A move to the town/country!

[sheddie]

On the TV programmes when they are taking people around to look at properties, don't you think people go over the top about the size of the kitchen and bathroom. For goodness sake there is normally only two of them going to live there, how many bathrooms do they need? X:cool:

[franbee]

Most of those property shows people ask for an en suite bathroom plus a 'family bathroom', plus a cloakroom as well. Just think of the cleaning.

[Crocus]

I always wonder that too Sheds. Is it for the sake of being on the telly or what? And when they begin to talk about the decor I can get quite annoyed because surely they can take up a paint brush or whatever. Their own furniture and curtains etc. will make a difference as well, don't they think of that?

[jazzactivist]

I wonder that too, sheddie. Usually two people are planning to live there but they want a family sized kitchen and two or more bathrooms for when family and friends come to visit. If you move far away from where you lived before the chances of regular overnight visitors are slim, and in any case they could stay in a B&B nearby if they really need their own bathroom, thus helping the local economy. I am not surprised that some of the people looking for property never find a suitable one as they want things like "a cosy stone cottage with a big open plan sittingroom and kitchen"!

[Crocus]

Why buy a house that suits relatives and friends and not those who are going to live there?

[sheddie]

They also go to one little landing window and say "What about that wonderful view?". As if they're going to stand on the landing looking out all day. It also amazes me the amount of budget for the property some of these people have. I met a man yesterday who bought a property miles from anywhere in Portugal and felt so cut off he can't wait to come back here.Most of them can't even speak the language either. X

[dragonfly]

I only have a small bathroom and it is quite adequate for the two of us, as we spend very little time in there. We also have an extra loo which is essential for when my sisters stay. I also wonder why people want lots of extra bathrooms for it is just extra cleaning.

[sheddie]

Dragon... but do you have a view from your loo that is the question? X

[dragonfly]

No Sheddie. Frosted glass onto a conservatory. Do you?

[Crocus]

No view from my loo too. Window's behind the loo and frosted of course. x

[Gentian]

If you were married to my OH you would understand why we have a bathroom each, mine is the en-suite. He takes for ever, I even make him have his breakfast in his jimjams or I would never get tidied up. It's ironic, he was in the bathroom when his mother died, when his father died and when our son was born in the middle of the night, he was having a shave and the music on the radio was "In the still of the nIght".

[Crocus]

Hi Gen, bathrooms must have a total different meaning to him then!

[jazzactivist]

Bathrooms can have extra significance then, Gen! We have a lovely view of fields and woods from our upstairs loo, and all other rooms, but the downstairs bathroom has frosted glass. I have noticed, too late, that, even though we have a front garden, because the house is up on a rise whenever a bus goes by everyone on the upper deck can look straight into my bedroom and see everything reflected in the mirror! It makes changing clothes a bit of a challenge...

[sheddie]

What about when they are showing these unsuspecting senior couples around these houses and they say you can knock that wall down as though there's nowt to it, when they supposedly are going into retirement. X

[dragonfly]

I love those programmes especially 'escape to the country' but do think some people have unrealistic ideas. Even when the presenter finds everything they are looking for they don't like it and go for something completely different. A lot of the prices are unrealistic for most of us, £500k - million£ but it is nice nosing around other peoples houses.

[souter girl]

I too laugh at the cliches - if one more person says that thing about the kitchen being "the heart of the home "and/or "leaving their own stamp on it" I might be tempted to stamp on them!!! I'm just jealous, there are some GORGEOUS houses on these progs but you never see the owners - are they all hiding in the woodshed, do you think? Ans as for the so-called views often it's just a field or flat landscape,not what you'd call a REAL VIEW like Scotland, or the seaside or the Lake District or Wales, is it?

[Crocus]

I think about this "view" a lot, because many times a house is being sold "because of the amazing view". What do you get if you want to buy the "view"? A kitchen, bathroom, bedroom or two, a lounge maybe?

I remember when our house was on the market and "on show" one Sunday,we had go out for the day.

[sheddie]

I think some of these houses are far too cut off as well and wonder if they take that into consideration, it's no good looking at a field of sheep if you run out of something is it, or break down or get took ill. We need medical services more as we are getting older. X

[dragonfly]

The kitchen is not the heart of my home, I spend less time in it than the bathroom.

