Is this house too remote?

[HungryHouseHunter]

Name change. 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? Also value for money?

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

My idea of hell!

Beautiful. I don't think this is too remote at all.

I don't know the area whatsoever but a zoom out on the map shows that you're nearby a motorway, schools and villages.

I'd love to live in the middle of a field with no neighbours!

I'd need to win the lottery in the first instance.

My first thought was ‘that looks like a great party house!’ No worrying about noise and the neighbours

Driving in Winchester can be a nightmare, just to warn you

Shrug. Our previous countryside home which was mostly surrounded by equestrian facilities and smallholdings had about a tenth of the problems.

So I don’t think you can widely gesticulate and say “the countryside is not for you.”

Sleep deprivation makes almost everything intolerable and I have already stated why that is.

I hasten to add the early mornings only kicked off after his wife left him. Prior to that, barely a peep was heard before 8am.

Now he does what he likes when he likes.

The interior photos make me smile because the house is beautiful but the exterior gives me the fear - way too remote for me.

I would agree that it feels wonderful inside. Not isolated.

I would be more concerned about the proximity to the motorway. It doesn't look at all remote to me but I have a 5 hour round trip to my nearest town.

Beautiful house.

It's not so much the cost of parking in Winchester that would put me off (You're probably looking at 20 pound a day to be be near the station) but the 'commute' if you're trying to get to school/station is likely to be lengthy. Now to be fair that could be true of any city and going from one area to another but I think you need to do some test runs. We lived in a small village after a large town for three years and I found it quite isolating as the pub closed and the corner shop did too. I just like to be able to nip out if I've forgotten something but I also like to walk rather than take the car for everything. It seems counter intuitive but we found living in the country side meant we did more driving than every before.

As others have said the farm is likely to be busy/noisy at some times of the year but I'd also be checking the local plan. I'm not sure how desirable those views will be if they become a new build estate!

I agree. We have (thankfully only) one room with a vaulted ceiling and mezzanine area, and most of the year it’s way too hot in the mezzanine area as all of the heat goes up there.

The house looks amazing, but the EPC is horrendous. Personally, the septic tank and oil tank would put me off too as they’re a bit of a pita too.

I'm not sure I'd even describe that as 'rural', let alone remote. And I'd be really surprised if you couldn't hear the M3 when the wind is blowing in the wrong direction.

Well there are a lot of green fields 🙁

How far away is your nearest pub? Is it legal to drive a golf buggy after a Sunday roast in your local, that has been washed down with a few glasses of fermented grapes?

I would be asking myself such questions if moving somewhere like this location. Haven’t looked at the photos or floor plan yet…

Is it rented out? Furniture doesn’t make the best use of space.

tbh the floor plan needs an overhaul - have a look at Matthew North on insta or YouTube if you do put in an offer.

it could be amazing, so good luck whatever you decide!

I cycle to my local village which is fine. And I like it. I have a lady bike with a lady basket and it suits me very well.

I think for the money the inside space isn’t for me, but totally agree that it’s taste (and also noise containment. My friend has a converted barn. Noisy as hell inside. Too open.

I lived in a rural house fairly near Exeter. I hated driving through narrow country lanes to buy the simplest thing like milk. It was scary at night as I felt so vulnerable with no neighbours. The lack of mains utilities was a complete pain. I wouldn't consider a house like this one with one of the worst EPCs I've ever seen. Heating those rooms would be difficult. I imagine that, although pretty, it's not cosy or homely to live in and I expect the current owners can't wait to get rid of it.

It's a beautiful house!

I moved to somewhere you have to drive everywhere and you get used to it pretty quickly. It is a bit of a pain sometimes but I'm used to it now. The only thing it's stopped me doing is going to the gym regularly- an hour round trip driving really puts me off!

Fertiliser only smells on farm fields the day its put down in my experience ( surrounded by fields)

I’ve lived rurally previously and it has its own particular issues - winter can be particularly grim and isolated in bad weather.

A bigger issue is the frankly awful EPC on that property. I currently live in a much smaller property than that but with the same EPC and it’s a nightmare. Through the winter we effectively lived in one room downstairs as it was the only one we could keep reasonably warm and the bedroom. It costs an absolute fortune to heat to a comfortable temperature in winter not have ice form on the inside of the windows (and this is with me in full thermals, socks and a coat indoors some days).

