Gigantic houses you see when driving through the countryside...

[SunsetOnTheHorizon]

We have been doing lots of day trips to nearby scenic locations (as is the whole country) And we always wonder who lives in these huge (gorgeous) houses....

I mean, today for example, we drove through Worcestershire and some of these house had me doing a double take.

Obviously, the ones set back from the road that had a long driveway weren't visible to us, but the ones with enormous driveways, loads of windows and lovely lawned fronts caught my attention (as always)

I always wonder what the insides must look like...and how hard it must be to keep it looking lush (unless you have a team of cleaners)

So, if u live in one, I would love to know, was it inherited, are u minted and how do u feel roaming about in the endless space you have?

Very nosey, I know, but I had to ask today.

Thanks all...

You just get a housekeeper for 15-20h a week and a gardener for 1 day a week. A green keeper, window cleaner and whoever else pop in regularly.

Ours isn't gigantic but it is quite big. We love it, there’s a lot of space and our garden isn’t overlooked and is very private. We spent money doing it up but there’s always still something that needs doing. The roof is about to cost us £45k. The buildings insurance is £1.2k a year. It needs redecorating again, will be £££.

We have a cleaner, a gardener, a chimney sweep for the open fires, an alarm company, a lawn treatment company and the drive needs regravelling fairly often.

But it’s been a brilliant place to bring up children and we love having the space. We are quite minted, yes 😀 but it is a money pit so we don’t feel it.

Not sure if mine qualifies. It's got a long drive, 5 bedrooms, about 30 sash windows and 3 large gardens. But it wasn't crazy expensive due to location. I think the inside is beautiful. There's about 5 locations I love to drink a coffee in the house. And yes, it's lovely wandering the gardens with the cat and chickens in the sun with a glass if wine in my hand. I adore our home.

I got fed up of mine and moved back to my small London flat after a few years It was a specialist property (big converted church) and had specialist problems to go along with it: four-metre-long curtains to dress floor to ceiling windows cost a bomb; when the smoke alarms or light fittings or roof developed faults fixing them involved hiring scaffolding; have you ever cleaned your windows laboriously with a soft toothbrush? It took forever to clean and I resented giving up an entire day of my weekend to do it: I must have tried almost ten cleaners but none of them cleaned to a standard I was happy with so I gave up. Heating the place was like throwing money into the universe, even after installing a biomass boiler. Space is a lovely idea, but there really are only so many things you can find to with six spare bedrooms to avoid them just being random purposeless rooms.

But there were some very lovely things: wandering around and just looking at the pictures in the stained glass; having different levels and rooms to choose from for different moods; being able to buy wildly lavish and enormous furniture and artwork and it not looking oversized; strolling around the graveyard; keeping livestock on the land; having a driveway long enough to park all four of my cars on.

Also wasn’t super expensive in the grand scheme of large houses due to location and afforded with the proceeds of selling up in London.

I always wonder what the owners do for a living.

So do I. And what does "we are quite minted" mean?

Money pits.
Our house isn't huge but it's old and 'well proportioned' so often attracts coos of appreciation. I shudder though to imagine something bigger. We'd have to have exceptionally deep pockets. I yearn for something new!

I always wonder what the owners do for a living and whether they actually have a home life? I always think jobs that pay enough to be able to afford one of these means that the person works all the time, works away etc and never has down time to enjoy it.

The thing is that these impressive looking properties probably cost less than a terraced house in London!

I often wonder this too. Especially when their garage is bigger than my whole house.

Yes, there seem to be so many of them, not just a handful for the exceptionally rich. What do these people do?

I went on a bikeride yesterday, we saw some huge houses, things that seemed to belong in a country estate (although modern) but in a "normal" street. They were big but most we not attractive, some were awful.

Some of the huge country homes are split into flats now, this for example. There are quite a few like this near us.

What Tinamou said. My brother sold up his ordinary 4 bed semi in a decent part of London & now has a huge house & rambling gardens in the country. House is gorgeous but a complete money pit.

My friend lives in similar. It cost £2k for a new motor for the 'wine fridge'. She has someone that comes to the house to wash her cars.

But what dies she do for a living?

@Bluesheep8 for us ‘quite minted’ means we both have 6 figure salaries and so have a fairly high disposable income. We don’t work that hard, normal work hours, we’re both finished by 5.30. We have a lovely life, I’m not complaining, we’re happy.

We are a short helicopter ride from London, the huge houses are often owned by the very wealthy, a hedge fund billionaire owns two farms that adjoin his huge country house. They have loads of house keepers, security managers, gardners etc.

Another one recently bought by someone involved with motor racing, has a helicopter, which has caused local fury, (noise) and got turned down for a helipad. Also probably has a private jet. The way of the world.

There are also quite a few large country houses lived in by the same family for hundreds of years.

What sort of roles do you have @waterandlemonjuice ?

Sorry to be nosey but I'm interested in a role the earns so well but still gives a good balance. Is it IT of some sort?

Anyway - sounds lovely!

She doesn't work of course. But her DH is on the board of several big business he has run and 'turned around' in the past. Not sure which pie his fingers are in at the moment but he spends a lot of time abroad.

Those I know with large country piles do the following

• partner in consulting firm & employment lawyer

• own Engineering business

• Hedge fund / inheritance

• venture capital

• Both are medical consultants

• inheritance plus huge Commercial property investment Portfolio ( owns a few shopping centres)

• own chain of estate agents plus loads of student rental properties

In our village all the big houses are rentals 😁 Ours isn't as big as the ones described in your OP but it's a well proportioned thatched place which seems to encourage people to stop out front and point at it which took some getting used to! It's a rental, owned by the local estate who also own most of the village and the next village on. Rents aren't much higher than we were paying for a 3 bed terrace in Herts so we moved out here and now keep hens and ducks and have a lot more space.
Lots of the other bigger houses in the village are similar circumstances. If you are in a very rural county like Norfolk for eg you might find that an awful lot of the big rural properties are rentals.

has a helicopter, which has caused local fury, (noise) and got turned down for a helipad

What does he do with the helicopter then? Land it on the bird table?

She has someone that comes to the house to wash her cars.

I live in a house with 5 rooms in total and I have someone to come and clean my car, doesn't make you rich.

It depends where in the country very much. Anywhere Worcestershire and north will be the same price as a modest 4 bed in home counties!

My friends grandparents had to sell their amazing pile lived in by family for 400 years. The lady who started the White Company bought it I believe.....