Do you ever get over wanting to live by the sea?

[DoILikeToBeBesideTheSeaside]

We're looking to move house. I've lived in London for many years but grew up in the South West. We are trying to decide whether to move to the coast or be inland (about an hour from the sea) but have a considerably bigger house.

As the desire to live by the sea is so intangible, and DH never has, it's hard to know just how important it is, ie where to put it on the list of priorities. Can I force the whole family to live in a smaller house, just to satisfy an inner something? How would I feel if I did and then only made it to the beach every once in a while?

(DH has said, BTW, that we can move somewhere as remote as I like once the DCs have left home, 12+ years).

Your thoughts greatly appreciated.
(Name changed for this)

We moved to the sea five years ago. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to leave. I love it summer and winter. It changes every days it makes me feel connected.

Life is too short to wait another 12 years. As long as you can get a 'big enough' house.

It's ever gone away from me. I live in a beautiful house in a beautiful county. I have a lovely view of trees and countryside from my house ...but, I still wish I lived by the sea. I think about it quite often but then I think I am being very spoilt.

I actually wouldn't mind living on a boat.

I grew up in the South West with a beach 1/4 a mile from my house. I sailed and owned all sorts of boats. It's in my genes.

I like rocky craggy shorelines with sandy coves.

I grew up near the sea and I'd love to move back but I think my kids would be really upset to leave the home where we live now ( inland but very nice rural town) and all their friends. I'd feel guilty about uprooting their whole lives to satisfy my yearning :(

I lived by the sea for a while...ten minutes walk to the prom but hardly ever went because I was at work...

I do dream.of living in the coastal village where we go for our holidays. But realise that spending two weeks there in the summer - when all we need to do is to relax - is very different to living there permanently.

mothermirth, my parents retired to the seaside when we all left home - it doesn't bother me in the slightest that it's not somewhere I've ever lived and I think it's fab that we get to visit the seaside whenever we want!

In a word.

No

Hope this helps.

I've never lived by the sea but always wanted to. Even in the winter and stormy days it's beautiful. I don't think it matters if you grew up there, I think something in our soul makes human want to be near water.

Beach 2 minutes walk away, very rarely go there it's either too cold & windy or jam packed with invariably drunk visitors & annoying gangs of teens & language students

We do sometime go to another less local beach & much quieter in the summer though & I do still love catching glimpses of the sea between buildings when walking around town & love the smell of the sea you can still catch on the wind at times

Hate the giant, aggressive, bloody cheeky flying white rats seagulls though

Oh I thought it was just me!

I grew up by the sea. Left at 18. Lived inland ever since and I still find it weird that there I can drive for miles in any direction. As a child if you went in one direction you would always hit the sea.

I panic I'm depriving the DCs when we visit GPs and they play on the beach.

It's so interesting to read these responses because we have the same issue but the other way around. My h has an abiding longing to live by the sea. I don't. I would pick a little pretty Cotswold-y village type environment with woodlands and streams nearby as my ideal. I'm not particularly keen on beaches or the sea.
We don't live in either of those at the moment but h has been very resistant to moving (we need to relocate for work) as we would be moving more inland. It's taken him about 4 years to come around to the idea of moving inland, even though we're nowhere near the sea that the moment!

I live a five-minute walk from the sea, but work means I don't go down as much as I might. I do get to drive to and from work along the shore every day. It's lovely.

That's reassuring KnittingRocks. The place we're thinking of moving to does have lots to offer teenagers, but they are understandably resistant to change.

RockinHippy that's it exactly: it's the sea glimpses and that salty smell I'm longing for.

Has any of this thread swayed you OP? Go on, you only live once!

Never. I grew up in a seaside town just outside Dublin; been in London 15 years and I'd still go back in a heartbeat if the economy hadn't gone permanently down the toilet, that is

I grew up living 40 minutes drive from the coast or an hour by train but also 25 minutes by train to London. If I think about it now and I ever moved back to the UK and if we could afford it that is perfect for me. I do love the sea and have lived a 5 minute walk away when I had my first flat but I think I visited the seaside more often as a child when we'd often go at the weekend.

