‘To Build Or Not To Build’ On Netflix: A Show Where DIY Homebuilders Try To Make Their Dreams Come True

Finding a house that meets one’s exact personal specifications can be a challenge for any homebuyer. The perfect mix of location, style, size, amenities and price simply may not exist. Sometimes, the only way to get exactly what you want is to take on the challenge of building it yourself. That’s the focus of To Build Or Not To Build, a British reality home-building show now available on Netflix.

The show profiles ambitious “self-builders” from all over Britain as they pursue their dream home projects — several per episode, with the construction process followed “from foundations to finishing touches”. It’s all brought together by the ebullient, energetic hosting of longtime British television presenter Simon O’Brien. O’Brien, a property developer in addition to his on-screen career, brings a sort of manic energy and buzzy optimism that livens up the often-plodding pace of construction projects.

There’s a lot working against that optimism, too. The truest nature of do-it-yourself projects is that you never know exactly how they’re going to go until it’s far too late to turn back. At the outset, one may think — perhaps even correctly — that relying on an experienced professional’s opinion might steer you away from getting exactly what you want. The flipside to this, though, is getting exactly what you asked for — and finding that it’s not what you hoped it would be. These builders sometimes find that a construction method they envisioned as a novel way to save time, money or energy may deliver unforeseen complications and tradeoffs.

A diverse smattering of ambitions is on display through the show’s twenty episodes. There’s attempts to recreate historical styles, and attempts to emulate the modern design styles of other cultures. (One couple’s attempt at building a “Danish modern” home ended up looking more like an American megachurch, if you ask me). There’s an experienced builder using straw bales to build an ecologically friendly set of cabins, and multiple amateurs who’ve mail-ordered prefabricated kit homes. A long-haul truck driver decides to pursue his lifelong dream of self-building his home, but saves on time and labor costs by employing an innovative system of ultra-light structural blocks of extruded polystyrene — a construction material that looks for all the world like a scaled-up version of a child’s set of Legos.

With this wide range of design styles and construction methods portrayed in the show, as well as the attempt to film a project’s progress over the entire length of the build, it can call to mind the approach of the superb Channel 4 program Grand Designs (also on Netflix). That long-running and oft-imitated show, hosted by the inimitable Kevin McCloud for nearly two decades, sets the gold standard for British design shows. To Build Or Not To Build doesn’t approach those lofty heights, but it’s a satisfying fill-in should you breeze through the regretfully-few seasons of Grand Designs currently available to American viewers.

What really sets To Build Or Not To Build apart from its brethren in the crowded marketplace of home shows, though — even after sorting for “British home-building shows on Netflix” — is a consistently entertaining segment in each episode where O’Brien himself attempts to learn a specific building trade firsthand. He tries vainly to pipe-fit radiators without spraying water everywhere, learns to build several different types masonry wall, has a stab at wallpapering, tile-laying and plastering, and gives his best shot at drywalling and door-framing. Predictably, many of these attempts go awry in the hands of an inexperienced craftsman. Things that look easy on television — all those hours we’ve spent watching Chip and Joanna Gaines mount shiplap — take on a new dimension when the hammer’s in your own hands.

This, to me, is the takeaway lesson of To Build Or Not To Build, a “be careful what you wish for” warning about the travails of DIY homebuilding. As a point of full disclosure, I’m a practicing architect — so one might expect a bias towards using licensed professionals on my part. The truth of the matter, though, is that the more you witness construction first-hand, the more you realize how even the easiest-looking things can be deceptively difficult to pull off. I’m not resistant to DIY because I’m an architect arguing on behalf of the professionals — I’m wary of DIY because I’ve seen firsthand all the things I don’t know how to do.

Building your own home can truly help you realize your dreams — if you’re willing to deal with the trial and tribulations, the delays, the unforeseen dramas, and the costs associated with doing so. For some people, this is absolutely the case: the couple with their ugly “Danish” home were absolutely beaming with pride when it was finished. For the rest of us, though, To Build Or Not To Build is a good chance to remember that you can do a lot to an existing place with a fresh coat of paint and some new curtains.

Scott Hines is an architect, blogger and internet user who lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife, two young children, and a small, loud dog.

Where to stream To Build Or Not To Build