To not understand suburban/domestic bliss

[saltnpepa]

I am beginning to wonder if I am the only person that doesn't aspire to the suburban/domestic dream of a detached modern house with a double garage, manicured lawn and 2 weeks a year in Tenerife. It seems adverts on TV and pretty much everywhere sell this dream, this image of modern family life, but it leaves me cold at best and fills me with dread at worst. Surely there's more to life than that?

Farage and Bull's edgy grey toned Hippo Turd

flashy decking can be smashing

I'm loving this thread!

Okay, so this is simply about where it's better to live: City or countryside?
(conveniently forgetting 'large towns, of course, which mostly have excellent transport/theatre/plus garden centres!!)

In that case, I genuinely find people who live in cities are as 'mainstream' as people elsewhere. But some of them think they aren't. Some of them think the fact they have a city postcode makes them very superior. I don't know why that is.

You could go to the local Gastropub of a weekend, have a gourmet burger served on a slate and a pint of real ale, followed by the artisan cinema which serves tea and cake.

While slapping beardy DH on the back: We are so fucking cutting edge. Coz cutting edge ain't about who you are, or what you do, it's about your address. And excellent transport links.

NB. DH has a beard. Im not anti-beard per se.

You want that artisanal rough hewn local stone, an edible corner and a beard garden. All set off by contrasting seats and pots (vintage, natch) in Farage and Bull's edgy grey toned Hippo Turd. See that's just another stereotype, why does it have to be one or the other? I couldn't give an arse about the colour of yours or my paint.

But you are the one dealing in stereotypes. From the manicured lawn to the obsession with decking, your posts are crammed full of them!!

No, Brillo the fucking burger has to be on a fucking plank, or it's just common.

OP, i really dont get your comp,aint. If that isn't how you want to spend your money, then don't. Plenty of people don't, won't, or can't live that life even if they do have the income. But sitting around being bothered that others aspire to it is lame in the extreme.

Weeps that Farage and Bull and beard gardens are just another stereotype...

A yard does sound dull- I know that is the American term, I always think of yard as a place where bins are kept, empty beer crates and overflowing stinking drains.

Round my neck of the woods, yard is a slang word for house.

"Hey, what's up hobNong?"
"Not much, just cotching at my yard."

(I don't really talk like that.)

I thought food was now served in flat caps down in (whispers) that London

I do remember aged 15 announcing to my parents that I was not going to work 9/5 with a two week holiday in Spain as my only pleasure.

Now I am gagging for our yearly holiday in Majorca which we can't afford thus year sob

It's mainstream for a reason. A lot of people like it. No problem if you don't though.

All sounds great to me.

As long as there's pampas grass in the front garden.

I'd like someone to manicure my lawn.

I wouldn't let just anybody manicure my lawn, I'd need to get to know them first.

I think none of what OP described is worth a dime if there's no white picket fence.
there must be a white picket fence.

Desperate Housewives wouldn't have been so successful without the white picket fences panned over, zoomed in or out of at least once every bloody episode

You see in my close picket fences would ruin the communally landscaped frontage.

We got told off for not manicuring our bit of the frontal landscape enough.

They are also not happy because on bin days our bins stand out front all day as we are both out at work. First couple of weeks an unknown neighbour put them away for us. Now we are just frowned upon for lowering the tone.

Let's hope you never come home to find Sebastian passed out on your doorstep........

But I suppose it might take their minds off your bins.

I don't know what I aspired to when I was young, because I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist. I wanted to live within walking distance of the beach, in an isolated, not on an A road, stone built yet fabulously modern house. I wanted to be able to walk to the local shop, which would sell everything I could desire - no supplementing from Tesco for me. I wanted it to be in the heart of a bustling city (you see why it doesn't exist?) so I could get to the Theatre without thinking about the parking and eat in restaurants every night or sip wine in my bijou courtyard garden (I don't like wine).

In reality I did what most people do and compromised. We could afford a small city pad near the theatre and restaurants than I thought I'd be spending my evenings at, or we could afford a smallish rural property, but by living in the soulless 'burbs we can afford a detached 5 bed house. All the dcs have their own decent sized rooms, I have a study, I can park on my drive rather than 2 streets away. There is a park a stones throw away, loads of kids play with, a couple of shops an a bus stop so I don't have to play chauffeur to kids wanting to get into town, There are 2 leisure centres within 10 minutes, major roads close by and only a mile from the train station.

It's not 'the dream' but it's easy. The house is warm and low maintenance, It's not a 'lifestyle' but it enables me to have a lifestyle. It's nice and I don't care that it's some sort of identikit box (somehow more identikit that the rows of victorian terraces or blocks of flats in town - I'll never understand how that's a thing)

My garden is a shit heap and I don't like holidays - package ones or ones more socially acceptable 'not holidaying but 'travelling' ones.

Has anybody mentioned bleachable carpets yet? They're massive round here.
I remain puzzled about their desirability. If you insist on a sterile home, surely hard floors are the best option? I've yet to visit a house that smells like a swimming pool, but imagine they would if people actually bleached their bleachable carpets

I think they are for bleaching out stains rather than bleaching for sterility I don't have carpets and am a slattern so may be wrong

Thanks! So the carpets resist bleach but absorb stains? I wonder what genius invented that

On the subject of washable flooring and manicured lawns - I do know somebody who astroturfed his garden. I think it's brilliant! It's never soggy, weedy or overgrown Probably wouldn't go down all that well in suburbia. Or then again, perhaps it would.

Does anyone actually "aspire" to a suburban life?

Although I live in a the leafy suburbs, it was never something I aspired to.
I didn't spend the first half of my life wishing I could live the suburban dream- and I don't know of anyone else who lives this life aspired to it either.

It's more that it provides functional living. We have space, a quiet neighbourhood, a good garden to relax in, a garage to store junk, near good schools, good transport links a safe place for kids to ride bikes, play football, clean air low housing costs compared to city living.

I live in a quiet area, a small quiet estate, surrounded by ancient woodland, overlooked by an 11th Century Abbey. The local shops are a 5 miute bus ride or drive away, and I can be in the heart of the Capital 14 minutes by train ( station a 2 minute walk away)
Add to that my 5 bedroomed home, a huge living space, dining room, conservatory, garden, - and my home cost me £210,000.

I don't see what is not to like- I love living here.