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To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page A woman who was building her forever home with her partner died just months before the completion of the work, a heartbreaking episode of Grand Designs has detailed. Pep and Malene had dreamed of building their three-bedroom Viking-inspired wooden longhouse, but after Pep was diagnosed with stage four cancer in 2021, the project became a race to complete the work in time for her to spend her final days there. The Channel 4 episode showed how the project began in 2024, when accountant Pep was managing both an exhausting round of chemotherapy treatment while also overseeing the work onsite with the builders. The couple hoped to have the house finished in nine months, so Pep could have ‘as much time to live in it as possible’. Speaking to show host Kevin McCloud, she said: ‘Theoretically, I should be dead now, but that merely spurred us on to build the house.’ ‘When you’re given the diagnosis that I was given, it was all of a sudden things that did matter to me, like work and achieving and getting things done, they paled in significance,’ she told Kevin. Pep was diagnosed with stage four cancer in 2021 (Picture: Channel 4) Pep and Malene had dreamed of building their Viking-inspired wooden longhouse (Picture: Channel 4) ‘The diagnosis of cancer triggered me into saying, right, if I am going to build a house when I’m alive, I better get on with it now. ‘We’ve had a very good life, and being in the house is the last chapter of our life together.’ Yet, tragically, she just a few months later in the summer of 2024 and never got to see the Scandinavian build. She had continued to write down instructions and plans for the home in the days before she died. Touched by Pep and Marlene’s story, the builders on the site carried her wicker coffin into the home she had spent her last months trying to finish. Her wife Malene moved into the house the following August and planted a tree in the front garden to commemorate the love of her life. The plaque resting on the trunk said: ‘Yggdrasil [sacred tree], now feasting with the Gods at Valhalla.’ ‘It doesn’t feel like it’s my project, it feels like we are doing it together,’ Malene told host Kevin, who was visibly moved. The couple met and fell in love in the 90s (Picture: Channel 4) Malene invited three of Pep’s sisters to see the finished home (Picture: Channel 4) Malene gave Kevin a tour of the completed home, which was decked out with Scandinavian-style furniture the couple had collected over the years. ‘When we designed the kitchen, Pep wanted a window seat so she could watch me cooking and have a glass of wine as a way to be together, so that’s why she is sitting at the window seat,’ Malene said, referring to a picture of her late partner. The project, which was partially funded by Pep’s life insurance, initially had a strict budget of £550,000, but Malene revealed she spent just under £750,000 on building it. Malene revealed she spent just under £750,000 (Picture: Channel 4) ‘I felt that the project has kept me going and has given me a purpose,’ she said. ‘I feel immense pride in what Pep and I have achieved together. ‘I got a lot of strength seeing Pep’s determination in the past few months of her life. You learn new things about each other in times of adversity. ‘The energy there is very special. It has changed me inside as a person in how I feel and I think that now the house is not going to be a home for us as a couple for the rest of our lives, I feel very strongly that it will become a space for feeling and a sanctuary, not just for me, but for Pep’s family. I think that’s really special.’ Grand Designs airs on Channel 4. Got a story? If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
