Escape To The Country

I suspect their huge budgets are based on getting mortgages rather than being cash in hand, and there are young people with that money. We recently acquired new neighbours, a young family with two children and parents in their late 30s. We like them very much and we get on well. They are not air heads, but well educated, hard working and have made lots of friends in the village.

They paid over £750,000 for the house next door. It is a beautiful old house with an AGA in the kitchen. He runs his own business and she also has a high-powered job. They moved from London where they had lived for some years, so presumably had a hefty lump of equity to help finance their purchase.

I must confess I prefer Location, Location, Location. They show a much wider range of people with much wider housing budgets, from relatively little, some London buyers have budgets around £200,000 and less out of London and often have particular requirements, practical or ridiculous, that make the programme interesting. They have also had several programmes where one of those looking has had a disability of some kind.

Way things are going weather wise I think 'escape to the hills' might be a follow up programme. Anyone selling a house in Buxton?

aka
although I have seen a few who enthuse about the view over farmland from a hill - I have a view from a hill house facing southwest over farmland and it is windy (not much sleep last night)

But think about all that power you can generate from your windmill on your island hill

It always amazes me as to how tidy and gleaming everything is. Perhaps they have a team of people go in and clean up before the filming. The gardens' always look totally under control as well. Love the well placed bowl of flowers and cuddly toys etc!!!
Wonder what they could find for our budget of say £250000 - the usual budget on the programme is way above the national average so not really of use to most people.

Apparently me ex dh was on it once with "our" house.

Yes I wondered if part of the perks was having a spring clean, spruce up and garden makeover done. Or do other people always live like that?

BTW - margaret- Howard, Hilda and co are on at the mo on BBC4, Thursdays at 8pm. As funny now as it was then. I'd forgotten how brilliant Richard Briers and Penelope Wilton were.

Thank you dragonfly1, must take a look. "Going round in ever decreasing circles" has also become very much one of our family sayings as well as "we're looking very howard and hilda today!"

Even if we had the space (which we don't), I would hate an Aga. From what I've heard they are very fiddly to use and take ages to get used to.

Granny23 I too often wonder how some of these people have amassed so much money. The same goes for programmes like "The Hotel Inspector" where people who are absolutely clueless about interior design, cleanliness and catering, and who appear to have no people skills whatsoever, are running not just modest guest houses but large hotels.

Hahaha - couldn't resist smiling at this thread. I've watched a few of these now and then and they do often irritate me. I too wonder what kind of money some of them have - and how it's been earned. It's definitely different money from ours!
As to a large kitchen....we've lived in our perfectly ordinary 30s semi in unfashionable Suburbia since 1983. We must have one of the smallest kitchens I've ever seen, but I still managed to produce good meals in it whilst our children were growing up and I still do - not an Aga in sight (it would totally fill our kitchen). We've never had a dishwasher and I don't want one now, as it would mean losing cupboard space. We have been trying to get estimates for a new kitchen for the last 3 years - and we've been gobsmacked at the prices even for our tiny space. We could try and extend, but the cost of that for gaining an extra foot or two is beyond us, so we won't bother - makes no sense when there's just us two here, mostly. We could have moved to a larger house years ago but decided we'd rather have the money to do things with the children rather than mortgaging ourselves up to the hilt with no spare cash. We don't regret that decision, BUT......
I'm rather prone to envy (NOT a good habit, I know, I KNOW) so watching these programmes sometimes makes me feel rather....well, challenged, to say the least, and a bit inadequate. But then I remember I am lucky to have any roof over my head and a home to live in. And I don't think these programmes tell it like it really is - it's sanitised and highly edited, as others have already noted, to create an illusion for others to covet.
Best watched with one's tongue firmly in one's cheek, innit

Still bemused at how a young couple with 2 children can afford a £750, 000 house, FlicketyB! Even if 'well-educated'. A lot of my family are 'well-educated' but can't afford a place like that, even the ones without children.

Rowantree - I have been hankering after a new kitchen for ages as it is the original one from when the house was built and everyone else around has changed theirs. But have come to the conclusion that I would rather spend the money elsewhere, and anyway, their new ones are not such good quality! A modern range would be nice though, and perhaps those nice drawers that hold pans, and a swingout corner cupboard, and cupboards that go up to the ceiling and don't collect dirt on the top and and ........

Inheritance, lottery win, margaretm74!

