Soul Destroying House? Is this one?

[Lillipuddlian]

Hello, apologies in advance if this irritates anyone. My husband and I are dual Canadian/ British citizens. We currently live in Canada but are considered moving to the UK. The big push is climate and what my husband describes as "soul destroying houses with no character and no garden." Below is an example of the homes in our price range (350,000 UK)... this is very, very typical of housing near our jobs. Tell me your opinion, please! Are we picky, or is my husband right, these houses are soul destroying... (not an advertisement!)

premierottawa.ca/property/651-birchland-crescent/

It’s a big house.
It’s not what I would call soul destroying by any means.

Sorry if I've misunderstood, but is it the Canadian climate or UK's that's the issue?

I think that house is lovely, really bright and airy and huge!

That's a lovely house. And while I also love period properties they have a lot of drawbacks. People with personality can add character.

That’s a big house OP. What’s soul destroying about it?

That's a hell of a lot more than £350k buys you in my part of the UK. But yes, it looks cold!

Where in the UK are you thinking of? If the SE you'll be looking at 1000 sq ft for that kind of money....

Where would you be looking to move to in the uk? Not sure you’d get much better for your money.

Climate here is universally known as shit. Does he think the grass is greener?

Some houses are nice in Canada, some are not. Same as the UK. But your DH is right about the climate, so I think that would be enough of a push for me to move to the UK.

I was all ready to say that the house was fine but when I clicked on it my heart did sink a bit.

I do agree the house is soulless, maybe not soul destroying. I do like houses with a bit more character.

I hope you’re not planning to move to London if that house you’ve posted doesn’t pass muster for that budget or your husband might self destruct.

The house is very neutral but you can add the soul with personal touches. I’m not keen on the brick effort on the outside but I could live with it. Just looks like a newish property with space. A tiny uk country cottage looks charming but is cold, cramped and has a downstairs bathroom plus it costs more than £350k in many parts of the UK.

Canada wins !

it's pretty bland inside, that house. But it needn't be.

It's really grey and rainy in the UK in winter. I'm in AB (but from the UK orig) and yes it's cold in winter, but we have over 300 days of sunshine a year, compared to 65 in the UK.

Maybe you're in the wrong province

£350-375k within a 5 mile radius of me brings up 2 bedroom flats in not great areas. Zone 6/6 NW London

Nothing that a splash of colourful paint and a Labrador or two wouldn't improve enormously ;) (Not at the same time obvs)

I couldn't bear long Canadian winters but you will pay twice as much in UK for a similar sized house in South East.
What about Vancouver? Much more temperature than quebec

Soul-less? Is that what you mean? If so, we'll- you make a house a home so that's up to you.

Soul destroying? No. A bedsit with no heating or hot water is soul destroying.

Well the decor is a bit awful in that house but you could make it a lot nicer with better furniture. It’s a big house.

In a lot of the U.K. 350k will be lucky to get you a small 3bed semi.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-53621772.html

This is for sale close to me, yes it’s pretty inside but it’s small, on a very busy road and the chances of the attached house being students is pretty high. I know which I would prefer.

Massive house with a lot of light. It’s lovely, it just needs different colours to tone the whiteness down a bit.
If weather is an issue I’m not sure you’ll like the UK more, it’s not cold but the sky is grey about 80 % of the time. I’m from mainland Europe and miss the sun a lot.

mcmansionhell.com/post/150597521816/mcmansions-101-revisited-aesthetics-aside-why

And also mcmansionhell.com/post/148605513816/mcmansions-101-what-makes-a-mcmansion-bad

(I don’t think that house is completely terrible but this is the sort of thing that makes it soul destroying, I think)

It just needs some personality and colour adding to it. A nice dilemma to have me thinks.

Depends what and where you are thinking of in the UK.
New houses in the UK won't get you much more in character than that but they are likely to be smaller.
Period properties will may have the soul you are looking for but depending on where you are looking may also be small and I know some people coming here from other places find that difficult to cope with, you may find the number and size of bedrooms is very different too. We tend to have more smaller bedrooms per square foot of living space and character properties are also less likely to have things like en-suites on all bedrooms etc.
The UK does have big houses just not as widespread as Canada / US

Does he mean soulless? Soul destroying is a weird word to use about a perfectly fine house that 90% of the world's population could never afford to live in.

I know what he means about the fact that it has zero character to the building itself, but you give it character with your decor. He is in a very lucky position to be able to write off such a nice house in such a negative way.