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?

[iklboo]

DH knows if he guided with with a hand at the small of my back he'd lose it at the elbow 😊

[francienolan]

I always find this programme frustrating because I have never ever seen one where they end up offering on a house! I'd rather watch Location, at least those people are serious buyers and it feels like there is a point to it all.

[IHateUncleJamie]

@Mindatwork Gah 😬 That’s so insensitive, isn’t it!

[RevokeRemainRebuild]

@Dutchoma - I'm not giving up hope!

[BrexitBingoGenerator]

I fucking hate this show. I am at home with Pleurisy at the moment and was too ill to reach for the zapper, so found myself committed.

Can’t stand these wanky people who are shown into a room and bleat ‘it’s nice Marjory. Lovely period features Bernard.’

Ffs.

I also wonder about it they have the first idea what it’s like to actually live in the country. And where do they get all that money?!?? Gives me the rage.

[Cushellekoala]

I love property shows because i am jusy nosey about houses!!me and DH always agree over what we think is the best/nicest house on there. Whenever we have been tempted to move we never agree on any house IRL!! He wants acres of land and in the middle of nowhere. I don't want to be a taxi for my children who can currently walk/train to most places they need (with or without eye-rolling!😉) and we already have a couple of chivkens in a fairly small garden.

[Bunnylady53]

I do enjoy ETTC but more for the stunning countryside. We really do live in a beautiful country. Makes me want to go to The Dales, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Dorset, Somerset........

[bordellosboheme]

I hate it for different reasons. They show them massive places where they find faults... The other half of the country would be in heaven in some of those places.

[Ellenborough]

Its always really wealthy people, not people with 100-200K to spend. the man will be something like a surgeon or a recently retired admiral from the Royal Navy.
Its an absolute joke and doesn't reflect the majority of people in this country.

As opposed to A Place In The Sun where a dustman and a dinner lady pitch up in a popular area of France or Spain wanting five bedrooms, three bathrooms, an in ground pool, a minimum of 2 acres, stables so they can keep donkeys, not too much work to do, a sea view and walking distance into a town with nice restaurants.

They say their budget is 130k and then when, by some miracle, they are shown something ticks all the boxes for 150k, they whine that it's too near a busy road and the kitchen is a bit dated.

[limitedperiodonly]

City living does have its advantages, they should do a ' escape FROM the country' ! for balance purposes.

That is exactly what I think every time I watch it The80sweregreat.

Why would you want to move to the middle of nowhere with no public transport and ambulances that arrive 40 minutes after you are brain dead from oxygen starvation after a heart attack?

But it's okay because you have a big garden where you can indulge your fantasy of keeping goats and llamas and listening and smelling your husband having a shit in a shit-munching macerator loo just on the other side of the bedroom door that will get backed up and plumbers quite rightly don't want to deal with greenpop21.

Living the dream.

[CaptainMyCaptain]

‘Escape to the ghetto’
I'd watch it!

[thetemptationofchocolate]

katseyes7
That's what I use mine for. And sometimes I even do some painting in it :) Should never have put the comfy chair in there...

[JuniorAsparagus]

I love it. I like the houses and the countryside. It's wallpaper TV.
To be fair they occasionally say 'Jeffrey, I understand you do the cooking. Can you see yourself in here cooking, glass of wine in hand' etc etc.
Today they did mention Christmas trees a lot, which is bizarre as most people only have a Christmas tree for about a month or less. I think they run out of ideas for conversation.
They did make a follow up 'I escaped to the country' which featured two couples per programme.

[Boysey45]

Its always the Cotswolds as well and its almost always straight couples.I've only seen 2 episodes which featured gay men. I've not seen one with gay women only 1 with a single woman and a "friend" who came with her to view. God knows how a single woman had £750K to spend on a house in her mid 40s.

[katseyes7]

thetemptationofchocolate Oh dear. l've got a lovely comfy chair to put in mine....

[JuniorAsparagus]

I think they had a female couple recently. They were holding hands.

[limitedperiodonly]

There was a lesbian couple searching in Norfolk this week Boysey45. Though they did conform to the ETTC stereotype of a woman who wanted a big kitchen, herb garden and got all emotional, and her other half who was much more sensible and had a snap-back metal tape measure.

[Thesnobbymiddleclassone]

I hate it as its jusy old couples buying houses that are too big for them.

Why people in their 60s with no children living at him need more than 2 bedrooms I'll never know.

[DerelictWreck]

I get annoyed at Location Location when they make loads of passive aggressive jokes about it not mattering what house the man wants, because she's clearly in charge so it's not really even his decision.

Oh hardy har har, bossy women oppressing men and hurting their masculinity.

[expat101]

I have only watched it a few times but the episode a few years back that annoyed me the most was where the Hubby had to keep bending to fit through doorways and low ceilings in the downstairs lounge. Why take him there in the first place?

[Brownpigeon]

60s is still young! My dad retired.... and then went back to work!
They are out all the time. They sold their home that was my mum's nan's, then my mum and dad's. My mum said if she was going to move, it wouldn't be to somewhere that was smaller / less nice just because they "should be downsizing".

They moved to somewhere bigger. And now I have to plan visits because they always have friends/ my brother and his family/ me and my children staying over!

[Toddlerteaplease]

I am always wound up by the couples who are downsizing but need a 6 bed house with numerous bathrooms and 10 acres .
They bleat about every property being a bit too small when there are only 2 of them.
But they simply must have room to entertain and for family to stay which requires them to live in a small mansion.
I just wonder where on earth they find all these people .

This with bells on!

[GCAcademic]

Why people in their 60s with no children living at him need more than 2 bedrooms I'll never know.

My parents “escaped” to the Cotswolds, to a four-bed house. They actually upsized, and are in a street of retired people who are all households of one or two people in four and five bedroom homes, none of them with visiting grandchildren even, and most of them also having upsized. Then they all kicked up a huge stink when a housing development was being planned next to their street, which would include “affordable” (i.e. £400k) houses. Apparently the planned houses looked cheap and pokey and would attract the wrong kind of people (i.e. working families, God forbid). The Cotswolds are boring and full of insufferable snobs.

[gokartdillydilly]

It's all a con! I know a couple who applied to move to Dorset, but by the time the producers found them enough suitable properties and arranged all the viewings, my friends had already sold their London home and bought their dream home in the countryside. Show still got filmed though, as if they were still looking , although they didn't 'view' their actual house.

Some other friends did it, and they viewed the house they'd already bought; the 'sold' and 'for sale' signs and all the pot plants out front were being chopped and changed while they were filming to make it look like it was still for sale! And then it was 'Oh look! We found them their dream home, look at them with their front door keys (can't film indoors though or the viewers will see the furniture is exactly the same)'

[Livingoncake]

“We’re going to need at least four bedrooms, for family to come and stay.”
Really? Honestly, how often are they going to stay? Christmas? A week in the summer maybe? They always seem to have this rose-tinted view of sharing their country pile with the extended family, but I’m sure not all of their loved ones will have the money or time to visit all that often. People on this show are unrealistic about a lot of things, but this really grates on me.

Also:
“We want to raise chickens. And goats. And set up an orchard. And a veggie patch. And get a few more dogs. And have a holiday let.”
So... you basically want to retire, move to your relaxing country property, and start doing about 10 times the work you do in your current life?