It is nice having a view but if you have fields around you it gets very windy as there are no houses to filter it and sheep can be very noisy. We look out onto a nice old manor house but we paid a lot extra for it.

[sheddie]

Take last nights programme the man had lived in the same house on an estate and didn't really want to move at all, but his wife wanted the country. He was just messing about and I'd have lost patience with him, he new he wanted to stay just where he was. X

[dragonfly]

Some of the houses are fabulous though Sheddie. I love the ones with very large gardens or even an acre or two. I get a bit envious knowing I could never afford anything like that. Sometimes I see young couples with £700k to spend and wonder where they got that much money or where I am going wrong with not having that much. I know I have a lovely home that I should be grateful for but it is nice to dream.

[Crocus]

I would be quite content and happy with a little cottage. Nothing elaborate or over the top or large. Just a cosy cottage and if possible in the UK, preferably in the Yorkshire Dales somewhere. Of course it's a complete dream...... it won't happen.

[Crocus]

I would be quite content and happy with a little cottage. Nothing elaborate or over the top or large. Just a cosy cottage and if possible in the UK, preferably in the Yorkshire Dales somewhere. Of course it's a complete dream...... it won't happen.

[sheddie]

I do worry about some of the people when the doorways are so low and all the little winding staircases, when retiring is this the thing to go for?.

[jazzactivist]

I think that a lot of the properties on offer are very overpriced, and it is interesting that the programme sponsors are usually banks or estate agents. I watched one set in the north Lake District the other day, just because I will now recognise a lot of the places. The couple had £450,000 to spend, but were so fussy. They were shown a lovely mill cottage on a lane, but it didn't have enough bathrooms. A beautiful double cottage in a lovely village miles from anywhere, with a view of the main road, which they liked but wanted to 'put their stamp on it' and a really nice townhouse on the edge of a sensible and characterful small town that was half the price, which they hated as it wasn't a cottage! I usually think that any of the houses shown would suit me fine, if only I had the funds that they have...

[Crocus]

What you've said Sheds are perfectly explained and visible in an episode of "Keeping up appearances" where dear Hiacinth wanted to move to the country. Do you remember the struggle they had to fit in that apartment or whatever it was? They couldn't fit into the kitchen, banged their heads in the bedroom, etc. etc. I'm sure this happens in real life in some cases as well.

[sheddie]

In some of the 'quaint' bedrooms you could sit up in the night and crack your head. Still if it has a large kitchen and en suite I don't suppose a crack on the head matters and don't forget the view from the loo. X lol

[Crocus]

A Loo with a View. Calls for someone to make a movie.

[jazzactivist]

Yes, quaint cottages are usually just that - quaint in size. OH and I love the look of the Lakeland slate cottages, but it is plain to see that the insides are very bijou, to say the least! I couldn't cope with ceilings so low that they are just above your head or doorways where I would have to bend over to get through. In Scotland the ceilings in traditional cottages seem to be much higher than in England, and I wonder why that is as Scottish people are generally a bit shorter and heat rises so the rooms would have been colder in the days of real fires.

[sheddie]

I wonder how many of us have a real fire or even an inglenook? I am not allowed to have an open fire where I live but do love to see a nice open fire. Anyway I can at least got to Country Matters and share theirs, it was so lovely and warm in their last Thursday and a pumpkin with a candle in and candles on every table. It is wonderful! X

[Crocus]

Our bedroom and bathroom plus living room and diningroom ceilings are about 5 metres high. The boys' bedrooms and bathroom are normal height. We've become used to high ceilings now and it will be probably be difficult to live in a house with normal ceiling height.

[dragonfly]

Our last house had 12 foot high ceilings and took a lot of heating up (it was like heating two rooms). The bungalow ceilings are only 7 foot and the heating bills have halved but we can only have small lights not the large chandeliers we had before. It seems we can have practical or beautiful.

[sheddie]

Did anyone see the woman who JUST LOVED everything about every property she was shown, she kept saying "I feel I've lived here before".At the end they didn't have any of them!! X

[Primrose]

Yes - saw that one Sheddie.

Do you think she thought she had extra 'powers' but not enough to know what she wanted?