Merlot - I saw that one with the couple with 6 dogs. Good grief! I am always flabbergasted when they walk into these (what look to me to be) huge kitchens and say 'it's a bit small'. We have what I think they call a galley kitchen. DH and myself can just about fit in there at the same time. I'm happy with it though, having just had it all refitted. I suppose it's what you are used to.

We do keep hoping! But I think I'm past caring. As BF's mother used to say 'this will see me out'.

And there will be no inheritance, anno, but we have a few premium bonds and always expect the knock on the door on the 1st of the month. As for a lottery win, I suppose it would help if I bought a ticket

Margaretm74 - neither we, nor either of our DDs could ever afford a house such as you describe and they are 'well educated' too. DD2 and her partner have just bought their first home together, after paying eyewatering amount of rent in London - they had to move to Rochester to find something affordable, and that needs work done on it to make it disabled-friendly. DD1 is in her early 30s, has a Ph D and can't afford to live on her own - she shares a very small and basic rented house in Norwich with a friend. Unfortunately she doesn't have a regular salary, but is employed as a 'visiting lecturer' and does another job as a music teacher too. Even with two jobs, she lives very frugally. How on earth do these people on 'Toffs in the Country' afford £750, 000? Blimey!

We think we have found someone more affordable to re-fit our kitchen, but it's taken a lot of thought, budgeting and re-jigging and we're hoping to get the cost down further. Re-fitting a kitchen is such a huge undertaking, even a tiny one like ours, and I'm not looking forward to the experience much. Margaret - amazed your kitchen has lasted so well - it must be very good quality indeed. We wouldn't think of changing ours if it wasn't falling to bits (carcases made of disintegrating Weetabix, worktops lifting etc).

Well we had a win on the Euro Lottery last night, so, perhaps I should get in touch with our requirements i.e. a real log lodge house with four goodsized rooms downstairs and 2 bedrooms and bathroom upstairs for when the family come. Sea view to the front, hills and pine woods behind and a hot tub on the deck would be nice. Not much to ask is it? Especially as they can have the entire lottery win (£2.90) as a budget

Normally I don't watch it but I am nursing an inflamed Achilles tendon and just have to keep my feet up for the next weeks. I watch 'Escape' as pure escapism from my everyday life of hobbling around.

The couples are usually hopeless when it comes to buying a house. Most of which look terribly draughty to me with huge 'reception' rooms and a small wood burning stove. Why don't they say 'Lets look at the central heating system and what does it cost to heat all 12 rooms during the winter'. Particularly sad were the cottages in the SW with a stream in the garden which we now know have probably been flooded.
I don't know any one with that money to spend on a house but I'm sure they would want to put their own kitchen in.

Is that the same programme that Kirsty Alsopp is on? Or is that another re-location programme? I get confused....but they all make me feel very inadequate at times (or scornful!)

Granny23, congrats on your lottery win. We don't do the lottery but we do have a few VERY old premium bonds. Needless to say, we haven't won anything yet! So I'm not holding my breath. There's also the option of going on the game to earn a few extra bob....

Rowan, our house was only built in 1985, so the kitchen is 'only' nearly 30 years old!! And DH has always been good at diy so has mended it when drawer runners broke etc. We have newish tiles and worktops so it looks OK really (musn't grumble). It's the wooden type you see on Homes under the Hammer and suchlike - "kitchen could do with an update". But it's functional. We had grandiose ideas if we changed it which would cost a fortune, moving it around completely and knocking walls down. Can't face it! Besides which we can't agree anyway.
Perhaps I should apply for one of those programmes like DIY SOS. We knew someone who was on Ground Force once

Will you rent it out, granny23? Sounds lovely! I could go and stay while Nick Knowles fits my new kitchen

I thought this thread would only generate a small handful of replies!Nice to know it's not just me then, who gets irritated. I'm perfectly happy with my house inside and out, but this programme is useful sometimes for getting planting ideas for the garden or colour schemes inside the houses [but DH watches it just to laugh at the people.] Comments such as 'I'm just not feeling it' 'it lacks the wow factor' 'not sure we could get 12 people round the kitchen table' 'where would the pigs/alpacas/sheep go?' 'it needs a bit of work before we could even think of living it '[when it only needs a coat of paint] and even worse, idiots who proudly state 'Oh this kitchen would have to be all ripped out' when Jules has just said it's all bespoke cabinets and hand carved this and that.Even more idiotic, couples who state their young children will have to see it and give it their blessing first! That's when DH shouts at the screen.