To think some people on property shows are unrealistic?

[hondagirl500]

I was watching escape to the country the other day...a youngish couple, budget of about £600K, looking for a 'family house'. The one I saw them being shown was 4 bedrooms, garage, big garden, big kitchen diner. But all the way through they kept saying things like 'not big enough for a family', 'box room is too small' and so on.
I was brought up in a 3 bed semi, 5 of us, my brothers shared a room that is literally 10x10 feet, I was in the box room which only had room for my bed, and a tiny drawer unit. My parents were brought up in 2up/2 downs, when they had families of 9!
These people are nuts!

I'm always amazed at the people who want some land because they want to keep a few horses, alpacas or another animal they have no experience with. You need a lot more than a field at the end of the garden to keep a few horses properly and the capacity for neglect and death is huge when combined with no knowledge and whimsical ideas.

Wanted down under is my favourite too. 'The Smith's are looking to swap their 2 bed terraced house in a random low cost UK town for a 4 bed beach front house with a pool in Sydney'.

They usually have interesting jobs that surely can no way fund their £600k budget. I'm sure the last one I saw they were dog sitters or something and they had around that budget!

"We NEED 5 bedrooms, 2 living rooms and kitchen diner for entertainment. All bedrooms must be master size. Large garden, but not too large. Garage for 3 cars. Possibility to extend. In a city, but with a countryside feel. Max 45 min commute from The City. We have 280k budget and have been looking for 3 years. Just don't know why we can't find anything!"

Those shows depress me as it makes me feel jealous that they have a choice.
But what really riles me, is when they say they need an extra bedroom for 'guests', or a big kitchen for 'parties'.
And to think, people in the UK, don't even have a home, let alone a kitchen.

British houses are actually tiny though. I really don’t think most 3 bed semis are big enough for a family of four. Even with only one child it would be a squeeze. Different people are used to different thing.

I saw one a while ago which I think was Escape to the Country (I don't often see them so get mixed up).

They were taking their entirely unrealistic requirements to N Pembrokeshire/S Carms. Didn't like any of the houses in that area. Then for the wildcard the presenter took them to a house much further north into Carmarthenshire, which was lovely, ticked all their boxes and they put an offer in.

BUT you don't just live in a house, you live in an area - the place where they eventually went for was in a totally different type of community, which presumably they weren't familiar with, having been looking further south.

It's a lovely area but very, very welsh-speaking. I just don't think they knew what they were doing at all as it was all focused on the right house.

@Tensixtysix I know, how dare they want somewhere to live when other people don’t have somewhere?

I recall a woman on the programme where one of the couple chooses the house and the other has to agree to get the money, this woman carried a pan around with her, the kitchen had to match her pan!

one thing that gets my goat is when they say they want a genuine authentic cottage then complain of low ceilings! um yes its a genuine olde worlde cottage built when folk were smaller i guess! you dont like it then you dont like cottages!

I've bought 3 houses in my life. In every case we have picked up a complete bargain because we were prepared to decorate. One place needed completely doing from top to botton, so we bought 10 large pots of white paint and spent three weeks painting. There are so many people who cannot see past decor, but it's great for those of us that can see what a house can become...

Place in the sun oh ive only got 45k€ why can't i have a villa ahh it looks like a holiday apartment . I love it

I love the ones who want to live "in the middle of nowhere", for there to be no neighbours, not overlooked, no noise from traffic or people going past.... but in walking distance of a village with a pub and shops!

Also the men onPITS want rooms for grandkids coming out in the holidays the women s faces have a bugger that look !

Ceramics teacher Lynn and professional tightrope walker Stephen are looking to escape to the coast from the bustle of the city.

With a flexible budget of £900k, they are looking for 6 bedrooms to start a B&B, open plan modern living with character, rural but with the amenities of a town, they are willing to consider work but actually no more than changing the curtains, walking distance of the beach, sea views, their own mooring, 5 outbuildings for ceramics/tightrope shenanigans, 5 acres of land for shepherd's huts, vegetables and ostriches, and good links for commuting back to London when they are bored/realise they have no friends in their rural/seaside idyll.

What Lynn and Stephen aren't telling you is they're related to the Rothschilds.

There seems to be a need for a statement house. The idea of quiet, tasteful and comfortable living is over. It's all so brash.

Did the houses that you and your parents were brought up in cost £600k? If I was spending that kind of money on a house, I'd be picky about it meeting all my requirements too

It would get you a very average two-bed flat around here. The kind of house I was brought up in (three-bed semi) is completely out of my reach, and neither of us are low earners.

Quite a touch of the green eyed monster on this thread isn’t there

If I’m spending £1m on a house, I’d bloody well have a specific list of requirements. There is no way I’d just buy the first house that came along just because it’s bigger than a 2-up-2-down

That said, I really enjoy grand designs when they say “Peter and Jenny are 25 and met at university’s Peter is a sand sculpter and Jenny sells cupcakes at a weekend fair, between them they have £1.2m budget with a further £.3m for contingencies”

No green-eyes from me! I do like the houses where people have looked at how the house was originally designed and tried to do something sympathetic and interesting with that. Not just making it B I G.

We were in the show house doing some measurements while ours was being built and there was a young couple, aged about 25 or so in there looking around.

2000 sq ft house. 3 bed, 3 bath, 2 living rooms, full basement. She declared it 'a bit cramped'.

DH and I were agog.

Peter and Jenny Grand designs give me the rage when peter and jenny have debt up to their eyeballs because their drainage wasn't right and they needed another loan they sit round their handcrafted kitchen table saying it was all worth it and laugh manically about living in the caravan for 5 years !

@shirleyphallus! That is exactly how they are! They have always inherited a chunk or cash or chunk of land!

The other thing I’ll add is that bedrooms in the UK are tiny. In a decent sized 4 bedroom house, it will very often be 3 ok sized doubles and a tiny box room. That’s what I’d take to mean by being cramped.

Houses in America certainly seem more impressive on the bedroom size scale!

Yes, and Jenny always gets pregnant, and the expensive eco windows they’ve ordered from Germany always get precariously winched in to position, and they always go over budget cos they have a problem with the foundations that luckily, they can borrow from a generous family member.

Different people have different expectations. What is a big house to some people is just average to others.

In past years families often lived in smaller places, children sharing little bedrooms etc, but that doesn't mean subsequent generations shouldn't aspire to something bigger if they can afford it. These programmes reflect all types of buyers.

I've never seen 'Escape to the Country' but have often watched 'Location x 3' (which I like), in which there are young couples and single people looking for a one bed flat and others wanting a 4 bed detached, all at different stages of life. I find it quite interesting even though I'm not thinking of moving house just at the moment.

My son has a three bed detached house and it is almost as tiny as a dog kennel, I kid you not :-). On one side there is an access road and he drives round the back to park his car in the back yard - of which the car takes up most of the space. On the other side there is a gap with the width of a plank between his and the next house (there is a plank-like wood thing at the front of the gap to stop anyone squeezing through I suppose, or throwing litter). It's a really quaint and sweet house but would be absolutely no use for a family. Yet I can imagine in years past there would have been people bringing up children there.