Wasn't there some kind of "grand designs" drinking game - have to have a drink for every time "project 100% over budget, wife finds out she's pregnant, no planning permission, innovative build technique that goes wrong, that kind of thing? There's always some element of drama - they built a normal house that took the right amount of time and came in under budget isn't much of a programme, is it?
One of my sisters is a surveyor and often ends up working on OTT house designs - people making roman villas with mosaic swimming pools and columns and all kinds of nonsense.