I really am. I watched an episode of 'Escape to the Country' the other day, where a couple were looking for a big country house in Lincolnshire, with a paddock for their daughter's pony. Grand. But the first house they were showed was so beautiful! It was an old Victorian vicarage, with huge rooms, high ceilings, beautiful views, a kitchen with all sorts of wonderful separate bits, like larders, prep rooms, etc, a bathroom 'wing' divided into three, shower, bath and toilet. It was just a gorgeous house, on sale for £440 thousand...
And the couple. They were very London, possibly very Essex - despite the fact that she loved the house and thought everything was 'lav-lay', her enthusiasm was muted - when she looked at the very Victorian sitting room, she wondered how their plasma screen would fit in with the decor, and when the presenter suggested she change it, she said 'Oh, I think the boys would have something to say about that'.
It's not that I don't watch tv all the time! I know I'm being a hypocrite. But that house is just crying out for children who read books, and who'll play Swallows and Amazons or whatever in it, not who'll play computer games and watch tv and fail completely to have the house capture their imagination. Awful as it is, I was watching the programme hoping for a happy ending, hoping they'd find something else. And they didn't, they wanted it.
I'm not being snobby about their accents or where they come from really. I mean, whoever the husband was he'd made his money better that I ever will - he can afford to live there, I can't. But it's the lack of culture and imagination, how divorced from the heritage of the house they seemed that frustrated me. There just wasn't any connection, it seemed such a nouveau riche situation.
I suppose the fact that I grew up in a house a bit like that, but is no longer mine makes it harder for me. It's hard to accept I won't have that again. Most people don't and I should just be grateful that I did. But I'm not that noble! They just won't appreciate it like I could!
1 comment:
"to have the house capture their imagination"
This is beautiful, and so what I want any house we live in to be for my children. That is what my house was like, and yours, wow! I was only in your house a handful of times as a child, but it made such a lasting impression.
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