To think this house is too remote to be feasible

[HungryHouseHunter]

Name change. Posting in AIBU for traffic. We are considering putting an offer on this house. It's exactly the style we want with more land than we wanted but I'm worried it's too far from Winchester where we started looking. To get the train station I'll need to drive, to get to the shops I'll need to drive! Does anyone do this ? Do you end up resenting the inconvenience? For example I couldn't just pop out for a big shop, I think I would need to drive to Winchester and pay for parking etc. Would need to pay for parking at train station when using it (at least twice a week). Do these things just get more and more annoying. Currently live somewhere where car isn't even really needed.

Also value for money?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145236887

AH yes I remember that thread about grandparents as well. Suddenly if you aren't mobile, your whole world shrinks to where you can get to.

Looking at the way those windows are bulging inwards... it's incredibly pronounced. On the market for three years? Gallop back to safety now.

From what other posters have said there are a few red flags with this property regardless of location. I would keep looking personally OP. I had friends that rented a barn conversion & the cost of oil was crazy so they often put up with no heating. It was always freezing there!

My thoughts:

1. The annex is so poorly thought out. You couldn't let it out as a holiday rental in my opinion, because who's going to want to have to walk outside to get to the main bedroom? And the cinema room being in the annex is crap if you did want to let it out as a holiday let, as then you couldn't use it yourself when it's let. You'd also need to check if you need to pay a second lot of council tax on the annex.
2. I don't know the area so don't know if it's priced well or not.
3. The kitchen in the main barn is awful, doesn't suit the property at all, the Aga is beautiful, then they put that very modern kitchen alongside it, doesn't work. I know some modern can go with traditional, but just that style of kitchen doesn't suit that kitchen room at all, in my opinion.
4. If your children are young, do you really want them sleeping on a different floor from you?
5. If you're burgled, I'd be concerned at the children being on the ground floor and also being on a different floor, not being able to get to them safely in the event of fire or burglary.
6. The upstairs sitting room fire is really crap looking.
7. With the upstairs sitting room being above the downstairs living area, the sound travelling will be crap if people are watching TV in both areas, or someone watching TV and the others want peace or have visitors etc.
8. There aren't enough pictures to really show this property, which is very disappointing for a property of this value. I'd expect better from Savills.
9. If you offer on it, get them to include the ride-on-lawnmower, to save you having to buy one.
10. The drone from the M3 would piss me off.
11. The pollution from the M3 would piss me off.
12. I'd be pissed off spending millions on a big house to then hear a bloody motorway when I'm trying to enjoy my big garden.
13. It's not remote in the slightest, and if you think it is, then actual rural life isn't for you!
14. You are very close to local amenities, and even walkable, so I think your fears over it being "too remote", are extreme (I don't mean that to be arsey at all).

But go see it, then you'll get a better idea if it's for you or not. If it were me, and I had this budget, it wouldn't be for me for all the reasons above!

So interesting seeing different people give opinions on this ‘rural’ location based on looking at maps. I know this area well and Compton is barely out of Winchester, it’s less than a 10 minute drive into the city centre and even less to the nearest large supermarket. I wouldn’t advise driving to the train station just because it’s expensive ( plus traffic can back up coming into the city in the morning depending on time you need to leave) but instead driving to the park and ride less than 5 minutes from Compton and getting that to the station, less than a quarter of the price than station parking. If you have that much money to spend you can get a very nice city centre property ( if you’re lucky it might even have parking 😆) and you’d have more than enough coffee shops on your doorstep, you could probably patronise a new one every week of the year without requiring a return visit.

Alternatively if you could find a property available I’d be looking for something on Kilham Lane/Sarum Road. Just out of the city centre with regular bus routes, walkable to both primary and secondary schools and supermarket but also right in the edge of farm land/woods. Not sure if it still is but at one point it was most expensive place to live per sq/ft in Winchester.

Otterbourne has a fab community, I think besides the points raised you may miss out of being closer to neighbours. Also I wouldn't trust those fields won't get developed. Laws changed recently on farm buildings and Winchester council is short of housing stock.

