home sweet home

shysal, if you saw their house you would understand what i mean about muddling through. DS is the archetypal absent minded professor, picking things up, dropping them anywhere, can never find wallet, keys or phone.

DDiL puts up a sterling fight to try and keep some semblance of order, but it is an uphill battle. The light on the horizon is that DGD is now becoming orderly and complaining about untidyness but DS's capacity for chaos was considered worthy of comment at both schools he went to. I tried, I really tried to encourage order and tidiness. I am an orderly and tidy person myself but I met my match with DS. I was Napoleon to his Wellington.

M0nica, I brought up my family in a house just like your DS. I certainly didn't feel I was muddling through! I now live in a 2 bedroom terraced house with tiny kitchen and bathroom. It is perfectly adequate for my needs. Today's young people seem to expect to have it all right from the start.

I like the hundred thousand pound house programme, some really clever ideas.

DS and family live in a traditional 1930s semi. 1 small bedroom, 2 reasonable sized ones and one bathroom. 60 foot of garden. Being an academic is like being a doctor without the pay. Long hours, lots of overtime (unpaid) so income doesn't run to 3 bathrooms and room for the baby's race track.

But they and their children are happy and they muddle through somehow - and that is what really counts. Not big bedrooms and en-suites.

I am enjoying the current Grand Designs series "The Street".
It is really interesting learning about all the new building materials that are in use now.
Some of the walls come with built in insulation, there was a house built with blocks made of hemp, lots of details like that.

paddyann it's amazing, isn't it, how we scraped by!
Our girls even had to share a bedroom for three years!

We are planning a kitchen extension at the moment, trying to make sure that what it costs is in proportion to the extra value to the house - and in ur case it will add value and make the house easier to sell.

You do have to be careful when updating your home, we spent eye watering amounts on our house and it is still only worth the same as others in the street.
We accept that, we did it to just have a nice house to live in and have no intention of trying to sell.
These people escaping to the country are often selling London homes and getting properties twice the size for their money. DS did that when he left London, sold a flat and bought a big detached house in the north.

Yes, I m also enjoying that series Eloethan I am assuming it will just be the one row out of the thousands of homes planned for the site, most of whom won't have the countryside views. I admire all the singles and couples who are self-building, some of whom have jobs too. I wouldn't know where to start, although I would love to have a go at anything not involving heights!

I gave up on Grand Designs a few years ago when one owner spent something like £500 on a kitchen tap.

I've been enjoying the programme Kevin McCloud presents re self-builds in Bicester, and had especial admiration for the husband of 73 and his wife of, I think, 68 who did a fair bit of the building of their home - and helped out a neighbour too (though it did put a great strain on neighbourly relations!).

Monica this house has 3 bathrooms ,only one ensuite though and we managed to bring up our family AND have visitors staying for weeks at a time without any problems .I used to take my son to the football pitch daily to run off his energy .Young mums seem to just want to stick them in the garden where they can see them but dont need to actually PLAY with them .The last viewer who had one child said she's have to convert the garage ...28 feet x16 feet into a playroom for him because the bedrooms weren't big enough...makes you wonder how people managed before ...lol

It’s not a case of jealousy sodapop it really isn’t . We just really wonder where a young couple get £500-£700k from ? What on earth do they earn ?

I love looking at those house style magazines but laugh at the “paid £700k in 2015 now worth £1.4 million?” Really ?

paddyan sounds as if they have more money than sense.

I always used to notice when people had their old windows out and the new plastic windows inserted that were devoid of glazing bars and presented huge glass windows to the world and everyone passing by that, without exception, by the end of the first month they had put up either net curtains or venetian blinds

Gilly our house is currently on the market ,the comments by some viewers have astounded us.A small family with a 10 year old and a baby wanted 3 en-suites AND a garden they could put their bouncy castle.trampoline and a track for babies sit on electric car.Sadly our perfectly reasonable garden wasn't good enough,the fat that we are surrounded by parks ,football pitches and green areas ...all within 2 minutes walk seemed to escape them ...too far to go to play.

Kevin McCloud's programme is so predictable, follows the same format every time. Past its sell by date by a mile.
We feel exactly the same gillybob especially when its a young couple paying over half a million. Jealous - Moi?
I love my small cosy house and would not want a huge open plan one. I would like a utility room though where I can do the washing and keep all the animal paraphernalia.

I wonder why these people would be happy displaying their lives to anyone who may just wander past.

DH and I walked past a house on our busiest main road yesterday. It’s just been renovated and the whole huge dining kitchen is now fronted by floor to ceiling glass and wide open to all passersby. Why would you want all and sundry to see you sitting there in your dressing-gown having your breakfast? I suppose it’s one big incentive to keep it tidy.

My DH’s favourite one liner “what the hell do these people do for a living to afford a house like that”?

You could buy my entire terrace for the cost of one of these “escape to the country” houses ....... and why do an elderly couple need 5 bedrooms and an acre of garden?

Lovely, Lisagran. The garden looks great too, and what a view!

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Ah, yes, Shysal I remember that programme now. I think the Robert guy is better suited to designing office / commercial spaces, not domestic ones. Interesting ideas though.
We put a glazed extension on our house 8 years ago - lovely and light now (belatedly wonders if she’d cleaned the floor before taking the pic.....grin)

Exactly mamacaz very picky.

The property programmes that most annoy me are the ones like Place in the Sun. Well , it's not so much the programme, as some of the house-hunters, who I think need a reality check.

My biggest bugbear is when they are shown a perfectly good bathroom and instantly say that such a 'tiny' bathroom is totally out of the question.
I always want to know what exactly they plan to do in a bathroom that requires something the size of a small carpark!

I used to really enjoy these programmes but less so these days. My taste is old-fashioned and the modern designs are to my mind, so 'un-house-like' - more like a barn or a soul-less industrial unit.
George's programme should be retitled 'Ugly Old House to Ugly New House' or am I too unkind? Surely many of us love old cottages, Georgian or Victorian houses? It can't be just me. Modern architects probably don't want to admit that their designs are not as likeable.
They say a doctor buries his mistakes but an architect plants trees round them!