(Must get off this site have too much to do - speak to you all another day.)

[sheddie]

Well I like to watch Move to the Country but find however much people say their budget it they always go above and when they ask for a certain kind of property like a cottage with beams they get shown an old chapel with open plan living. X

[Primrose]

Yes Sheddie - I too like watching it - I think they sometimes show people what they haven't asked for because people can be full of surprises.

I can remember of a Location, Location the people stated exactly what they did not want and turned down two properties because of it.

Then they make the call for Phil and Kirsty to come and see what they had found on their own. It was everything they had turned down with the two properties they had been shown.

[jazzactivist]

I always think that it is quite funny that the people say what they want and then choose a property that it exactly the opposite. I suppose that sometimes you just don't know what you really want from a house until you see it. I remember watching one programme where the couple were 'New Age' practitioners looking for a house and residential workshop space for their classes. They couldn't seem to envision what they wanted, and the woman kept saying that each place didn't have the right aura. They turned down a beautiful barn conversion with a lovely, natural workshop space in favour of a modern apartment and rented space. I would usually happily live in any of the properties shown.

[sheddie]

I still think that these people are taking on too much with these huge gardens and keep saying they want space to grow vegetables.I don't think they are really thinking even 2-3 years ahead when they perhaps won't be agile enough.Some only want a small garden and land up with one which requires a sit on mower. Now where's the sense in that? X

[jazzactivist]

I agree, sheddie. I love gardening, and at our last house was excited by the 1 acre part of the hillside to turn into a garden. After 7 years I had still only managed to turn about a 1/3rd of it into a proper garden. It was really hard work from soil improvement and landscaping to nurturing all the plants, and an established garden has the added problem of having to be on top of the different plants and trees and knowing what to do with them as soon as you move in so as not to spoil it. Some of the houses viewed have beautifu,l huge gardens but the people say "Oh yes, we want lots of time to get out and about / relax into our retirement". Well, with that size of garden guess what they'll be doing with all their time off. I think that some people, especially those moving from cities with no or small gardens, underestimate the amount of work that will be required.

[Primrose]

Maybe they can afford a gardner. I wonder when we will hear them say I need 1 acre of raised beds!

Fun watching though are't they?

[Crocus]

I think it must be quite difficult to get everything the way the customers want it. Price, location, type of house, views, decor, good area, close to schools, train station, etc. etc.

[sheddie]

I am sure that a lot of these couples that are supposed to be downsizing are looking at properties far too huge for them.Also where do they get these huge budgets from? It amazes me, surely when your family has grown up and left home you don't need 6 bedrooms and what about all the cleaning and heating?Some of them seem to be finding difficulty walking and they are being shown properties with low ceilings cold flagstone floors, open fires, low doorways, very low ceilings and stairs upon stairs.Also stable blocks when they don't even ride. X

[Crocus]

I wonder if it's not a dream people had all their life and kind of made a promise to themself that one day they will be having that home in the country, probably not thinking that they' will older. x

[Gentian]

My OH thinks they are set up to make a programme. It is good for the TV company and the local estate agents, the people may not buy, but a viewer might.

[sheddie]

Good thinking on your OH's part Gen, I never thought of that. X

[Primrose]

My brother phoned me last night after watching 'Escape to the Country' as it seemed too silly. Budget double what their own house was valued at and two out of the three they were shown were £50,000 over!

Sometimes - there seems to be a genuine interest and a sale goes ahead but the rest of the time we wondered if it is people just going on to get their ten mins of fame. Also last night we too wondered if it helps to promote a sale to viewers.

Still good watching I like seeing other peoples' homes.

P.S. We used to watch Grand Designs and enjoy it. Sometimes spoilt by the drama of running out of money and then suddenly it comes back into the pot and they have gone all out money no expense spared to get the finish they wanted.

[jazzactivist]

I like to see people with modest budgets who want a home to live in and have something about them which is interesting or unusual. I watched one where the couple planned to set up the grounds as a wedding venue, and that was quite interesting as it adds something more to the search.

