Home & garden makeover programmes

A lot of these programmes show houses with massive windows everywhere. People wax lyrical about how wonderful it is to have so much light coming through but all I can think of is how do they keep them clean: mine would be covered in bird poo and dog slobber: this past week it would have been dust from the Sahara. Staircases are getting weirder and weirder in these programmes, too and many of them look downright dangerous. I prefer programmes like Sort your life out and Clean it, fix it, although my all time favourite is Scotlands Home of the Year. When is Wales Home of the Year going to be back on tv?

The only way to get gardens without steps is to have dead flat billard table gardens.

Our garden is on a slope, we have no alternative to having steps in it, unless we want most of it to be inaccesssible to anyone except mountaineers.

And while I agree that we shou;d make sure that we think of less able people when designing things, should everything be taken down to the lowest level. All private gardens must be able to cater for the blind, deaf, those in wheel chairs, those with walkers not to mention those with mental health problems etc.

We will end up with people not allowed to climb mountain unless there are rails and chairlifts for the less able.

Private gardens should be designed for those who are going to use them and if they want steps and backless benches, so be it. Obviously it would be sensible to include an area which is flat and has a few seats with backs, but on private property, that is up to the owners. When they move new owners will probably redesign the garden even as they rip the bathroom and kitchen out.

Public gardens are a very differnt matter they should be all involving.

I don't have access to the same shows as you, but I know what you mean. Houses that end up looking lovely but aren't necessarily practical.

It seems they all show white couches, and desks with no drawers.

But you do get some lovely ideas on these shows, we can dream about renovations with seemingly endless budgets.