In Derbyshire village Matlock Bath, young married couple Lauren and Lee hope to restore a charming but faded old cottage that Lauren inherited from her grandparents. The work involves pulling out ceilings and floors, knocking out walls and completely re-modelling the layout of rooms. For Lauren, who has warm memories of summers and weekends spent at the home, it proves to be an emotional rollercoaster.

In Anglesey, Tina, Steve and their teenage daughter plan to create a magnificent home of steel, glass and stone in a stunning, windswept plot doesn't come without its problems. Apart from delays cause by bad weather, steels arrive in the wrong size and plastered ceilings need to be taken down again. The ambition of the build itself also brings its own degree of construction headaches, as they've designed a substantial home of two parts. This promises to be an eye-catching designer home, but the snags mean that the £800,000 budget may well be breached.

Estate agent Sophie is returning to the Sheffield suburb of Hillsborough, into the house her grandparents lived in for over 50 years, so that her son Chester can grow up there too. Helped by her brother-in-law and builder, Luke, Sophie is stripping the house back to its bare walls, taking out chimneys and knocking down walls both upstairs and downstairs. But will torrential rain and an escalating budget stand in the way of Sophie finishing her dream home?

In Radcliffe-on-Trent, Joel and Nicola restore Joel’s grandparents’ 1970s Victorian cottage to its former glory and add a plush extension, with a stretched budget and a tight Yuletide timeline.