if it’s leasehold, who needs a house that big? The lack of parking and upkeep will put a lot of people off, plus the maintenance/running costs. It can’t be turned into a hotel or Airbnb, so that’s not an option.
Part of me thinks the woe is me/we can’t afford it is just a grab for emgagement, even god forbid a soft launch for a crowd fund to keep it going
Part of me thinks the woe is me/we can’t afford it is just a grab for emgagement, even god forbid a soft launch for a crowd fund to keep it going
For some reason he popped up on my feed years ago with his first Reno- a victorian terrace (admittedly a sizeable one!) then seemingly randomly bought this one at the other end of the country. He used to work in marketing and sales for Riverford before going full time social media influencer, md he used to get his dad (sorry “Pa”) to help with diy quite often.
All traces of that first Reno seem to have been wiped now to protect the brand and current character
it’s all a completely calculated contrived creation of the persona of this bumbling diy country gent character- marketed to the hilt with endless press stories and schilled to the hilt with ads/freebies/monetising. The character he invented and plays on social media is all part of the marketing strategy- the signature openers, poses, dress code,
He has spoken before about that marketing strategy with it- deliberately choosing the rooms or project to max out engagement and monetary returns.
All traces of that first Reno seem to have been wiped now to protect the brand and current character
it’s all a completely calculated contrived creation of the persona of this bumbling diy country gent character- marketed to the hilt with endless press stories and schilled to the hilt with ads/freebies/monetising. The character he invented and plays on social media is all part of the marketing strategy- the signature openers, poses, dress code,
He has spoken before about that marketing strategy with it- deliberately choosing the rooms or project to max out engagement and monetary returns.
it’s a grade A marketing strategy to get engagement for the sub stack subscription launch…. That’s all.Part of me thinks the woe is me/we can’t afford it is just a grab for emgagement, even god forbid a soft launch for a crowd fund to keep it going
and to boost engagement in general, given the actual renovations have dropped off between the injury and Cot distractions- so he needs to monetise and schill to keep the £ rolling in
Hah- so not quite all traces of the first reno erased. (Although this is still filtered through the current “jovial chappy” lens now)
he vomited black/dark grey paint all over it, and the interior makeover was fairly standard trend at the time. To max his profit he sold all the furniture and fittings on the sale. Certainly not the twee floral decor of the current persona. (That lurid green room that he did first in Admirals was more an indication of his actual taste until Warner house obligingly provided free wallpaper and the frilly floral era began)
he vomited black/dark grey paint all over it, and the interior makeover was fairly standard trend at the time. To max his profit he sold all the furniture and fittings on the sale. Certainly not the twee floral decor of the current persona. (That lurid green room that he did first in Admirals was more an indication of his actual taste until Warner house obligingly provided free wallpaper and the frilly floral era began)
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There's no doubt it's a marketing scheme. It's such a cynical one too, all the tweedy "old bean" and safe patronising flirty "Madame" crap. Not to mention his weird use of Scottish/NI terminology ("wee" in particular) which doesn't fit in with the tweedy gent thing but also doesn't appear to have any links with his actual real identity. He gives me the endless ick.
That green room was a collaboration with a fairly high profile (at the time) interiors/textile designer, wasn't it? Hence those eye-mangling fabrics.
It would be a grade A marketing strategy; if it was continuing to work. While he strategised well for the first few years, he’s since forgotten the main reasons people follow him aren’t to hear his faux bumbling excuses and breathless dribbling over his bird. Followers enjoyed informative DIY demos, humorous updates to the DIY, and beautiful finished spaces.
In recent years he’s served very little of that. There’s only so long he can rumble on with the act. It’s a beautiful property and I love seeing the spaces, but I can do without the performance. Had to unfollow cos the persona reached caricature level and the disgusting beard and hair give me the absolute ick. I briefly tried to like Cot, but she oozes smugness, and I just can’t. I find it hard to believe anybody can take him seriously now.
I unfollowed too. I honestly can’t believe the u-turn I had. Go back to the start of this thread and anyone can see I was a fan but no longer. I’m over it and have the ick. I could share some interesting things he’s shared but I wouldn’t/couldn’t. in his defence the wee is said in more places than Scotland/NI. I use it a lot and I’m neither of those areas but am in an area he lived a long time ago.
And lo and behold there we have it, the substack launch. He spent all Sunday apparently making a ‘plan’ bull! The post as we thought was all just a strategy to soft launch his substack, he never had any intention of selling. Not sure what the buy me a coffee thing is? Is it an extra payment on top of substack subs?
A few of them have had the coffee thing. The ex RAF guy with the swimming pool who is setting up a business advising people about restoring listed houses is one who immediately comes to mind. I think it's like an online tips pot, a one off payments thing, rather than subscription model like substack. The RAF guy used it in a paid AMA scenario. 1 question, for a set amount via that app.
So my guess is that G is using it as a top up/secondary funding stream for people who don't want to pay monthly for his content.