To be a bit fuming at Escape To The Country

[jamoncrumpets]

Yes, yes, I know I am watching tv in the day and should be out working or volunteering or something, but both kids are ill so we're all having a down day today.

Anyway, I'm fuming because the couple (male, female) are viewing houses and every single time they walk into a kitchen the presenter says 'Well, will this do for you Sharon?' and then when they get to the outside space, garage etc, he turns to the man and says 'What do you think then, Nigel?'

The woman has already said that she isn't much of a cook. He's not letting her off the hook, he is absolutely DESPERATE to sell her a big old kitchen so she fit more neatly into her gender role.

I've never seen this show before, is it always like this? AIBU to want to take the presenter to a female boxing club and have him pummelled for a few bouts?

[floribunda18]

YABU to be "fuming" about it, I would find it amusing.

I watch the programme for the beautiful houses, but also sometimes the unreasonable demands of couple or the "false challenge" element.

Ben and Lucy live in London and want to move to Wiltshire. Their budget is £950,000...

Oh, how ever will they manage, the poor dears?

[Lllot5]

I’d like to know where they all get the money from. Selling up in London I guess. Downsizing to six bedrooms and a paddock.

[Disfordarkchocolate]

I always laugh at the ones where they want to run a clamping business or have a smallholding as part of their retirement. Probably more work than they already do and you'll be very tied to the place.

[thetemptationofchocolate]

I have a woman cave. It's lovely, I can get away from it all and hunker down in my shed :)

[The80sweregreat]

The budgets are always huge - the worst shows are the abroad ones though. i have had some experience of living abroad and thats not all rosy either - everyone thinks life will be wonderful/ different, because its not the UK. Plus they want a big place/ pool/ man cave for around 100,000 as well. not happening these days!

[RevokeRemainRebuild]

As they exit each room, the man indicates for the wife to go first. Then puts his hand on the small of her back to guide her. Every time,
I tell you!

[katseyes7]

Llot5 l like this programme (sometimes) but it sometimes it astounds me where these people get the money from. l watched on the other day, and the house hunters were a young newlywed couple, first time buyers (!) who had "£1.2m" to spend.
We bought our first house in the late 1980s. Admittedly it was in the North East, but it was a very nice Victorian town house. We paid £23500 for it. And that was a stretch!

[IHateUncleJamie]

Escape to the Country is basically posh people showing off how wealthy they are. If they were actually serious about relocating and buying an actual house, they’d go on Location Location Location.

There’s a reason why the presenter never updates the viewers at the end. Annoys me intensely. Never mind the “Oh, that’s a smaller kitchen than I hoped for” while standing in a kitchen diner larger than my whole house.

[Magicpaintbrush]

I get a bit puckered up when there is a really young couple with a huge budget - I always wonder how they can afford it and what they do for a living.

I also find it irritating when a couple are picking flaws in a beautiful house I could never dream of affording because it makes me think they just don't get how fortunate they actually are.

Yes - I am jealous

[The80sweregreat]

I guess a few are ringers on these shows, or had big inheritance from Gran or Grandad/ trust funds etc etc.
There is money floating around - just not near me.,

[HolyForkingShirt]

I always get pissed off when magazines go on about "mum's cooking" and "mum's Sunday roast" - my mum has never done a Sunday roast as my dad does the cooking in our family and always has done!

Stereotypes alive and well I see

[iklboo]

I like the 'Oh, I don't like the wallpaper'. Well fecking decorate then.

Or 'oh that table isn't our style'. They're not leaving it you tools!

[katseyes7]

lt's funny how you can tell almost straight away whether you're going to like the people or not. Sometimes they're lovely, sometimes they're insufferable. l watched one the other day, it was a middle aged couple who had been doing B & B and they wanted to move to North Yorkshire. They had a Downs Syndrome son and they wanted something with a business in a village with a good community so there'd be things for him to get involved with. They were absolutely lovely people. So appreciative and grateful of everything they were shown. They fell in love with a lovely tearoom in a beautiful village, where their son could work in the tearoom with them. l was quite disappointed at the end not to find out whether or not they were successful.

[katseyes7]

l must admit to thinking that some of these people go on this programme either to a) get on tv, b) boast how much money they (allegedly) have, c) have a few days jolly in the country at someone else's expense. l'd love to know exactly how many of them actually buy something they've been shown on the programme.

[Motoko]

Chickens are lovely! We had a large flock after starting off with just 3. They're great fun, and just like cats and dogs, have different personalities.
Unfortunately, I became ill, to ill to look after them, and DH's health also went downhill, so as they died off (and we had a couple of predator attacks) we didn't replace them. Now we're just down to one old girl, and a couple of ducks. I really miss them.

My mum had neighbours who went on ETTC. They didn't buy any of the houses, but according to Mum, they enjoyed the experience, and did find it helpful. They ended up finding a place in a different area to the one they were looking in on the show.

But although it's nice, seeing all these beautiful houses, the tropes are annoying, they don't know the meaning of the word "downsizing", and they're all so fucking fussy.

[katseyes7]

thetemptationofchocolate l have a she-shed. lt's a lovely summerhouse. Or it will be once l get round to finishing painting it and tarting it up a bit.
lt's going to be my art studio. l'm in a rented house and we have cream carpets. l daren't paint in here.

[53rdWay]

I would like to know how many of them move out again in a few years once they've realised that moving to the country isn't actually like stepping into the pages of the Darling Buds of May.

[nometal]

The woman has already said that she isn't much of a cook. He's not letting her off the hook, he is absolutely DESPERATE to sell her a big old kitchen so she fit more neatly into her gender role.

I want a woman cave. It's the same as a man cave but everything is covered in glitter.

Ha ha! My wife has a woman cave. A cellar. She uses it as an extension of the kitchen. No glitter though, just whitewashed stone walls and pots, pans, preserves, all sorts of small appliances she uses once in a blue moon etc.

She absolutely loves it. It's like a giant pantry. Keeps her fit too, running up and down the steps all day.

[MindatWork]

@IHateUncleJamie LLL is just as bad, with Kitty frigging Allsop haranguing every single couple about having kids. I once saw an episode where a single woman was buying a flat in London (on her own no less) and KA tried to convince her to get a 2 bed as 'you never know what little additions you might have in the future' 😒.

Needless to say, the two male friends who bought a flat together in the same episode weren't given the same treatment!

[MindatWork]

BAH that should say Kirsty Allsop (fat fingers)

[BettyBooJustDoinTheDoo]

Yes Revoke the hand in the small of the woman’s back guiding (pushing) her from room to room like she is a gormless puppet really irritates me, I always feel the man is doing it for the camera to show to the world (his neighbors) what a thoughtful man he is, so fake.

[stofi]

Coast or Country is being reshown at 8.55am channel 14 Freeview. We watched one yesterday and the couple had 90k. It's much more entertaining and down to earth.

[The80sweregreat]

Kirsty and Phil, more irritating than Holly and Phi!

[tillytrotter1]

You're all easily outraged!! I doubt that either party was 'furious' at their partner, for many people that's how they choose to live their lives. Is the suggestion that everyone has to toe the MN party line? How democratic!

[800msprint]

I'd totally get the rage too. Not quite on the same lines but similar, when we were looking at houses to buy the estate agent would generally turn to DH and say 'so do you work up in London then?'
Not a jot to me. No I'm just little old wifey in the Home Counties. No way could I be having my own career as well surely!