Back to the country etc

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.

How do they keep the ceiling free from cobwebs?

They can't! Think of all those spiders!

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.

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.......

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,

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.

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!
?

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 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.

Too not two

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

And a café

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!

Charleygirl5

LauraNorderr the first house was modern and gorgeous. How much does it cost to heat these houses? Practical things like that go through my mind.

They saw a house on the edge of a village but only 2 buses a week ran- what would they do when they can no longer drive?

Where was the nearest supermarket?

I was short of 1 million to buy any of these houses.

I saw that one! The presenter said "and there are TWO buses a week!" to whatever was the nearest town, as if it was an advantage. We treat these shows as a participation event, giving our opinions on the would be purchasers (they don't look as if they could afford it), the houses (because a spiral staircase is such a good idea when you are in your late 60s), their patronising naivety as they think that everyone living there will welcome them and their helpful suggestions, not to mention their dogs chasing sheep. Nope, I don't want to spend my dotage having to make do with crap overpriced white sliced bread from the community shop, and wouldn't impose the problems my isolation fantasy would become on my adult children. But I love the shows!

Germanshepherdsmum

We have a jacuzzi bath MissA, not a corner one though. It was here when we bought the house and we’ve never used it, prefer showers. So it’s totally wasted on us.

My son refers to jacuzzis as farting baths. Sorry. As you were. Loving this thread

That does look nice Fennel but rather remote for me.

We watched one couple recently who were retiring to Cornwall and were talking about all the entertaining they were going to do and all the local events they were going to get involved with. My son (who was born and raised in Cornwall and may be a bit biased) was highly amused "Don't they realise people will hate them?" he asked. I found you got far more kudos by helping out with the local pre school and doing door to door collections for local charities than by throwing soirees in your barn conversion.

?????

Deedaa

I love the people who walk into a farmhouse kitchen, rather bigger than the entire ground floor of my house, and complain that it's too small. Unless they are setting up a catering business what are they planning to do in it? Then there are the ones going into raptures about barn conversions with very high open ceilings. Am I the only one thinking "How are they going to heat all that space?" At the other extreme are the ones who want a character cottage and then don't like the tiny windows and very low doors and ceilings.

How do they keep the ceiling free from cobwebs?

I loved that programme. The Scottish one is still on iplayer: Scotlands Best House. They even did a Christmas special. I don’t like the latest BBC interior design challenge programme. It isn’t a patch on the original series from a few years ago.

There was a programme Best House in Town. There were categories competing such as three semis, three cottages, three flats and three detached. A panel of local judges picked the best one from each category, then picked the best of all. There were some gorgeous houses on that programme.