I now live about 6 miles from the nearest beach. My favourite beach is 25 minutes away and we go there when we have visitors but it's always really crowded. I totally agree about sea glimpses though. I always take the coastal road into town as seeing the sea makes me happy whereas dh takes the motorway as its quicker.

I also lived in the Midlands but I was miserable there and I think part of that was because it's so far from the sea!

Beach 5 minutes walk away. Rarely go there blush

Us too. But I still wouldn't live inland. It is the extra sense of space and fresh air that does it for me. I'm a coastal girl and feel claustrophobic inland.

I grew up living five minutes walk from the beach. I've never been truly happy being away from easy access to the sea - I now live about 4 miles inland.

As someone said upthread, my soul needs to see the sea regularly.

I live near the sea. We rarely go on the beach because we actually don't love being on the sand but I walk by the sea a few times a week and run down there too. In summer it's lovely to take advantage of being up early with small children and getting down to the seafront, having fun and heading for home just as the crowds descend.

I grew up in a seaside place. We rarely went to the beach (partly I think a case of taking it for granted and partly because there were SO MANY HOLIDAYMAKERS!!! )
But now I do find myself hankering after it - we are moving to a place where we could live within walking distance of a pier and we are drawn to it that's for sure, rather than living in the nearby city

The economy is picking up floggingmolly, we're back in business :-)

I love my little seaside suburb.

Ours is a pebbly beach so it's not wonderful for spending the day on but there is something special about the light and ambience of being near the sea that lifts my soul whatever the weather.

I love those brief glimpses of sea as you drive along or come over the crest of a hill. I live sandwiched between the sea and South Downs and the views from on the downs as you look over toward the sea never fail to take my breath away, I never get tired of it! I grew up in Cambridgeshire which obviously is land locked and flat as a pancake, I hated it and never felt at home there. Still don't feel comfortable there when I visit!

I made my decision to move to the sea when I was free and single though. It's obviously harder when you have dc's and a dp to consider.

Pigletjohn is right
Your roof will, with every storm,leak whether it's new or not!

It depends which bit of sea. The bit next to a sad seaside town that has naff all to do in Winter? No chance.

A bit of remote coastline where the wind whips up and you can see white horses giddying across the water? Can't beat it for feeling alive even in the drizzle. But that often equates to becoming a taxi service at the beck and call of your children, isolation and boredom.

My perfect life is remote house near the sea in a beautiful bit of SW or Wales and a London apartment. Unfortunately my budget is more shoebox in the 'burbs.

The beach is at the end of my road and we use it all the time. It's where we meet friends, it's where we hang out, it's where we go for a quick change of scenery, it's where we go for BBQs, to hold parties, to destress after work, to get the kids out the house for half an hour when they have cabin fever, walk the dog have a cuppa and a nice cream. We are totally slurped up in the boat club there and the whole social life that goes along with that. My hope is that the kids continue their live of water sports as they grow up into teenagers (not long now). It's a far healthier life for them than hanging out around the streets. I would say go for it, it's a great place for kids to grow up if you fully immerse yourself in in.

I grew up by the sea and after 20 years or so in London just moved back - we are about a mile and a half from a stunning beach although once we move into our proper house will be about five miles away. I love it - we go at least once a week (although I have young boys so it's kind of necessary). Spent a lot of time down here over the winter too and I like it almost as much in the winter. And I am hoping in the summer holidays it will be a real godsend.

I grew up by the sea, able to see it from the house. I live abroad, four hours' drive from the nearest coast now and I miss it every day. Very occasionally, maybe once every couple of years, you can smell it on the wind and I have been known to cry when I smell it.

I'd be happy living an hour from the coast compared to now.