To have that poor an EPC you must be looking at next to zero insulation, single glazed windows… if you need a mortgage you may find your lender won’t entertain such a low certification.

We have recently moved to a property with a similar amount of land (2.8 acres as opposed to 3.2 acres with this house). Also much, much, cheaper due to location and not having such a fancy house on it.

We both really enjoy gardening and see ourselves staying here for the rest of our lives (we're late 50s / early 60s). Having a large blank canvas to work on to create the garden we want is a great opportunity.

It also has a large pond (about 30m x 20m) which was originally agricultural but is now a great wildlife pond, although it does need sorting out a bit. The house is an old farm manager's home. When the land was sold off, this house and bit of land was sold separately to all the agricultural land that surrounds it.

We're just on the edge of a tiny village with a pub and post office about half a mile away. We're just to the south of a small town of 27,000 people and there is a decent sized supermarket two miles away.

It's a very personal thing. Personally, when we were house hunting we absolutely wanted to be able to get to work, primary school, local shop, pub etc without using the car. We could certainly have got a bigger/better house and garden without that, but I'm very glad we stuck to it. I'm also glad we didn't go for some of the very small villages that barely met those criteria. We live in a medium/large village on the river, with a train station, and plenty of facilities. We can go for days, even weeks, without getting in the care And possibly more importantly, we have lots of friends within walking distance, see people we know all the time when we are out in the village, and same for the kids (before they went to Uni). So much nicer for them just to be able to pop round to friends or take the train to nearby city and secondary school rather than us having to ferry them around all the time.

But, it's very personal. Maybe you love space and quiet and rural and don't mind driving for that. But it sounds like you aren't sure...

Oh I have no doubt that some people would use extra land very happily but I wasn't quite sure if the OP was in that category

If you don't love gardening or don't have time, it can quickly become a burden

I really don't know why everyone keeps saying that this place is "rural".

Have a look on the map.

It is 1.4 miles from the railway station, less than a mile from the nearest primary school and the nearest large supermarket is 3 miles away.

This is an area full of very large homes (many with swimming pools in their large grounds). This is what some of the neighbouring properties to that house look like.

This one is literally 600 metres from the OPs "remote" house

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146869187#/?channel=RES_BUY

and then these are just around the corner from there:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146586407#/?channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/137446436#/?channel=RES_BUY

"To get the train station I'll need to drive, to get to the shops I'll need to drive! Does anyone do this ?"

Are you coming from London by any chance? Outside of London then, yes, it is very common for people to drive to do these things. Especially if you live in a large house like the ones above.

We used to live in a medium sized city of around 250,000 people in quite a nice area in one of the suburbs. Even then, the railway station was 3.5 miles away, the nearest supermarket (and pub, post office etc) just over a mile away, the nearest primary school about 0.5 miles away and the nearest secondary school was 2.4 miles away.

Nobody walks those sorts of distances (except the primary school).

I find this whole "if there isn't a cafe within walking distance" thing very odd indeed. The only cafes that existed where I lived were in the city centre which was 3.5 miles away.

Is this a London thing?

Sorry, just to add, when you spoke of remote, I was imagining something like this:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/148680665#/?channel=RES_BUY

Same money but 13 acres of land and 8 miles west of the OPs house.

A bit more "remote" but even so only 3.3 miles to the railway station and there's a Waitrose nearby as well.

We moved to the very edge of town in our last house. Still fairly close to a supermarket etc.
We now live 10min walk from the city centre, in a large detached house with a huge garden so very private, on a quiet street surrounded by greenery (there's a church opposite, school fields behind us, a park the other side). This is the best of both to be honest. I started to resent the lack of takeaways, having to drive everywhere (DH doesn't drive so it all falls on me), lack of public transport etc etc.
Now we can walk into town on a nice day, eat at a decent restaurant, I can have more than 1 glass of wine, and we can walk back. Also a hell of a lot easier for work trips to London, no need for a taxi to the station etc. Also for our daughter, she plays a sport at the sports centre in our street, has friends in the street etc. She's in primary school still but this will be even more important when she's in secondary; I want her to be able to go and do things on her own without relying on me to get her to places.

I brought up 3 children in a rural situation and all went well. I would have hated to be in the middle of a town/city with them.

You drive a lot to get to facilities, but it just becomes a way of life. Others round about are in the same boat and they help each other. It looks splendid to me!

The view from my house is sublime - it has propped me up during bad times - just looking out of the window lifts the spirits - I count myself very lucky.