I am not sure if most of the properties shown are bought by viewers, as there is quite a long gap between recording the programme and airing it. I know that our friends who were on Location, Location had lived in their new flat for about 9 months before the programme was shown. I wonder if anyone who regularly watches property programmes and then goes looking for their own home ever has a sense of Deja Vu and imagine that they have lived in the house before, when really they have just seen it on TV?

[dragonfly]

I enjoy the programme but arn't a lot of them pricey. A lot of them are near or over £1million. I am jealous of a couple with £700k to spend and didn't have to sell their own home first. Still I suppose ordinary houses or people with low budgets wouldn't make a good programme.

[sheddie]

What amazes me is just how do they earn this kind of money? Quite a few of them want offices at home. I know I've worked myself so hard in business and didn't come out of it rich. X

[Crocus]

I think it may be a case of them being quite mortgaged Sheds. Husband and wife or partners both have to work, and I wonder whether the credit crunch didn't literally put them out of those cottages they were willing to pay everything for.

[sheddie]

I wonder how some of these new to the country and perhaps rather cut off who perhaps purchased on a sunny day feel when no street lights or shops and cut off by the snow? X

[souter girl]

Yes- it can all look so lovely but it's not so much fun when you can't get to the nearest services or there's an emergency!

[Pippa]

I can see the sales of 4 x 4 vehicles going up after this winter. Living on a hill without any grit has been difficult to say the least, if you do slide down the hill you end up on the main A road or into a wall and as you say, no street lights and I doubt an emergency vehicle could get down our track.

[sheddie]

I bought a magazine called Period Ideas and it is really inspirational and a good read if anyone is interested. X

[Crocus]

I've got quite a few of those Sheds - it has lovely ideas full of inspiration. (That's if we're talking about the same magazine?)

[jazzactivist]

OH and I have just been talking about whether we should trade in our car for a small 4 x 4, as it has been so difficult for him to get to and from work in the snow and ice and for us to even go down the road to the shops, and we live on a main road! We wouldn't go in for one of those 'road monsters' that no-one except farmers need, but there are small cars with 4 x4 available now.

[sheddie]

We have had some big vans and trucks etc over the years but now have the smallest most economical little gem which I call my blue diamond, it is a Jimney and I love it. X

[Crocus]

I noticed a white Jimney at the seaside last weekend Sheds - MrC actually showed me this cute vehicle. xx

[dragonfly]

I have never heard of a Jimney, do you have a photo Sheddie.

[Pippa]

Does your Jimney stay in 4 x 4 mode all the time Sheddie and has it been OK throughout this bad weather. I am also thinking about a small 4 x 4 but thought I would get an ordinary Land Rover as they are quite heavy vehicles. Any other recommendations for small 4 x 4 vehicles greatly received.

[jazzactivist]

I think that heavier cars are worse on the ice. We bought a Fiat Panda when the new version first came out and it was superb on the ice and snow. It was light and just climbed over it all, whilst other cars were sliding to a halt. However, we now have a later model Fiat Panda and it doesn't seem to be as good in the bad weather. There is a 4x4 version available, and we are thinking of trading in for one of those, but you are right, sheddie, a Jimney would be a good idea too. I have owned different Fiat Pandas, the old boxy ones as well as these new ones, and think that they are great for driving, and cheap to run. I wonder though if once the 4 x 4 came out Fiat made the regular car less able. I would recommend the Fiat Panda 4 x 4, Pippa, and it must also be the cheapest one to buy new. There's quite a lot of space inside for carrying things too.

[sheddie]

I will try to take a pic of Jimney and it has been great on the roads, I will ask OH for more info on it though Pippa. X

[dragonfly]

I watched 'move to the country' on Tuesday and it was in Cumbria and they filmed outside the Bridge House which some of you mentioned a while ago. What an unusual house. The couple were shown 3 lovely properties but the first one, which they fell in love with, was £150k over budget. I think that is cruel showing them something way out of their price bracket. Cumbria looked beautiful.

[sheddie]

Well I am still watching this programme and marvelling at the budgets for two people. How on earth do they do it? It makes you wonder why some people have too much while others so little. X

[dragonfly]

Me too Sheddie. There are a lot of people about with a LOT of money.

