Tony and Jo, musicians with Scottish Opera, had long dreamed of a home in the countryside. They found a perfect site on the Clyde estuary in Argyll and Bute. Located in a small village on a hillside, it had glorious views as far as the Isle of Arran and was less than an hour's drive from Glasgow. Inspired by local oak-framed barns, they gave architect Andy McAvoy an open brief.

Martin Pease is a successful commercial architect, used to designing large scale prestigious offices. However, he's about to embark on a much more personal project - a home for his wife Katherine and their two lively children

Andrew and Lowri Davies embark on a project to build an environmentally friendly farmhouse in rural Wales. Encouraged by their architect, they opt for some state-of-the-art experimental building materials; but do their builders know how to use them?

When lawyers Jeremy and Louise Brown walked into Upthorpe Farm in Gloucester, they couldn't believe their eyes. It was like stepping back in time. Apart from a few minor alterations, the Grade II listed 16th-century farmhouse had barely been touched for over 400 years and was completely unmodernised with lots of original features. Now that they've purchased the property their ambitious design plan is to bring the farmhouse into the 21st century

Jim Fairfull considers himself a very lucky guy. He was out fishing with a friend when he came across a beautiful, secluded loch. It's a magical place with stunning views over the nearby hills. He got chatting to the farmer who owned it and discovered the site was for sale. Within a week, he'd done a deal and bought the land

Bill and Jean Letley are building a new bungalow in their back garden, but this will be no ordinary bungalow. Embracing the latest home technologies, this will be a modern, accessible, efficient home

Jo and Shaun Bennett are in love with the past, particularly Gothic architecture. Inspired by their love of all things medieval, the house that they dream of building is pure Addams family

Oxford is an architecturally inspiring place to live, but building plots are rare. So when a prime site came up, surveyor Henry Chopping jumped at the chance to build something special. And for once, it's just for himself

Hillcott Barn looked more like a Tuscan monastery than an English barn. When the farmer put it up for sale, most people who viewed it walked away. It was dark and isolated and could only be reached by a half mile farm track with a steep gradient.

Every Englishman's home is his castle but for Francis Shaw this is quite literally true. He and his wife, Karen, and their two young daughters, bought the ruins of a 14th Century castle in Yorkshire and took on the remarkable challenge of turning a pile of stones into a beautiful home

A couple convert a flat originally built as a solarium in the 1920’s into a modern, luxury penthouse in Bournemouth

Kelly and Masoko Neville set about building not just a spectacular oak frame and straw bale house, but a whole new way of life in the Cambridgeshire Fens.

Kevin McCloud meets Julie and Mark Veysey, whose Grand Design is a stunning Miami-style beach house on a beachfront plot overlooking the south Devon coast

Deni Daniel and Doug Ibbs don't hang around. The couple, in their mid-50's and from Dorset, bought a 19th century manor house in Creuse, Limousin - in central France - on a Sunday, having seen it for the first time ever on the previous Tuesday on the Internet and visited it on the Thursday. They don't mind hard work too, which is even better news because the house was a wreck.

Nicky and James Dobree were raised in France and in a mountainous area respectively. Nicky was raised in France, James in Beirut - both have fond memories of the mountains as children. So it was natural for them to one day look to buy a place amongst France's tallest peaks, the Alps.

Mark and Deborah (Debbie) Sampson and daughter, Tilley, like to practice an ecologically sound way of life. Following a period of eight years living elsewhere in France, where they found it difficult to be fully accepted by their neighbours, the Sampsons decided to move to Martel in the Lot region in southwest France, where life's pace is relaxed, and start afresh.

Gil Briffa, an architect, and his wife Hilary, from St Albans, Herts, wanted a house they could retire to in southern Spain, but not just any old place would do.

Four years ago artists David Westby and Leonie Whitton bought a derelict olive farm in Puglia, a beautiful region of Italy. Three years after Kevin last visited, have they finished their home and created the artists' paradise they had always envisaged?

This week Kevin meets a couple who bought a ruin and moved to Italy in 1999, hoping to start work building their dream home in Tuscany. Since then they've spent all their time trying to get planning permission, but finally, after four years, they are about to start work.