To want a house with walks 'from the door'?

[VanityWitch]

Not through busy roads?

DH thinks this is a wild expectation. I think it's common in lots of areas.

We are considering moving further out from London. We are in the Home Counties having moved out once already. I want proper countryside. He thinks this is some crazy and impossible dream , city boy !

Budget is £400k-ish to be comfortable. Up to £500k if we were feeling a bit more daring. Anywhere in the south half of England really.

AIBU?

I live on the edge of a Midlands town. 25 mins walk to town centre with restaurants etc and also 15mins walk in three directions to different countryside walks. One is a canal, which appears very rural quickly, but is also paved / hard footing for about 8 miles, so great for not getting too muddy in winter.

When looking for houses I always use Bong Maps on the computer (not mobile site) as they have OS maps so you can see how many footpaths there are in the area. The potential walks are as important as the house!

Bing even!

Haffiana, I think you live in my dream house location!

I have many walks from the door: Suffolk village (unfashionable, houses lived in by villagers, not holiday owners). I am ashamed to admit that I had forgotten how lucky we are until March this year.

If there is one positive to come out of this, it is watching DS and his mates learn to go out walking together. Usually taking a can of coke and a packet of crisps, they’ve walked miles together. They’ve explored the former USAF airfield that they’ve lived beside all their lives and never really looked at, lazed under trees, watched dragonflies and newts and found routes that none of us knew existed.

Where in London do you live? Sounds lovely, I am essex/london borders, which I like but not exactly beautiful..not the part I am anyway!

Near me obviously. SW London. Wetlands = Barnes, the commons = Barnes, Putney and Wimbledon, park = Richmond Park.

YANBU. Totally doable from my DPs house in Dorset.

It’s what I’d like ideally, too.

@QueenofLouisiana same for my ds. In the summer him and his mates went on epic bike rides - they are 14 - like I used when I was a kid but that I dont think he'd have done if they hadn't been locked down.

We are a 15 min walk or 2 min drive to South Downs National Park in one direction and a 10 walk to the sea in the other. Can do other local walks on lovely quiet private lanes from my door! So lucky.

We are in East Preston, West Sussex. Because of the sea on one side and thebNational Park on the other, there cannot really be any further development to spoil the semiRural vibe.

Chichester 20 mins, Worthing 10 mins, for good shopping, Brighton 25 mins for more bright lights! Arundel 15 mins for lovely historic town. Amazing views and countryside all round.

Friendly place where people still say Good morning when you meet them walking!

We live on the edge of a small market town in Norfolk. Turn right out of the door and in 5 mins you're in town for pubs, restaurants, theatre etc (Tiers permitting) turn left and you're straight into fields.

It's a good point that if you go too remote it's easy to end up on a busy road with no pavement and only a few field paths as walking options.

Thanks for all of these! I am going through the various suggestions to see if it can work.

I tech live in London and have horse riding and acres of fields on my door step.

YANBU we’re in a Hampshire town and our house faces woodland :)

@LobsterRavioli

We had this, a chocolate box cottage, spring lambs, and alpacas everywhere.

Now moved to suburbia because I felt isolated after DS.

I wonder if there is a happy medium?

Was there not a cosy village pub where a taciturn but gorgeous man with a heart of gold was waiting to fall in love with you? Because there always is in my novels about chocolate box cottages

Definitely achievable. Chilterns has benefit of tube into London too.

We live on the outskirts of Hastings surrounded by woods. The good thing with East Sussex is that even in villages you're only 15 minutes away from a town. Rother/Rye/battle is lovely

Plus easy distance to London

I do have this - we live in village in a rural South West location and the river with walks is at the end of the road as well as other footpaths over common land.
The upsides are also that being a village, every time you step foot outside, you meet people you know and can chat to. I love this. Dog walkers all go out at similar times as well.
You mentioned pubs and restaurants, well the upside of them being so far away is that there is lots of dinner parties in the village and community led social events in the village hall.
The downside of natural footpaths is mud, glorious mud to the extent that some paths are avoided in the Autumn and Winter - just too slippy and muddy.

Yanbu I have walks on my doorstep and I live in a city (on the edge admittedly but it's the best of both worlds)

Not unreasonable at all. Unfortunately I couldn’t afford that in England so moved to Portugal, renting a house with walks from the door and in the process of buying with walks from the door. Heaven!

[quote Bromeliad]@Blondiney As someone else guessed we're in the Hazel Grove/High Lane/Marple area. Close to a train station with regular links to the city centre and the new A555 for the motorways, but right on the edge of the countryside. Lovely walks up to Lyme Park over the fields or there's the Canal and the Middlewood Way if we want a flatter ramble. We're very spoilt![/quote]
I also guessed you must be around there! We’re a touch closer to Stockport but still great for green spaces. I think it’s a fabulous area to live in. I never appreciated how good it is until lockdown.

We live in Gloucestershire. Lovely county - Cheltenham and the surrounding villages are beautiful with great schools, good shopping and good connections. Beautiful walks are fairly close depending on where you live. If you want more 'chocolate box' then there are the cotswolds but some parts are quite remote.

YANBU at all. We have vast swathes of AONB accessible from doorstep. Live in very sub-400k house. Definitely doable. Good luck

YANBU. I feel very privileged to be able to do this and resolved many years ago to never take it for granted.

“ Where in London do you live? Sounds lovely, I am essex/london borders, which I like but not exactly beautiful..not the part I am anyway!

Near me obviously. SW London. Wetlands = Barnes, the commons = Barnes, Putney and Wimbledon, park = Richmond Park.”

Same here. We have all that and the Thames path at the bottom of our road but you won’t get near it for £400k sadly. You could have easily when we bought 27yrs ago of course.

Yanbu. We have it - literally 90 seconds away from North Downs. Moved here from London in September and couldn’t be happier. Do it!