Confessions of a serial mower - back to normal
Today is property day in our local rag the East Anglian Daily Times, www.eadt.co.uk, and looking through the property section I was shocked by the property prices. I shouldn’t be, I used to work in that industry for one of the top Estate Agents in the Country no less, in a previous life. That’s the one before GOH. I married quite late at 28, so I had a varied work life until I settled down. My first job, at 18 was with said Estate Agents. As the new girl, I obviously got the rubbish jobs, but gradually worked my way up through the departments, ending in Land Agency. My boss managed large country farm Estates across East Anglia.
My favourite department however was property sales; writing up the sales literature and chatting up the "punters"; we had far more poetic licence in those days. We could say all sorts of flowery things to describe the most hideous of structures and stretch the truth more than somewhat.
Now one has to be particularly careful, with the Trades Description Act etc (CL take note!). "Quaint little gem, ripe for renovation, slightly uneven walls with authentic interior", now has to read, “totally derelict with structural damage, woodworm and deathwatch beetle”. Not so appealing is it.
Anyway, what I am trying to say is that once involved in that industry it’s hard not to always be looking and checking out what’s hit the market. Today I am still constantly amazed by the prices. A fabulous house, but not palatial, has just come on the market near us, after several generations in one family at some £6,000.000. Six million. Blimey O’reilly that’s some commission.
It’s not even an Estate, it has about 10 acres and it’s in dear old remote Suffolk. Not central London or the Home Counties. Whatever are prices there doing now I wonder. Well I know, I also indulge in Country Life Magazine now and again.
We bought our farm some 17 years ago; we acquired the land in 1989 and took possession of the house the following year (via Farmer's Weekly I think).
This enabled the outgoing farmer to build his super new retirement bungalow on land he retained, and gave us breathing space to sell our pretty, quaint, quirky thatched cottage nearby. We were let down several times with our cottage sale (nothing new there then) and finally sold to an already elderly couple from Scotland. They were the least likely of our prospective purchasers we thought to make an offer; the gentleman was huge and tall, our ceiling heights varied to put in mildly. His good lady was a sweetie but with "dicky" hips, and our stairs wound round in a very precarious manner. Anyway they loved it and finally bought it and are still there. Not all elderly folks want a bungalow it would seem. When I see the couple out and about I dearly want to know if they still manage to negotiate those stairs. They were not for the faint hearted. But then them Highland folk are a tough old bunch as we know!
After all these years, and being married to an Architect, this farmhouse still has lots of things to be finished. A roof here, plastering there. A bit like a mechanics car I guess. It’s a long term, lifetime project. The farm, the buildings, and the house. In that order. It has been a huge long hard slog and I know I am very fortunate, but I do have a very soft spot in my heart for my little thatched cottage. My first home as a married woman. Is it me, or do us women get rather sentimental about houses.
12 comments:
Lovely blog Mousie. The property prices here make my jaw drop too. There really isn't that much difference now between Suffolk and commuter land. Of course, by the time we come to sell, if we ever do, there will no doubt have been a specatcular crash! We live in a quaint and slightly eccentric thatched cottage. Lots of mad rooms leading off one another where you wouldn't think there was one, sloping floors and low ceilings. I do love it, although sometimes I yearn for high ceilings and spacious light-filled rooms. I definitely get much more emotionally attached to our homes than R does. He'd move every coupld of years if I let him.
I have only ever had three homes, by birth home, my first married - the cottage, and this one. GOH, of the several wives, has had twenty or more - really.
I love it up here in Scotland but do miss the wonderful English Cottages . . . . we renovated a tumble down one in Holmbury . . . .
House prices are even more ridiculous here in Sussex. Now if you can commute to London the prices are shooting up. They were talking about getting people to commute to London from Corby but that costs £65 a day!
Lovely blog.
Warm wishes
Muddie
Far too attached, why some of them can fairly break your heart ..
Oh property prices -- too terrible to think about. As for getting attached. Was attached to last house, am attached to this one's garden, but the house itself does not touch my heart. That makes me a little sad, but in the grand scale of life's unpleasantnesses it's really not very high up there. It's a house in every way adequate, just not one I will ever love. So I love my life instead.
on saturdays l really love reading the yorkshire post's property section. these high priced homes are amazing. l would quete like a little cottage up on the moors but can't really be doing with spending 300K+ on a 2 bedroomed property, so l guess l'll have to stay here till l'm carried out!
My Eldest says we only ever finish a house if we are putting it on the market, she used to say "are we selling" whenever I got a pot of paint out.. House prices are so silly now tho aren't they!
My little cottage with the black and white striped door still pulls at my heart strings and I left it 24 years ago!
Hello Country Mousie - lovely to be able to leave a comment on your site. Thanks for the welcome!
I really love looking at house prices round here and seeing who is selling, what, where and what for! Tumbling buys me a local paper on a Friday and gives the Property section straight to me - it's a bit of a ritual.
I love the individuality of cottages - never two alike!
When we moved into our cottage , a very wise local man who put our first ( and later our second) woodburner in, said that living in a cottage was indeed a life time experience - he said it would take at least ten years to get straight - so not to worry about it all at once! I have always held on to that when I look at all the things that need doing still - half way there now......
The woman who lived here before us was here for 70 years!!
In 34 years of marriage we've had 12 houses. I still look at the real estate paper every week, but this house is the one that I love. House prices here are terrible, but yours sound worse. I wonder how young families manage.
Our weekly paper had a few four/five bed houses at a million plus yesterday - and less than a dozen acres with each. And they weren't even that nice. Ridiculous. When I think of the farm in Suffolk we were looking at, if the old Aristo had got his finger out on the paperwork we would have had an amazing bargain. Instead they have music festivals there now I hear.
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