Not remote - easy to close to a motorway for me.

I would be cautious cycling into Winchester, there are very few bike lanes coming from that side of town and it’s all uphill on the way home!

@HungryHouseHunter have you actually checked out the area? From your post you don’t seem to have much of understanding of where amenities are but you’re considering putting in an offer?!?

Forgot one!

15. I'd be worried about the sprays from the farm too, when they're spraying the fields, you'll get lungfuls of toxic chemicals if you've got your windows open and haven't noticed them start. 16.ETA doesn't look like there's a garage...none mentioned. So where do you even keep your ride-on-lawnmower? I'd expect there to be a double garage as a minimum in that size of property, probably more a triple garage. I'm guessing the annex used to be the garages/stable block.

There's only one real problem with a barn conversion. You will be living in a barn, it's likely to be at least draughty and probably cold too. And all those beams, it will be a full time job keeping on top of the cobwebs. ( I don't much care for spiders, can you tell)

Oh wow, I'd swap convenience for that house!!

Ive lived in the sticks a few times - you get organised.

Grabbing fish and chips when you fancy it might not be so easy but its still doable.

What would it be like coming home from a crappy day at work to a house like that?

Buy it.

That’s not remote though? I’m a twenty minute minimim drive from anything and I mean anything. Over an hour for anything that isn’t bare bones basic. It’s great, worth any inconvenience for the peace and quiet!

It's a lot of money to live in a field. I wouldn't personally. It looks like a posh airbnb.

We live in a similar location. Much smaller house and garden lol and yeah. No shops or pubs not on a bus route and no pavements
you just get used to it. Amazon prime is a bonus and Tesco is actually just 10 mins away in car

when Dd was little we lived on an estate with loads of houses. With a bus route. With pavement and with a play park.
no shops or pubs either … supermarkets were at least 25 min drive in either direction 🤷🏼‍♀️
had to drive Dd everywhere anyway

don’t be put off. Looks fantastic

and yes oil is expensive but you can set up a monthly plan
grass cuttings - we hâve an acre and a ride on mower which chops the cuttings super fine and leaves them behind. It was an extra to buy but did away with the endless cuttings (we had an agreement that we could tip onto the field and the geese would enjoy it - was hard work for dh tho to keep emptying )

It looks very like a house used as the location for an episode of Inside Number 9. Particularly that kitchen.

It's an ugly building, which would be hard to heat, but a beautiful site.

This is the best house out of all the ones posted on thread, including OPs original house. Really beautiful and lovely gardens.

We are like @TMess , twenty minutes from everything, We have to drive everywhere.

You get used to being very organised, you don’t run out of toilet paper in the night more than once! No take aways or deliveroo comes near us.
We get shopping delivered but top up when we are at work.

We have a ride on mower which we use ourselves because it’s so therapeutic.

I have never been scared when home alone which surprises people when Dh is away. Not having people near by means we don’t really get noises outside and the only things that go bump in the night are badgers and foxes.

I love it. Reading threads on here about awful neighbours makes me realise just how lucky we are.

We own our fields so know that we aren’t able to be closed in by developers. I would worry that you may end up with a Tesco outside!

What? It’s got 6 bedrooms and a toilet on every floor!

It is lovely wish I could afford it! For the PP who asked they were both doctors

It’s lovely, shame it’s next door to a block of flats.

Having just moved from a very similar property it’s a no from me

Too far away from everything, garden maintenance expensive and time consuming, difficult to make it feel cosy

We also had a huge pond which was a nightmare

Yes, having to drive everywhere can sometimes get annoying and you can’t go out for an evening involving alcohol without having to pay taxi fares. The worse bit is when you have teens with their first jobs who need you to take them to work at 7am!

However to be detached and have plenty of quiet space is worth it. If
you’re considering a house in that price range I’m surprised you’ve mentioned parking costs though. They are not going to be a huge factor in your decision.