They should change tactics and put in luxury tents or yurts each summer until they can build the cabins. At least that way they get some summer guests.

They should have gone to Slovenia. Beautiful country and honest people.

Would love to see an update on this.

They did a great job finishing that on their own. I could never do that! Great job, you two!!! PS - Builders are like that everywhere, it seems. Whenever something better comes along that pays more, they leave you hanging.

Such lovely couple. Hope they made it.

I'm so glad the penny finally dropped that they could do it themselves, after wasting weeks sitting there waiting for builders that were never going to come. I was thinking of those two grandparents in Scotland who grafted after work and in the week ends. They were so amazing, and these two could do it too. Great work. Pity about the water.

This old way to find water with stick is made by northeast Brazilian who live in semi arid area. It was funny. Builders putting off the job is the same everywhere. They are hardworking and determined couple. Congratulations!

What a beautiful transformation 😍

These 2 went into this so completely unprepared in every way. I find it hard to believe he is/was a builder

What a hard project... congratulations to the couple... at the end, so beautiful finished...❤from 🇧🇷.

Really lovely house. But how do you run a retreat with a lodge and 6 log cabins, and no water source... Not to mention operating in a foreign country and you don't speak the language...

In the eastern Croatia they could buy house for 25 000 euros, with central heating, water and piece of land

What an eye-opener for me, and a disgrace of the architect and builder's team, even they had been treated so well by their customers, totally disgusting. And a thumb up for the owners.

They bought a pile of stones on land with no water and spent more than the cost of a remote castle in France. They are nice people and hope they are doing well since 2005 but money can t buy you all just because you have a strong currency.

oh my! there is great determination between those two.

Well done guys be happy in your hard work you deserve it !

45 meters and they give up? My well is 180 meters deep.

Can't believe they didn't do the ground works first. What an achievement what a gorgeous home, I had builders rip me off as well when we had a huge addition added to our home. Its not an easy thing to have to deal with but today we own a beautiful home. Yah just have to persevere its that simple and in the end you get what you want and it builds character.

Dont pay upfront. And get a fixer/interpreter when you go to a foreign country. He would have told you there is a radio station in English for that weather forecast.

Sadly many of us miss our life in the woods but if we all move to enjoy the woods guess what?

I’m so glad this worked out. Congratulations

Indeed would be interesting what happened in those 15 years since then .Reel Truth History ?any idea?

George says to buy the property with no planning permission to build the guest accommodation shows a huge lack of experience, yet at the start the commenter said that Frank was a Builder, and if so he would have made sure he could get planning permission got the guest accommodation before he bought the property

Wow ..... I am very impressed from this British couple,,,,,, Respect!!!! 💐💐💐💐

This guy was a builder? My husband and I have built 2 or our homes, ground up , just us, in the US and remodeled another. Crazy the choices they made, especially if he was a builder!

These people should’ve done more planning

What a lovely couple. I hope they made a go of it.

Those builders should be sued. It’s so unfair to the owners to leave them hanging like that.

That is insane; bringing the digger in AFTER all the work was done on the house. Was that on purpose, to dissuade people from building/moving to Croatia??? It seems perverse not to let people know this in advance. It would seem to me that someone knew and held their tongue.

I don't see how they finished it themselves in just three months!

They should have done some proper research about the country and the property they wanted to buy. Those builders are still laughing about all the money they earned in only one winter. They never earn that much again in such a short period

14 years later. What happened are they still there. Are the cabins built. Does anyone know? . It would be interesting to see it now.

In Tanzania, we do that to search for water using a similar tool made out from the branches of a guava tree. It usually works 3 out of 5 tries.

Great plan: Overpaid the land and did no research on water, road access, permissions, no knowledge of language and then wonder why it is not working!!??

You must be very brave to buy and build anything in the Balkans. There is a complete mess in their property registers. Some times you could find more then 20 co-owners of 600 sqm building sitw. Half of them have been dead for years and other half live all-around the world. It takes forever to sort it out. When you finally got regiatrated as an owner then you have to bribe numerous local authorities to get necessary permission to get hooked on electrisity weather and other utilities. Getting a building permit you have to have a wisdom of great Sun Tzu and you have to live as a biblical Jeremiah. Ok there is shortcut, find someone to bribe. Building! That is also in domain of SF with elements of horror. 95% of contractors working only with cash with no paper trail of any transaction. You could have a deal and that could take some money from you but if they get a bigger opportunity you gonna wait till they finish better one.

it.s nearly 20 years ago....wonder if they are still alive.............

what a gorgeous house! Anybody have an update? I could find anything about the Ucka Lodge.

Watching this video was extremely stressful

Dedicated couple

Congratulations - dough it’s too expensive - you get so much more for the value in Italy, France, Greece etc.

So sad when people dig holes this deep for themselves.

I'm guessing they didn't succeed, since I can't find this place anywhere online... An update would be great!

The plot thickens even before it gets started.

What an amazing job well done! Wondering if you got reenberst after they took the flat fee and beat it? I'm glad you kept your dream alive👍 JO JO IN VT 💕 ☃😊🇺🇸

I live near this area, and I never heard of this place. I found out only that they manage to open a company with that name in 2018. I think I located the house, but there is nothing registered at that place. I really feel sorry for the people, cause Croatian burocracy is worst.

