ann m

... you'd be able to pay for all that DIY

Irish Guinness

Very creative Bevm !!!!! looks good

Irish Guinness

I can relate to all of this !!!!!!
special rooms for the Grandkids all their special things in their rooms and we see them 3 times a year if we are lucky....

All the best on your return home.

Cheers I.G.

Heljinder

I'll be glad to give up the wooden floors here, they're a real pain. Have to sweep them first, then mop them. By the end of the day they look awful again. It'll be lovely to get back to carpets which you only have to vac. Carpets are great for muffling noise too, as I'm so fed up with my kid's voices ricocheting around this bare floored, open plan house!

My house in England is much bigger than the one we rent here. I don't care what size it is though, because for me, it's home.

I'll miss not being overlooked by all and sundry here though. I can walk around in the backyard wearing or not wearing what I like, and nobody can see. OMG! that's just brought back a horrible memory from my house in England! I used to open my son's curtains in the morning to be greeted by the sight of the bloke in the opposite house sitting in his budgie-smuggler underpants having his breakfast......think I might just stay in Aus after all!

cricket1again

So you haven't woken up to your Aussie neighbour opposite your place drinking a can Fosters, scratching his tackle, wearing ridiculously obscene shorts, a vest, tattoos, unshaven and looking like something a crocodile ate a week ago but couldn't digest?

I must be on a different planet. I swear I never saw anything like it in England. And I live at the posh end. I go through so many pairs of sunglasses just trying to hide my eyes from really what would otherwise be locked up for causing a public disturbance in the UK.

Funky Monkey

I am sure it is not easy and I may be in that position soon but if thats all that life is about for some people then I am not sure happiness will ever be something they will easily find. I would give this up in a flash and go back to my 3 bed semi if I wanted to.

kericare

having a big home isnt everything at the end of the day its where yr gonna be most happy,i would love to be back in my old house i miss it soo much and everything about home ,oh if i could turn back the clock i would

Heljinder

Thankfully, Aussie man seems fairly civilised in my street. Can't believe you haven't seen Aussie male's British counterpart, Cricket. You must have lived a very sheltered existence there!

cricket1again

I've always lived in blissful ignorance of whatever else was going on around me in the UK. I lived in semi rural places, villages, hamlets, market towns. I never saw anything repulsive or offensively ugly but I have seen funny incidences. For example, on Christmas eve once, someone left horse poop under my neighbours illuminated santa and reindeer sleigh.
Someone else stole or 'borrowed' a neighbours ornamental stone carved dogs that marked the entry to their drive. He reported it to the police and they were mysteriously returned soon afterwards sporting black painted on spots to look like dalmations. (Wasn't me).
Someone else sent a ransom note to a neighbour saying he could only have his garden gnomes back if they stopped playing Des O'Connor when he was on shifts.

I've only ever seen a lot of funny things that made us all smile and realise how people can do things that end up giving us all a few bright moments if we can see the funny side.
Definately am looking forward to going back home to the ordinariness of the UK sense of humour.

Heljinder

Your stories sound like an episode from the 'The Vicar of Dibley'.

I have to go back to my house, which I like very much, but it's the town it's in that I really dislike. It's a depressing place, and where we live in WA beats it hands down. Once hubby has a permanent job in the UK, which could then take us anywhere, we'll sell up and look for a place in a village or semi rural location.

We fly out on the 1st July. I'll feel sorry to leave WA, but England is the best place for us as a family.

cricket1again

I have always lived a Vicar of Dibley life style. I lived mostly in the Lake District then I moved to Northamptonshire and lived in villages. It's a strange dichotomy. On the one hand, the Vicar of Dibley life protects and shelters you from everything, your children grow up thinking Postman Pat is real and that everyone lives happy ever after. But when something bad happens, the kids don;'t cope because bad things are outside their expectation of life in Never Never land. It really hurts them. A family friend died when my daughter was 13. At 27 we're still having problems with her coming to terms with death in a happy ever after neighbourhood. Thank God someone died in Harry Potter.

Today, the Lake District is an another planet away. While both my children are now young adults and doing OK, I hardly recognise them. They have changed so much in order to blend in with the rough edges of life and society today. And they want so much!

Even though life might be scary in some parts of where you live, I think you've got to find a balance where your children have exposure to both sides of society. You can set the rules and boundaries at home, which they will never forget, but in order for them to survive, they need to encounter the rough elements so that they know what to expect and how to survive it.

Village life close to a town, if you can can reconcile it with your work, is a good option. My children came home and relayed awful stories about friends involved with drugs, knives, theft, getting arrested, etc. They never got involved and they stayed safe. They both have good jobs and are respectable adults today. All you can do is set the rules at home and do your best as a parent. And have a bit of faith.

cricket1again

Just wondered.....you didn;t find WA isolated and full of nothingness? I know the UK is overpopulated and has all kinds of other problems but I can overlook that in favour of just feeling connected to a kind of root system.
In Australia, that feeling of being connected to an endless tyranny of the same old dry heat and endless bland landscape nearly sent me mad.
How did you find it?

Baby75

I was going to say the same, our house at home is bigger than the one we had in oz and so is the garden. I know a friend who returned has gotten a bigger house in a nicer area since coming home it can be done

ukintexas

Ah, come on PGTIPS, I think that's a little uncalled for. You don't have to be "shallow" and "materialistic" to be concerned about the impact downsizing will have. There are practicalities involved in any adjustment consideration and this is merely one of them. I don't think you're doing the OP, and others like them/us, justice in making such a black and white assumption.

In waying up my own options of staying in the US, or returning to the UK, the house we have here is playing a pat in that because of the way it affords us to live our life, not because of it's size in the black and white sense.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=577398

Another example is saying that "sun, sea and sand" is another shallow element that as expats (depending on location) we ave an opportunity to enjoy. This therefore forms a part of our decision/angst of what we're leaving behind. Sounds shallow in itself, I know, but is a reality of the decision nonetheless.

I'm sure I'm more materialistic than I would like to think I am but I certainly don't idolise my house and other things in it. I do, however, enjoy them and will consider those factors against what I'll have the ability to afford/enjoy back in the UK (should I ever get my head around that bleeping decision!).

Rusty Chainsaw

I'm actually all for smaller houses. I'm surrounded by huge McMansions over here in the US, and I crave the smaller houses of home. Forces you to have less clutter, cheaper to heat and cool, cosier... besides, who needs rooms that you might only go into twice a year?

Plus, certainly compared to the houses over here in the US, British houses are a lot better built. None of this wood framing, vinyl siding and bitumen shingles crap - you only ever see that kind of look on a garden shed back home! Give me bricks and tiles anyday! Haven't most of the people who get these kinds of houses ever heard the story of the three little pigs?