[sheddie]

Are you all still watching Move to the Country, I love it looking round the different houses do you?Also so many people seem to be wanting office space at home for their work don't you think, I wonder what they do to earn that kind of money. X

[Clunkshift]

Pay attention ladies, this is technical stuff:confused:

The fuel consumption of a car depends on its efficiency, and the least number of heavy whirly bits uses the least fuel to fling them round and round.

A 4x4 is a vehicle with a transmission designed to switch between 2 or four wheels being driven, on any surface, when the driver wants it. To do this it has up to 3 locking differentials, viscous couplings and probably electric sensors – i.e. lots of heavy whirly bits.

Part time 4WD (four wheel drive) means that under certain circumstances, when the car decides it wants to, the normal two driving wheels get assistance from some of the drive being sent, temporarily, to the other two wheels. Typically the other wheels only get some power when the normal driving wheels are seen as spinning by sensors and the car is below a certain speed. This is because it only has a normal amount of whirly bits and if you went too fast or too far with all wheels driving, they start to fight each other on corners and something would break.
But for Josephine normal, this doesn’t matter because she doesn’t want to drive over ice at more than 30 mph or pull heavy trailers up muddy tracks.

You can buy cars with four wheel drive capability but bear in mind that any car with off-road aspirations will be higher for more ground clearance and use more fuel than an ordinary car.

The Fiat Panda 4x4 is an excellent short journey car – just don’t do long motorway runs in one.

Suzukis are good – but do tend to keep chiropractors in business with rather unforgiving suspension.

Petrol engine RAV’s are thirsty (my dad’s SWB 1995 2-litre is a snip at £800 but drinks like a Welsh rugby player) Swmbo’s Mitsubishi Shogun Pinin has a 2 litre petrol engine with proper 4x4 transmission and also drinks like a fish.

Skoda Octavias, VW Golfs, Passats and Audis with part time 4WD (syncrho, Quattro etc) all work well but economy is compromised.
Subarus are the best – and apart from the new diesels, the thirstiest.

But, and it is a big BUT, the reason that we struggle in winter is because we all use summer tyres. I lost count of abandoned Mercedes cars in the last snow but they work well in other countries – on the right tyres.
My first Jeep Grand Cherokee was fitted with high speed, low noise, summer tyres. It was a joy to drive – until the day when I couldn’t reverse a horse trailer containing just one pony over flat, wet grass. I took an extreme view and bought another set of wheels and fitted them with tyres that had a mud and snow capability and the problem was solved; except for heavy wheels to swap over for holidays etc.

Now, I don’t buy tyres unless they will perform on the surfaces that I need to drive on. But there are compromises, Mud and Snow tyres (stamped M+S on the side) have reduced rain grip and reduced braking performance and they are noisier on the road.

But it could well be cheaper to keep your normal front wheel drive car and have a set of winter tyres put on in December (saving the summer tyres you take off) and swap them back at the end of March.

I am sure that Ivy and Beuch’s respective families can shed some light on this but my Polish friends use summer tyres in summer and winter tyres in winter on a Toyota Auris and a Fiat Punto and they have far more frost and snow than we do.

Swmbo’s Mitsubishi is brilliant in bad weather but we never take it on long runs and her annual mileage is less than 5000 miles and it only manages about 25mpg:eek:

Dads old Toyota Rav is nearly as bad and must only do about 28 mpg – which is what I average in my 3 litre diesel Jeep.:o

Happy motoring


p.s our continental friends have a spare set of plain steel wheels for winter to save corrosion on their nice alloys.
good winter tyres are: Nokian WR G2 and Vredestein WinTrac

[annie fenbug]

Now that's what I call really helpful, Clunk - particularly about the tyres (as I'm not in the market for a 4WD, especially with the increased consumption). Have saved for future reference! My Norwegian cousins fall about every winter because we're so pathetic when we get a bit of snow, because we're not ready for it and most of us (I'm including myself in this, I'm a complete wimp on ice) don't know how to drive on it. Although I do think they'd have been more sympathetic with the snowfall we had in December, it really did create atrocious driving conditions even here in the Fens (where it usually blows straight across but doesn't settle much).

