Escape to the Country sometimes seems unfinished/

I always get very cross when they don’t say at the end of the programme if they bought it or not. Just leaves you hanging! Very annoying

Like you, Freya, I'm often a little bemused by the couples shown a kitchen the size of an aircraft hangar say" it's a little small..."

Used to watch this Programme, then got to realise the people on it had a lot of money, but no commonsense. Or they wanted a lot, but weren't prepared to pay for it. Once saw a couple, supposedly downsizing, standing in a massive kitchen, but it was "too small" for them.

Chardy

I get irritated when singles or couples at/near retirement age get shown houses that require a car to go to the local shop or like today, have a garden ideal for a mountain goat. Do these folk think they're immune from getting older? Or do they imagine that when their eyesight or mobility gets so bad, they'll want the upheaval of moving house?

We bought our retirement home in a village, with a shop and a large garden when we were 53. We have lived here happily and successfully for 28 years needing a car to do almost every activity apart from top up shopping.

It is only in our early 80s that we are feeling the need to move, and that is mainly to live some where more convenient for our children, who, when we moved here, were still at university.

And, yes, this time we are aiming to live in the centre of a small town with all the services we may need within walking/buggy distance

Nowadays, longevity and modern medecine mean that more of us are living healthy and well lives until at least the age of 80, and, yes of course, a few friends have died younger and been ill from their 60s, but the majority of my friends are only gradually beginning to lead restricted lives after the age of 80.

Our house is for sale at the moment and quite a number of people viwing it have been much of an age we were when we moved here. Still working, but with children who are out of school and working or at university, who now have time for gardening and do not mind driving to to do things, now they are no longer a taxi service.

Either that Chardy or if you are in the South West they all want to come and stay for weeks at a time for free and the house is never your own.

MayBee70

I don’t understand them talking about the parties and entertaining they’re going to do in their new property. Given that they’ve never lived in the area before who’s going to them?

But the little video clips always say how friendly people are!!

No, totally agree. And the experience of friends who did move from city to country hundreds of miles away was that friends only come and stay once! It was just too far

I get irritated when singles or couples at/near retirement age get shown houses that require a car to go to the local shop or like today, have a garden ideal for a mountain goat. Do these folk think they're immune from getting older? Or do they imagine that when their eyesight or mobility gets so bad, they'll want the upheaval of moving house?

I agree M0nica. In London when we were selling, the agent told us vendors often send their "stuff" to storage units to achieve the streamlined, uncluttered look. Some even hire plush sofas to make their place look more chic, or artworks for the walls.

Sadgrandma I think they do, just as when more expensive houses come on the market, there will be elements of styling before they are photographed, or with really expensive houses stylists will precede the photographer.

Our house is on the market at the moment at a price that meant the photos were taken by professional house photographers - in and out in half an hour. Before they came they sent us a list of advice of things to do to show the house off at its best advantage - such things as clearing bathrooms of towels and bottles of anything. Kitchen worktops as clear as possible, and so on.

The couple say they want a detached house away from a main road with a big garden etc. What do they show them, a semi detached on a main road with a small garden but the couple are delighted! Also I also wonder why the houses are so beautifully presented, does the TV company send people in to do thus?

Yes, Cabbie21, I saw today's episode. I thought the friend had a lot to say for herself!

I quite enjoyed today’s, in a beautiful area of West Yorkshire, until at the end it was revealed that the escapee has not yet sold her house, so her offer on the mystery house is somewhat academic.

Wrestle a pig into a trailer. That did make me laugh M0nica.

I think most people in Escape to the Country are just following a personal dream. they all want entertaining kitchens, as if everyboy had advert type gatherings every week when 20 people gather round the AGA drinking home made soup from potttery mugs made locally.

They all seem to want to run a self-sufficiency small holding with chickens and pigs and fruit and vegetables - and they are all on the brink of retirement. - and they all want to be in the heart of the countryside miles from shops, doctors, hospitals, trains etc etc. lovely for the first 10 years, but then the arthritis and tiredness sets in and you no longer have the strength to wrestle a pig into a trailer, and everything gets out of hand.

Some friends of DH's did it, inorder to look at any area they were thinking of, but after seeing the area, decided against it and bought a rural property but in another part of the country.

Annoying when they have to sell their own property. Have they even put it on the market? Perhaps that should be explained at the beginning of the programme as someone might be interested in buying and the viewer would know just how serious they are. Sometimes think their criticisms are because they are not serious buyers.

The presenter cheerfully says that the property is only a 20 minute drive from x. Sometimes it's been an area I know and I think Blimey. Who are you kidding? The traffic is dire and it will take an hour at least.

Oh yes. And round here that's an hour at 3 o'clock in the morning when there's hardly any traffic on the road!

I haven’t watched it for ages, but when I used to, I often thought that the couple just wanted to be on telly.

MissAdventure

I just looking inside the homes, but I do get cross if they don't buy the one I like.

So do I and I get even crosser if they pick it and then arrange a second viewing even though their own home isn’t even on the market.

It always amuses me when someone states they want to be within a 30 minute commute from a specific town/city.

The presenter cheerfully says that the property is only a 20 minute drive from x. Sometimes it's been an area I know and I think Blimey. Who are you kidding? The traffic is dire and it will take an hour at least.

Another time, with Kirsty and Phil, the wife wanted to be within a 10 minute walk of a mainline train station. As it happened, the presenter was showing an area I know very well because my grammar school was there. The hill from the station is very steep. I walked up that hill to school every day from the age of 11 and had the calf muscles to match. It's not a prospect most people would fancy in all weathers after a hard day at work.

dragonfly46

My DS was on Location and bought the flat they were shown. The programme was very true to how it went with both Kirsty and Phil. They revisited 3 years later.

That's good.
K & P appear to be masters at the art of negotiating. We used a few of their tactics when dealing with the estate agent - namely offer the full asking price and insist it comes off the market immediately.
Escape to the Country doesn't touch on that side of things, so there doesn't feel the same urgency to it.

My DS was on Location and bought the flat they were shown. The programme was very true to how it went with both Kirsty and Phil. They revisited 3 years later.

I suppose the outcome depends on the participants informing the programme makers of their final decision.
I wonder how many just go along for the experience and are not really serious about moving to the country.
Some seem to turn their noses up at everything shown to them.
Still like seeing the properties though.

Yes, that gets on my wick as well.
I just want to check out each and every room, look inside the cupboards, check if people can stand up properly under the beams, and admire their views.

GrandmaKT

The new format of the programme annoys me. They only show 3 properties, one of which is the "mystery house", and so likely doesn't meet all or any of their criteria. So, that leaves them with a choice of two. They fill the rest of the programme visiting breweries/orchards/farmers markets. I would rather see 4 properties!

Couldn't agree more GrandmaKT, the programme is so airy-fairy now!
Yes, & who cares if there's a place nearby that knits it's own bloomin yoghurt, milks it's own bees ect! Like you I just want to nose at property porn. (Excuse the expression, I have son's!!!) 🙃

Yes Deedaa, you really have to think long & hard before moving house, particularly if it's in an area your unfamiliar with & just fancy or if you're only visited out of season when the place is uncharacteristically quiet. I was set on moving to a place I really wanted to start anew in but luckily I stumbled upon the crime figures for that area. They showed that violent crime was terrifically high & that burglary ect was endemic!
Thank goodness I found out before up-rooting! 🤔