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?

YANBU, it was on my list. Large town in Surrey, can walk to an AONB in 10 minutes. Prices are higher on this side of town for that reason though.

The funny thing is, you can live in some really rural places and still not have walks from the door! I used to live in a very rural and very beautiful part of North Yorkshire but although the house was surrounded by beautiful countryside, there weren’t any footpaths so we had to drive for EVERYTHING - walks, shopping, everything. I loved the area but I found it really miserable never leaving my home on foot. I felt so trapped.

Where we are now there’s the AONB 10 minutes walk in one direction and the town centre 10 minutes walk in the other and we hardly ever use the car. I really love it.

I have it, too. South east, coastal - the beach is five minutes away on foot, and we can be in open fields and cliffs within a ten minute walk from our house. We're on the edge of a lovely town centre, too - station, shops, cafés, library within five minutes.

It keeps me sane, especially during these testing times, and means that the DCs have grown up walking everywhere. They are happy, even as teens, to go out on long walks as a family. It's how we survived lockdown.

@Subeccoo

That budget in Suffolk would get you a lovely place. I'm an hour from London and can be out in the country and coast with a 20 minute walk from my front door.

Agree with this. I'm in north Essex (just bordering Suffolk). Takes me 60minutes on the train to get into London Liverpool StreetS Loads of little villages round here, lots of history (think inspiration for John Constable's paintings). Little high streets yet only 20 minutes to drive into larger towns (Colchester or Ipswich). Plenty of field walks to take the dogs and also walks along the river stour.

We live in Herts and behind our house we have acres of woodland and lots of farm land with fantastic walking trails .
I love it so much more than when we lived in London.

@MaverickDanger

South West.

We have about 4-5 different options direct from our front door including a canal walk, river walk, wood walk & one through a public footpath that starts 50m from my front door up to a stately home with beautiful gardens.

We often get deer grazing in our front garden, but are also a 10 min drive/40 min walk from the town centre & have shops & pubs close by.

We’ve got a large 4 bed detached house for £425k.

I love where we live.

Can I ask where you are? That sounds perfect to me and I'm house hunting!

I wanted EXACTLY this. In 6 days I move from London to the countryside in Gloucestershire with a walk 10 steps from my door. You can totally do it. I can’t wait.

@Rincewind1213 your cottage is STUNNING. Wow

@YouDidWHATNow it’s yours if you want to buy it. 😂

@DiesalFive in Taunton. Lots of places like this in Somerset - we’re not from here originally but have found it a really friendly place & have met a lot of people.

Oh, I've never been to Taunton, but I have a very distant cousin there. I lived in Bath for a few years and being near Bath and Bristol is very appealing.

[quote MaverickDanger]@DiesalFive in Taunton. Lots of places like this in Somerset - we’re not from here originally but have found it a really friendly place & have met a lot of people.[/quote]
Thanks so much for your reply!

We're looking to relocate and struggling to find somewhere that ticks all the boxes so will check out Taunton/Somerset, thanks again :)

I can walk up a number of named mountains from the front door :) It's a huge advantage not having to drive everywhere.

I'm SW but not very far W, 3 bed house is worth approx £275k in a small and delightful town, we are 5 minutes walk from lanes, fields and beautiful countryside. It's perfect.

I've only ever lived In very rural areas so have always been able to walk straight from house to open fields etc, I can't imagine not having that!! £500k would buy you a decent sized house so long as your savvy as to where he in the Cotswolds you probs get a 3 bed but not in a village but I Herefordshire, worcestershire areas you'd probably get a 3/4 bed house in a village for that easily, just do your research, if your not used to rural living try to find a good balance as you might not enjoy being in a house solo from everyone, look for a nice village with a pub, village hall so you can still keep social

I was talking to a young (30) man in our office yesterday. Most of his friends who work in London are moving to places they really want to be e.g Norfolk and Edinburgh Having been told that at least partial wfh is here to stay for the future. I can only see this as good thing.

Anyhow have a look at national parks/paths etc Southdowns way and New Forest ?
Coastal is great too.

Barton Le Clay is lovely. Very close to Bedford and Luton, Harlington train station will get you into London very quickly, walks from the door, we have a nature reserve here two and a National Trust site which you can walk to or is a five minute drive

We have this. Moved out of SE London to a village in Kent. Beautiful walks outside our front door, shops/pub in our village and 30 minute drive to other towns.

From my house I can walk for hours through open countryside without crossing a road, yet I can also walk for 10mins to the train station which would get me to a decent sized city in 20mins. Our village is a bit of a commuter place but it has a few decent pubs & restaurants and a great community spirit. And our local high school is in the top 10 in the country.
£400k would get you a lovely 4 bed house.
We’re nowhere near London though unfortunately!

We're 25 miles from central London and the nearby town has a fast train service. Yet we're surrounded by fields and have many lovely walks from our house (you have to walk a little way along roads but it takes less than 5 mins to be away from roads). Proper countryside, sheep and everything. Property is expensive in this area due to good schools (with £500k you're looking at a small 3 bed terrace) but you don't have to go far for lower prices. Pay off is the schools aren't as highly thought of, apparently.

I live in a town in North Yorkshire, lots of nice walks from our doorstep. Not something I think we really appreciated enough until this year