On the subject of car types, I do find my Renault Scenic a bit slithery on ice and when our side road is really bad (I don't think it's on the council's road maintaining map at all!) it's easier on my nerves to borrow my Ma's Laguna, which is heavier and has a lower centre of gravity so feels more stable. I used to commute 22 miles in all weathers in a Fiat Panda (the early tin-box-on-wheels variety) which coped perfectly well - although whether that would have been the case if any hills had been involved, I'm not sure!

[Clunkshift]

Sorry, I'm in windbag mode today (not much work);)

Annie, my forebears are from North Norfolk so I am familiar with your “lazy” winter winds…

This is the teccie bit about tyres.

Summer tyres (normal UK tyres) don’t work properly below about +8 °C (worrying but true!), because the rubber compound is hard for the summer sun and there are fewer “cuts” in the tyre for optimum grip on dry tarmac (think racing slick tyres).

Winter tyres are not as grippy on hot tarmac in summer, but are almost always better in rain and very good for ice and snow. They don’t look as if they will work in ice and snow because they don’t look like tractor tyres and still have narrow grooves and small “cuts” in the blocks of rubber, but this is how they work:
On ice, the little cuts suck up the film of water that summer tyres slide across and the soft, cold-weather rubber sticks to the ice.
On snow, the tyres allow the snow to pack into the grooves and then use the snow itself to stick to the snow on the road. As the tyre rotates, the soft rubber blocks spring open and throw the snow out, ready to grab a new handful of snow next time round.

I only mentioned 2 makes of winter tyres because I know that you can get them in the UK. If you read German (or use babel translators), you can read winter tyre tests by googling “winterreifen”, or going to http://www1.adac.de/Tests/Reifentests/Winterreifen/default.asp

Our Deutsche brethren are very thorough in their tests and any petrol-head OH should understand them.

Some people in Scotland just run winter tyres all year round and forego the boy racer summer antics for safer winter motoring. being Scots, they reckon that slightly reduced tyre life is still cheaper than a 4x4:D

[sheddie]

I would like some of these 'live in the country' buyers that have been shown on TV to be revisited to see how they are doing and if it has lived up to their expectations.Four bathrooms to clean wouldn't suit me for two people? X

[jazzactivist]

Thanks very much for all the techie advice about tyres, clunk. We are going to change to winter tyres in Dec, as you suggest, and see how it goes. I am aiming for the safest driving situation with the lowest fuel consumption and not paying a whole load of cash to multinational car companies either.

I originally chose Fiat on ethical grounds when it became a workers' co-op, although I don't think that is completely the case any more. On the subject of Fiat Pandas, why would you advise that they aren't suitable for long motorway driving, clunk? Do you mean just the 4x4? I have driven them for years from the box-on-wheels that Annie mentions to our current new one and having lived in very hilly rural areas and having to constantly drive long motorway distances in them to work and back I think they are fine - very nippy, comfortable, and cheap to run. Yesterday I drove 400 miles up the motorway and back to visit a friend in very rainy driving conditions and my car seemed to cope better than some others that I saw. My best one was a Fiat Panda 4x4 boxy one, which climbed up the hills around our house like a mountain goat. I used to take hay up the fields for our neigbours' horses when they were away, and it did very well clinging to the stones and acute angles to get to the flat fields on top. If I wanted the 4x4 action it was necessary to first manually engage the wheels using a lever! I would have another one of those, but eventually the cyclinder head gasket goes with Fiat Pandas and you have to make sure not to buy a secondhand one where this has already happened.

Sorry to deviate, sheddie. I agree with you that some of the couples looking for houses seem to have such extraordinary budgets compared to what they say they do for a living and the type of people that they seem to be, that it doesn't make sense. Interestingly they are often the ones who don't actually buy one of the houses. I like to see the areas that they look at, but people with masses of money to spend don't float my boat. The other day, however, I watched one where a middle aged couple were looking for either a house in Hereford or Portugal. They had a more usual £150,000 to spend as they ran a handmade clothing stall at festivals for their living. It was very interesting to see what they could buy - some pleasant little cottages in Hereford, and they ended up with a lovely house right on the beach in a tiny village in Portugal. It must have been a recent one, as a couple of the festivals that they were talking about only began in 2008. I like those types of very ordinary couples looking for a home to live in, not one to show off to their family and friends. Here in Cumbria, when looking for a house to buy you can't turn around in some of the rooms for extra en-suites!

