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

That's not remote/rural.

We have neighbours not on the electricity grid and others who get their water from the local springs. We have boarding wings at state schools because the journey takes over an hour involving quad bikes over fields and then 2 further buses. This is England btw.

Give your head a wobble.

* Oh, and one other thing - the cost of a tractor to mow the lawn (no gardener will bring one to you) and consider where you would dispose of the grass. That’d about 4 to 5 green wheelie bins in grass cuttings alone.*

You don't need to dispose of grass clippings. We have a very large paddock area and large grassed areas and just leave our grass clippings on the lawn. They act as a mulch and within a few days they have disappeared. You will need a sit on mower OP. And somewhere to store it.

I think the house is nice enough but I wouldn't buy it as it has no real garden as such. You would have to create that from scratch. We live about a 12 minute drive from any supermarkets so two cars are essential.

Sorry, that first paragraph was supposed to be quoting a previous poster but my bold highlighting failed 😬

Perhaps read the whole thread first!

@Wavesaves I thought the same. I don't understand people coming on forums for such obvious advice, it's just showing off, probably no intention of purchasing.

This forum has actually been very useful- brought up some factors we had not considered. Thanks to everyone for the feedback.

Wait for advice in property/DIY next time, there are usually a ton of helpful responses.

I love the house, and I wouldn't mind the driving everywhere (I already do that - schools, GP, supermarket, corner shop etc are all a drive from my house).

I would feel very isolated, because it is the end house on that (very posh) lane. I'd be fine living in the group of houses further up, but the one you linked to is too "on its own" for me.

Also, there's a lot of glass without blinds/curtains and limited ways to add them. I have lived in a barn conversion with those sorts of windows and I felt very exposed at night, knowing anyone out in the fields could see in whilst I couldn't see out. Others in the house told me there was no one out there to be looking in, but I always wondered!

Yes my bad. I had 0 responses and assumed that would be it !

To be fair the flats are only 2, maybe 3 stories max and to the side of the house so can’t be seen easily from the garden or their balcony!

I sound like their estate agent 😂 but I’d love to live there!

I lived remotely for 6 months where all travel was by car and the peace and quiet more than outweighed the issues of transport. The only thing that stopped us staying there was we had young children and they would have been quite cut off from school/nursery/friends. Now the kids are grown up I’d move back there in a heartbeat. There’s nothing like the peace tbh

It's a 12 minute drive to Winchester, according to Google, pretty much straight down a main road. It's not a long drive! How do you think people shop in the country?
I'm sure Compton has a local shop or petrol station for milk etc if needed.
We live in Cornwall, a 10 min drive to the supermarket, for proper shopping (clothes etc) we have to travel to Truro, Exeter or Plymouth which are all 45-50 minutes away. We survive! 🙄

Poor energy rating I know, large amounts of open plan space the main reason

Plus the fact there's no separation between the front door and the vast living space, so every time you go out/in that's a lot of the heat straight out of the door

My main worry, though, would be the possible sale of those fields for development, especially with a convenient town and motorway links relatively close

Going forward, a lifestyle that depends on constant car use may not be sustainable.

Well, yes of course lots of people live in houses like this (or different sorts of houses but similar settings) - it really doesn’t seem remote at all to me. We live in a similar sort of property but ours is a 1600s farmhouse / Grange with a farm cottage at the end of the drive, but it is much more rural than the house you linked. I am not a fan of barn conversions at all. I think the real question is whether country living is for you. If you were only looking in a city, why do you suddenly think you will enjoy living in the countryside? Are you going to be one of those people who move to the countryside and then complain about tractors making the lane muddy, or cows mooing at milking time, or church bells, or ‘farm smells’? Have you considered how you will manage the land that comes with the house. Do you enjoy gardening as it looks as though a lot of work is needed to make the garden more mature.

Driving everywhere doesn’t bother us at all, but we both grew up in similar settings and our children go to schools set in their own grounds (no school buses), so we have to take them to school anyway and I will tie in errands with the school run. I always keep a loaf of bread and 4 pints of milk in the freezer in case we run low, but we hardly ever do as we plan accordingly so we don’t run out of essentials. I get groceries delivered unless I fancy a trip to the nearest Lidl (7 miles away) for the bakery goodness and mad things in the aisles of tat.

I love living in the countryside and would never want to live in a city again (did it twice for university / masters) but then I have no need for 5 cafes within easy reach, and I want no neighbours and room for my horses, so I probably have different priorities to you.

I do, I live in a tiny hamlet on the outskirts of two villages on the outskirts of a town. I love it and wouldn’t move anywhere busier. We can walk to a shop but it’s 30mins one way. There is a pub and if we cut across the farmers field it’s about 20mins one way. Everything else is driving. All the major supermarkets deliver so that’s not a problem and children get a free school busy as they are in catchment but there is not a safe walking route. The only downside is when you want a takeaway that is limited, and I do find that my mileage is very high which impacts on insurance and fuel.

The ‘garden’ looks so odd, it’s just fields! A lot of work to make a garden on all that land. And no garage? That seems odd

I couldn’t live here. I was seriously considering moving to an isolated village, which is very poorly served by buses.
Good job I didn’t because, out of the blue, I’ve developed a medical condition which means I can no longer drive.
I live alone and this now dictates where I live.

We bought a rural place but actually only 2 miles from a small town. But a nasty main road in between. At 35 I loved it to bits and came back from my daily commute happy as larry. At 60 with teenage kids - I have a totally different view.

1/ We have a huge garden. I can just about manage it now but as I age then I won't be able to. MIL is 96 and her garden - once her pride and joy - has gone rack and ruin and breaks her heart.
(MIL asked her DH to move to a bungalow when they got older and he refused, and made her promise to stay there when he died! So she is now stuck in a massive place where she has been alone for 15 years, doesn't drive, can't walk anywhere, and now her last few neighbour friends are all moving into town).
2/ No shop within walking distance. As PPs have said - I might not always be able to drive.
3/ I would love to be in a community - like a small village - with a pub, shop, village hall, events etc. We have nothing, and I hate that we have to drive to go anywhere. Especially as we like a drink so it would be nice not to have to get a taxi (even if there were any taxis available, which there mostly aren't these days).
4/ The kids hate it. All their friends are in town and we have to drive them there and back, or to go swimming, or to the gym. The main road isn't safe for cycling. Our lane was lovely for them to learn to ride a bike at primary age - but the location is rubbish for teens. So what seems lovely at first can soon go the other way.
5/ DH loves it here and refuses to ever move. So I either have to divorce him or suck it up, for the rest of my life........maybe 30 years.........

Can't comment on value for money - but don't! Just don't!

I find it hard to believe that the occasional cost of parking is a concern for someone who can afford a house of around £2.5m. Or that you can’t afford supermarket delivery costs at around £2-£5 per shop. If it’s really of genuine concern and not actually some sort of weird stealth boast, then perhaps you should look at a lower budget and save money towards the slightly raised car ownership costs of living rurally. Good grief.

What I find odd is, to me, if you can afford that kind of budget surely you’ve got some ability to critically think (unless you’re a Katie Price type) without having to ask such basic questions. That’s not said out of jealousy as houses in that budget are far too big for my personal needs or tastes.

Entitlement - jesus.

Thanks for your input 😂

What's entitled ?

For that price, I'd want much bigger children's bedrooms. The 4th one is particulary small. They will want their own space as they get older. You'll be driving them everywhere as teenagers if they isn't any public transport too. The outside of the building might not age very well too.