Back to the country etc

crap overpriced white sliced bread from the community shop

Only locally produced fresh vegetables, meat, milk and dairy produce, artisan bread, cakes and biscuits, quiches, wine, beers etc at our local shops.
And refills for eco cleaning products too!

And a café

Sounds lovely! We have a mobile refill den that comes to our village. Plus a seriously busy coop local because most of the neighbouring villages have no facilities at all. Local produce, good wine, good bread.

I’m always amazed with ETTC, when the couple have a set budget with a maximum of so many hundred thousand, say for arguments sake £430,000, and they show them a property which is for £490,000. They then say to the couple that the owner is aware of their top budget, but ‘“a deal could probably be done”. Now in all honesty , would a seller reduce their asking price by £60,000 in this instance? Very unlikely, unless they were desperate to sell, I would think. Also, it’s rather unkind, I feel, to get the prospective buyers excited about a lovely property to then pull the rug from under their feet by telling them that it is “slightly” over their budget.

Most of my other thoughts about these programmes have already been mentioned by other posters so I won’t repeat them. However, I do think some couples have an unrealistic, rosy view of what life really would be like in a truly rural area, miles from most things they are used to having on their doorstep or easily accessible via good transport links, liable to be cut off in bad weather and expensive to run.

Yes, and I’ve wondered too, how on earth do you dust and paint these barn conversions with extremely high ceilings and beams?

Pre covid19 lockdown and restrictions, DH and I would go and look at builder's show houses, just for interior design ideas. Spin the staff a story about our requirements and wander around (not hand in hand), criticising the lack of storage space and return home, further convinced that ours is best.

Re: my 'Return to the City'' idea. I have a brother and sister-in-law, both now in their mid-late seventies.
They had a most beautiful house in North West London, very expensive. Seven years ago, they sold this (well over a million pounds),and ETTC. Both had always stated how the peace and quiet of that. Very nice house they found, no thought of the future. Nearest bus once a day and a mile from their house. When I queried this at the time, I was dismissed with a 'If we cannot drive, for any reason, we will take taxis'.

Glorious, large kitchen - my SiL always enjoyed cooking and entertaining. Now they both hate it there. Too dark, too isolating, nearest town for shopping eleven miles away. She now cannot drive, she still refers to London as 'Home'.

Family and friends hardly ever visit. That kitchen has NEVER hosted one of those large events, as it is just too far away and isolated.

To return back to London, even to something far smaller, is financially difficult. So, house has been on the market for several months, overpriced - so no takers.

My SiL, in early dementia stage is totally depressed, and my BiL is still refusing to accept the prices that several local EA's tell him he can reasonably expect to get for that house -which he says will not be enough to get them anythng suitable back in London. It is a gorgeous house, four bedroom, modern, underfloor heating, small home office, pleasant and reasonable size garden. etc. etc. To get there involves driving down ten miles of country lanes - all unlit at night.

Do wonder if they are far more representative than is admitted for people who ETTC.

Yes I’d love a follow up programme to see how the escape to the country evacuees are managing 2years later - loving it or hating it! They have very occasionally done this in previous shows. I expect two many hating it wouldn’t make very good tv.

Too not two

I agree a follow up programme would be good, rather like new Life in the sun;where are they now? which we follow avidly! Perhaps we would see people like Franbern's brother and sil, or others sitting at home moaning about how nobody visits/they can't get a cleaner/get food delivered/see a GP. I have a friend who is about to move to be near her son, she is looking for a nice old cottage with plenty of character, no neighbours, could be very different in 10 years or so when one or both of them are infirm. I think Move to a city or market town would be a better programme; showing early or nearly retireds moving to be where they can access shops, theatres, cinemas, GP, hospitals, restaurants, neighbours, all the necessities of a physically easier and mentally stimulating retirement. As I have said before, we live in a large village with plenty of amenities and lots of activities, but we did have a couple move into a new house here, overlooking the playing fields, then spend every waking hour complaining to the Parish Council about the noise from the Sunday morning football, and the children's playground.

We sometimes pick up a free local paper called Property Drop.
It has a feature called Through the Keyhole which describes how people have improved their houses.
One property is in a village and the owner tells how he has updated the 35 year old house and replaced "tired carpets", replaced the ageing roofs, bathrooms, kitchen, doors, mantelpiece, lighting, put in glass doors etc etc.

I said to DH that, were we to sell our house, I'd be very embarrassed to read later that it was such a disgrace that everything needed replacing!

I forgot to say, that having transformed the house which is, apparently, in a perfect location and now just as they want it, they are now selling it!
?

Coming back - agreed this is potentially a big worry. We were fortunate to be able to keep our UK house and rent it out when we were in France.
Both houses were in the lower price range (especially in France we bought it for 80k euro in 2001)
So you need to be practical and think ahead.

An update - BBC have used their imagination and supported this series by showing the film Mr Blandings builds his dream House Cary Grant and Myrna Loy
Brilliant analogy from the USA moving away from New York to Connecticut in the postwar years,

Gill think you must have met my Bil and SiL. Exactly the moans they really make.

In London, they had the same cleaner for 30 years, almost like a member of the family. When they moved the original ideal was, that with just the two of them, in a very modern house, n on need of a cleaner. However, that really did not work out, so they advertised for cleaner. First one came once, and then left - to far to go. Months later they got a second one, who actually came for a few months, then announced she was not able to come during Covid and has never been back. Not able to get any replacement.

They have had continuous problems with GP services, not able to get any appointments, not getting referrals on to hospitals, etc. etc. During Lockdown they decided to go out for a daily walk But this soon became boring, as could only walk only road through nearby village, nowhere off -road as all private farm land.

My BiL has been very involved with Bowling, In London was twice President of his local club - loved it, and made many friends. Joined clubs locally, but -obviously - he was just another member - not the important one he had been in London. When he suffered a sever attack of gout and could not drive - no-one at those clubs came near or by.

My SiL has never been someone who seems to need people, never joined groups of societies. She was very supportive of any family members and happily spent her days (in London), helping out with g.child, and meeting up with sister, etc. Sister is now dead, g.child is in mid-teens and too far away to see. When they moved they actually furnished one bedroom for him. Think he has used it less than a dozen times over the years.

I do feel so sorry for them.......

It always amuses me when the house is in an area I know (in Escape to the Country) and the presenter says "It's only 30 minutes to ...." when in fact the traffic there is hellish and it would take at least an hour, maybe more.

Or when the couple say they particularly want a small garden and they get shown something with a paddock.

How do they keep the ceiling free from cobwebs?

They can't! Think of all those spiders!

It always amuses me when Phil & Kirsty visit a couple who had moved a few years earlier.... the ones who said they would "Love it" and never move, and then sold it quickly and moved to something totally different to the remit.