During the 14-month project, Doug and Deni lived in a caravan in the garden. Their original budget had been around £100,000 ($121k), but they ended up spending approximately €500,000, or £441,200 ($533k). Sceptical host, Kevin McCloud, proclaimed they’d gotten “carried away with the romance of it all”, but a few months later he said: “Every time I’ve visited I’ve been more and more blown away by Doug and Deni. They’ve proved that through sheer dogged optimism, it’s possible to tackle almost anything.”