Wow fantastis beautiful

They should include the contact info for the b&b

There's a common thread with all of these episodes, they all bite off more than they can chew, then have to put in 120% to succeed. Kudos to those who do succeed in fulfilling their dream. Frank and Alice wasted a summer, they could have done things in smaller steps, such as letting campers pay to put up their tents and hike around the park, Frank and Alice could have made a bit of money that way for a season or however long it takes to get planning permission for the cabins. There's still a lot of campers who are willing to rough it in the wilderness. There's portable toilets and showers galore on sale these days too, so it wouldn't be ultra-rough. A bit more lateral thinking would make a difference!

I thought this kind of abandonment of workers only happened in Chile. What a frustrating situation. They did a great job, tho.

Ty, ty, ty for a "new" episode 😁👍

That architect should be sued along with the builders. They took that money and ran. In the end they did a marvelous job of finishing and decorating the house.

Sometimes you wonder that people want to set up shop in a country they don't speak the language of. Big mistake because you will be taken for your money. The "water diviner" that charged £ 5,000 to look for water on a mountain.... yes found it at 48 meters on top of a mountain, who believes that? and pay that amount of money. I hoped they learned a lot and they do well now

When the builders stopped coming Frank should have started on the work himself without having to wait six weeks for the builders to return which they didn't do, after all Frank was working along side the builders when they were there so why did he stop just because they stopped coming.

So you didnt like the countryside being built on in the UK, but then want to do it Croatia. LOL

Wonderful they actually finished the stone farmhouse but the choice of the many wavy chrome multi-bulb lightfittings circa 1998 strewn randomly about their fantastic double -height entry-way wall and the odd layout choice of variably sized pale grey textured floor tiles screamed chesp and fugly ... such bad taste . A shame because the place itself with its simple yet powerful visuals and functional stone farmhouse aesthetic could have looked more amazing inside... instead they transplanted their rather tired suburban English furniture and decor choices. However, what an incredible achievement to actually finish though ... despite all the gullible and naive decisions they made which had disasterous knock-on consequences, for example, the use of a water diviner rather than a geologist to locate an aquifier and £5000 later (makes you wonder if the drill owner worked in collaboration with the diviner!) Many comments point out below the other poor choices and lack of research too.

Respect for the contractors, it's not a trivial task to rebuild a stone house and make it new again, especially getting statically solid build starting with old stone walls justing sitting in dirt as its used to be build hundreds of years ago. All in all, quality work inside out, contractor knows his stuff! I would just go with proper roof insulation instead of 'cheap' gypsum boards and mediocre wool insulation, but that's client choice ofc.

No-one moves to another country with a venture such as this in mind with so little preparation. No language, nor understanding of the system, without planning for project, no obvious research (hence the water situation). Just daft. Is it English arrogance, or plain naivety?

What the people of that country need is praise for the building work you should have hired a money diviner!!!

After shelling out five grand to drill I would have kept drilling a bit deeper , nothing to lose to keep going a bit longer.....how would you be if years later you find out the water was just a few metres under where you stopped.

But what about the water man he said water there 🤣

It’s sad this ancient culture is being invaded by people who destroyed their own country!

I would hate to have this host on my job site cause really who wants someone that make you feel like the skies falling.

Agree with everyone, what we’re they thinking??

A case of “o’er vaulting ambition”?

What is the name of the stone that is used on the exterior does anyone know?

What's a artitech?

Those builders are not very honest. What a shoddy lot of people! But I think what Mitja Demitrij Cernac said is right also. I think Frank and Alice were very naive for the first year but I am glad it worked out for them.

It should have the 2° round to check out the rental houses 😁.

Should have staged his payments better. Keep them hungry for the green and they'll work.

Crazy... Lodge with no water?

Lo de medir donde esta el manantial es muy sierto yo soy cubano y nosotros hacemos lo mismo para acabar un poco 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Closed Caption please

In a case like this you hird a lawyer

Sorry to say they are dreaming like I never heard of a dream.

What all up and running in 8 months!!!!!!!!! MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, get Tom Cruise on the phone right away, HeHe

So, where did the running water come from?

I'd be stingy with that acreage. I would not want anyone at my back door let alone in my house. That's wishful thinking. Of course it's their money they can do whatever

I thought frank was a builder

Idiots, you cant just go to another country without knowing the language or have a person employed to be your representative with skills and know how for all the delicate matters in question. it's not a marketplace where you just buy apples and oranges and work your way with hand gestures lol Also, just because you are construction worker in another country with different build codes in no way are you qualified to work with houses build with diff techniques etc. there's nothing worst than client knowing nothing about construction walking around the construction site getting in the way of workers and playing the boss. You guys did it all wrong, period.

You must deal with builders to pay them after job is done...

they should sue the contractors, for the unfinished work.

Come on would it be regarded as irresponsible to Starr building even buy the house without planning permission ? I think so .

Not a water finder lol

Glamping is cheaper and no planning needed.

Frank what is your track record for projects and have you learned the language???? Yet.

Nice couple but they got robbed on renovation.

I like George but sometimes he goes over the top stating the bleeding obvious.

In the US, we don't say "que".

If there is no one to do the job you do it yourself. Amazed at how lazy the owner is...After all he said he is a builder. It seems he just sat around smoking and complaining.

The language barrier is their own mistake. I don't want to be nasty, but if you move to another country, you should learn at least the basics of a language. Not everybody (wants) to speak English and they don't have to in their own country.

Beautiful but wrong country 😕

They ruined an original rural-style building. Shame

My, my, what big teeth you have!

DON'T EVER LIVE IN CROATIA.

Statists disgusts me.

Beautiful places i enjoy this videos so much, so glad people can take the time,life,dreams. and their money to bring to life this espectacular landmarks🤎❤to bad that irresponsible workers did this to this family.

George looks like a baby in this one. Must be a really old episode.