[Crocus]

I would also love a series 'revisiting' Location, Location, Location, and Escape to the County. x

[sheddie]

Who would like to be waking up in the country this morning, miles from anywhere with about 5 acres? X

[Crocus]

Won't that just be marvellous? I won't mind at all waking up to what you described Sheds. The garden must have crocuses all over, lovely Birch trees, ornamental grass...... and silence, just lovely peaceful silence.

[jazzactivist]

What about birds singing and bees gently buzzing, crocus? I love the sounds of nature like trees swishing in the breeze and the little clicks that you hear from the grass. I would like to lie in a hammock under fruit trees with chickens clucking and scratching underneath...

[Crocus]

Oh those sounds are quite fine Jazz, it's peaceful sounds. Our neighbour at the back has a large tree in her back garden and already we can hear the birds coming 'home' earlier as it's getting dark earlier. Bees we have quite a lot of because we have butterfly bushes out in the front and the bees just love it. x

[dragonfly]

Yes please Sheds. I would love to move to the middle of a field with no neighbours or aggravation around. I too love silence with just the sounds of nature.

[souter girl]

Just so long as I was a million miles away from work. Guess what is at the root of my curent stress and unhappiness. Will tell all one day, in the meantime, I'll have to keep buying those lottery tickets.:(

[Crocus]

To move or not to move? X

[jazzactivist]

Ah souter, I already understand your troubles so well... When I first worked at the university I spent many a Saturday dithering over the Lottery tickets, but never actually bought one! I will also tell all one day. Don't forget to do it on the NTN thread, unless you want everyone in the teaching world to know...

[sheddie]

I still can't understand where these people get all this money working from home.....it beats me.! X

[eleanor2]

i have got to add something here about a loo with a view.funnily i said to hubby last week.i have never been on a loo with such a super view.a loo at the bottom end of daughters new house.it has two french windows.which you can open.look out as you wee to a far off view of a beautiful medieval town on a hill.even better it is all lit up at night.

[dragonfly]

Is the loo lit up or the view Eleanor? I can imagine you sitting on the loo with the windows open all lit up for everyone to see.

[sheddie]

Are you still watching? They ask for a garden and get no land or they ask for a bit of land and get 3 acres.X

[dragonfly]

I am still watching sheds. Also sometimes they go way over the price the couple want to pay.

[Pippa]

Or elso the buyers get a reality check as to what their money will actually buy in the country, cause all us yokels just give our homes away, NO.

[jazzactivist]

I always laugh when they say that they want a "rural idyll" and then after looking at traditional cottages with large grounds and lovely views, end up choosing the modern bungalow in town. Have you noticed too that they never go looking for houses in the country in bad weather, which must be a miracle? There is never any squelching mud when they get out of the car, no barking dogs running around farmhouses, and no peculiar home owners who ask them to take off their wet trousers before walking round their home (as happened to OH and I once!).

That loo with a view sounds nice, eleanor, but why would someone want french doors in their toilet - just in case you want to sit on a little terrace between wees? We had a nice view of the hills from the bath in our old house, so took out the frosted windows and put clear ones in. There was a ramblers right of way across our garden and, of course, despite hardly anyone ever walking along it whenever I went in the bath there they would be marching across the hill looking down!

[souter girl]

Out of interest - did you take the trousers off??? :confused: :D

[Gentian]

Did you see it today? I wanted to smack that woman, she really didn't know what she wanted, I'm surprised he stayed with her.
He said he wasn't into gardening and they were offering them 3 acres.

[Crocus]

Oh dear me Jazz, like SG, I would also like to know! (about the trouses, that is...)

I've noticed yes that there's never people about in either the streets, or in their gardens, animals about etc. I think it will make it more 'real' to the viewers. x

[jazzactivist]

We did take our trousers off, as we felt obliged to since we had booked an appointment! They hung them up on the coat hooks and we walked around in our pants, pulling our sweaters down to cover the worst bits. The couple just breezed along in front of us not at all concerned, but did apologise at the end. We didn't buy the house as we thought it was too draughty!!! On our way out we saw another couple stop outside, and had a secret smile about what they were about to encounter...

[souter girl]

That is BRILLIANT!!:D