Escape to the Country annoyances.

[DontEscapeToTheCountry]

Why is there a new part where they show them standing on their doorstep chatting like a couple of vagrants?

Why when they show an elderly couple a kitchen or living room that you could host a barn dance in, do they say that it's much too small? What are these people doing in their kitchens that requires so much space?

And why, when they say that they want a 3 bedroom home with no stairs and a small garden, do they show them Chatsworth House?

Oh yes, I've found my people

It's the hand holding for me, I just find it all so bloody lovey dovey.

I only really watch it for Alistair and his cardigans though... 😍😂

I know a couple like this, he’s a trust fund kid. The DW is hardly from a poor background herself however.

When asked to guess the price, 9 out of ten times, they always guess far too high. So predicable.

Yes Alistair 😍 bless.

I know, I often think of how my husband and I would look, sloping along, hands in pockets, not a hand hold in sight.

Doubt they would allow it.

I don't get this obsession with living in the country, especially in later life. Given the choice, I'd much rather live in a city or large town with rail and bus links and amenities on my doorstep than in the middle of a muddy field with fart all in the way of shops etc

If they like it, they guess too high. If they don’t then too low.

Yesterday's programme at least had a reasonable budget, even if the buyer hadn’t considered that a tiny cottage would have steep stairs.

Add to the bingo: a garage for the husband’s cars (plural) and a rude-on lawn-mower, and a kitchen for the wife. A “local” who has more fingers than the number of years they’ve lived there (it's the countryside, you need to have attended the village primary school to be local) and the proclaimed love for an open fire or wood-burner.

Plus the horror that there be cows (which are surprisingly big, noisy and smelly close up). Or tractors (ditto)

Frankly, whenever I watch those sorts of shows I'm baffled as to where they film them. I'm in rural East Anglia, and most of the countryside near me is now covered in ghastly new housing estates. They've even hacked down part of my local woods to build blocks of flats. If I was to film a show like that round here, it would be nothing but traffic jams and rabbit hutch houses jammed on top of one another. Sometimes, I want to escape to London for some peace and quiet!

Also the people who don't want anyone nearby even though the next house is about half a street away

Not good, I think it makes you quite vulnerable if you getting on

Does anyone else remember when the couple used to view the houses on the internet first and then they’d select two/three to go and view in person? And then the the last house, the wild card, would be one that they hadn’t looked at on the internet but the programme selected it?

It really annoys me that even though they changed the original format above, they still call one of the houses the “wild card”. When actually, it’s just another random house like all the others they’ve looked at.

My cleaner drives to my house…..it’s not that unusual for cleaners to have a car.

oh its too grand for us-after asking for a massive mansion with 6 bedrooms

Friends of my parents were on it, not as the couple but as someone else who lived in the area.

They have retired and ‘downsized’ to a 5 bedroom house with outbuildings and about 4 acres.

• the long stilted questions about frog whispering
• "trying out" the local craft of plaiting leaves
• local estate agents trying desperately not to look and sound like local estate agents
• the "entertaining space" plus the five acres
• "quiet location" so take them to look at a house on the main road
• "space for glamping" from couples who have plainly never run any business let alone hospitality
• too much padding in general

When I see ETTC its for property porn. A good old snoop around someone else's house and garden with a price tag on it without half an hour of padding to extend the programme.

Been watching fantasy homes by the sea.

House hunters hate bungalows.
What does jenny show them?

A bungalow.

500k limit

Shows couple a house for 650k, with a crap garden

I mean, come on

Anything where a normal 2 or 3 bed detached is described as ‘too small’ for 2 adults and a kid. JUST DECLUTTER YOU IDIOTS!

Why did they take part? I’m assuming you’re not paid for it, just sounds like a massive waste of time

Exactly this ^^

I've seen the opposite often. They get shown a remote house, literally in the Countryside which is what they asked for, and then complain that there aren't any facilities nearby 🤦‍♀️

I agree with all of these.

Another that annoys me is shows like A New Life In The Sun where they complain about how exhausted and stressed they were working long hours in the UK. So what do they do? Open a bar/cafe in Spain despite never having owned their own business or worked in a bar before. They have absolutely no budget should anything go wrong and they can't afford to hire staff so their only help is their best friend who visits Spain every year for 2 weeks and was clearly dreaming of spending the fortnight drinking a cocktail by the pool and not pulling pints at midnight. There's a powercut 5 times a day, their only fridge breaks down within a week, they've never cooked for more than 4 people and don't know how to put a menu together . In 6 months they've somehow made £10 profit so they go and open another branch.

You're reminding me of one of the Chalet school books where I think it's Marie writes to Joey something like: "We only want a small house, I think we can manage with only about 6 bedrooms..."

It's horses for courses. Not everyone wants city/town. Some of us want space, quiet, beautiful views etc. I don't need amenities on my doorstep and I hate shopping.

I answered up thread!