Have you ever lived on the seafront?

[PuttingOnTheKitsch]

I've lived about 5/10 minutes walk from the sea when I was a child, but I've never actually lived on the seafront and dream of being able to do so.

If you've lived on the seafront, as in the beach is right outside your front door, what is it like?

No...but this is my absolute dream. I'd love to be able to see the sea every day from my house... watching with interest

I grew up on the sea front in the north east of Scotland.
In most ways it was lovely- we had a beautiful view, I used to watch oil tankers sail past in the night. They were all lit up and I thought they looked beautiful and cosy. My brother and I used to play on the beach daily. There is nowhere cosier on a dark and stormy night. Sea noise is still my favourite sound, I could listen to the surf for hours.
BUT, be prepared to like big hairy beach spiders. And rats. And seagull noise. And little birds sometimes flying into the patio doors at breakneck speed because they try to fly into the reflection.

Wouldn’t change it though- it was magical 🥰

Fabulous - but you have to wash the windows ALL the time because of the salt and spray.

... beach spiders?? 😱

Yes, I’m so sorry. It was a stony beach to be fair but they really were big hairy buggers.

Also horrified at the idea of "beach spiders!"

I do and I love it! The sea is different every day and I can sit and look out at it whatever the weather. It’s beautiful on fine days when the sea is flat calm, but it’s even better on stormy days (or nights) when the waves are crashing high, the spray comes right over the sea wall. I love watching storms coming in over the sea, and when there’s lightning too it’s spectacular.

However….it comes at a price. I’ve had to replace tiles on my roof every winter and last year had to replace the entire roof due to storm damage (it does have a 15-year guarantee now though, which I’m hoping will see my time here out), paintwork needs redoing every couple of years and my car (parked at the back of my house) is suffering with the salt in the air.

All in all, though, the drawbacks are vastly outweighed by the advantages. I absolutely love living here.

The first property we lived in before buying the current house we’re in now was a 2 bed flat on Ilfracombe Harbour in North Devon.

The views were amazing although it did become a tourist trap in the summer. Never ever got bored of the view and it was just because our personal circumstances changed that we ended up selling up!
Made a good profit from selling it though! Brought it for £16,500 in 1985 and sold it for £30k in 1991!
It recently sold in 2022 for £250k - mental!!!

Not near a beach but I live on the coast and fuck me it is windy here. Absolutely no point in doing your hair each day because it just gets destroyed as soon as you set foot outside.

Not now but I have in the past.

I wish I had appreciated it a bit more at the time. I admit I did take it quite for granted.

Damp is a bit of a problem, and my car rusted terribly. We had to put rice in the salt stop it clumping up. And of course the sea spray on the windows, luckily we had a sliding window as quite often you couldn't see out of it. And there was never no wind.

High season was a bit of a problem with crowds and traffic etc.

But, to look out at that view every morning just made your day start out so much better. I miss it a lot.

We lived up the hill behind the castle. It was easier to drive to work inland but I always went the seafront way. Had to move for my job but it was great.

No, I'd worry about flooding if right on the sea front. Especially with global warming. There are some coastal villages near me that are predicted to be underwater in less than 30 to 50 years too.

I lived a block away from the seafront in Southsea and wish I'd never left.
Retirement dreams now.

Mind you we had Daddy long leg day when huge piles of them used to drift along. That was a nightmare far exceedingly flying ant day.

Yes I lived like that on Jersey. The best thing was the ever changing vista with the tides. And even nice when the storms were wild.
Downside only when a storm coincided with high tide - which was quite often - which led to dramatic spray over pavement and against the window and sadly regular flooding of the basement.

I’d like all that, except for the flooding

Yes, in Carpenter Hall, Aberystwyth university. I remember it well although it was years ago now. It was one of the many things that drew me there.

Bloody hell, something just moved on an advert to the right of my screen and I've got the screaming abdabs. I was really enjoying your post @BriceNobeslovesMurielHeslop , now it's getting dark and it's that time of year ... 😨

I hated it 🤣. But this was in the Netherlands, with a grey, dull beach and grey, flat sea. Really windy and cold most of the time and the town itself was completely dead and depressing for all but around two months in the summer when it became horrendously crowded and touristy.

I'm sure my experience isn't representative of most people's! Just be conscious that all seafronts are not made equal haha.

Yes, I just was over a road and a lovely communal garden. i could hear the tide at night and the pebbles when it was stormy from my bed. Has my window open in all weathers (and repainted regularly! God I loved it. I'm stuck somewhere landlocked and dream of being by the sea.

I live a stone's throw away. I can cope with the seagulls. And the fog horn. Not the selfish noisey selfish fuckers who turned the gentle art of swimming into a shouting /yelling and shrieking fest. 7 days a week starting at 6 am. Then the next group is at 7. Then one at 8. We are currently packing up to move. Can't bloody wait. Nature ruined by the entitled

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Me too! Have always lived close to the sea, well within 15 miles. X

I grew up 2 streets away from the beach with a tunnel under our house that originally led down to the harbour. (Filled in long before our time)
I now live with the cliff at the end of the road, so only a little way from the beach, but straight down!
I could see France today. I love it, but it can be very windy here, lost a couple of chimney cowls over the years.
I would hate to live anywhere else, even on the greyest of days.

I have and yes it is wonderful having the beach and ever-changing sea and sky right there. I never got tired of the view.

But things outside go rusty very fast, lots of garden plants don't enjoy it, seagulls can be a menace and you might end up - like we did after a storm - flooded through, and with half the shingle beach thrown into your home!

Beach spiders I can cope with. Rats - not so much

It’s amazing. A brilliant place for the DC to grow up and I never ever get bored of the view - been here years and it looks different every day.

The downsides are that I am forever vacuuming up sand that the DC trail in, and I frequently bump into people I know having a beach day and then feel obliged to let them in to use the toilet as there are no public ones near. Parking can be a pain on sunny days, and seagulls love nothing more than shitting on the car or my washing. We get battered by the wind and have lost roof tiles, and it’s also prone to damp. I absolutely love looking out during a storm though, and feel much more at peace here than I have anywhere else. It was a pretty life changing move and we only moved from a few minutes away.

Never seen a beach spider happily (ours is sandy).