George Clarke

My grandad was a prawn fisherman who built his own boat.

Showers use a huge amount less water than baths.

There's nothing more expensive than messing up building and DIY projects.

I love stationery and writing sets.

It turns out, I have a very rare form of muscular dystrophy, which is a muscle-wasting disease.

If it wasn't for Durham Cathedral I probably wouldn't be an architect. I was taken there when I was about seven and I couldn't believe that someone built it 1,000 years ago.

I think even when 'Restoration Man' came about I made a conscious decision that we wanted projects that were as affordable as possible.

I travel a lot and spend on average three nights a week in hotels, so I take every opportunity I can to get home.

I'm very traditional and have some great accessories on my desk at home by Tom Dixon.

Although they're often associated with period properties, shutters look the part in all types of homes and I love them!

There's probably things at the back of your kitchen cupboard that you've not seen for years.

I know I've got clean, green technology providing all the heating and hot water for my house.

Your choice of window dressing is all about the three Ps, privacy, practicality and personal style.

Heat escapes through windows - even more so through wide ones. So it pays to add extra layers of insulation at wide windows to help keep the warmth inside.

For me, there is nothing more sustainable than buying a beautiful product that can last a lifetime, rather than being less beautiful, cheap, and disposed of after a few years because you don't give it any value.

There are a lot of programmes around where people are spending millions of pounds building incredible houses and that's great television. But for me it was really important to try to show people that they could achieve a huge amount on very low budgets, through creativity, hard work and the recycling of materials.

The kitchen blackboard is a handy place to keep your reminders and lists.

Draught excluders at the front door make a huge difference as does covering an old Chubb lock key hole. That stops the whistling wind come in and as we know from being North-Easterners that happens a lot.

I've partnered with Arlo as it's committed to empowering homeowners to keep their homes secure through DIY connected security solutions.

I sometimes feel housing should be non-political, like the NHS, ring-fenced and protected and not a political stick that's thrown around.