Beeny's Restoration Nightmare

[Moo]

For me, the message of the programme is "Look, we've bought this crumbling old wreck and turned it into a thriving business!" not "We've bought a crumbling old wreck and using the best historic techniques and materials have saved it from ruin to make a lovely family home"

Oh, come off it, Joce - be realistic! You can say that about the places that we are all turning into lovely family homes, but that's because they're small enough to accommodate a family. But the house in question has nearly a hundred bedrooms.
The only way that most of the people who have inherited similar places can afford to stop them rotting into the ground is by turning them into some sort of business.

 

[robgil]

so why not use it as something of some use? like homing the homeless through the winter? having the odd wedding really doesnt justify a family of five living in a 100 bedroomed building to me.

 

[JoceAndChris]

It has 32 bedrooms, though nearly 100 rooms. As a departure from my usual stance, I'd suggest that the facade should be kept but the back section, particularly the hideous sports hall, demolished.

And I agree with Rob that there are more altruistic uses for such a large building - look at the fascinating history of this one, for example: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belsay_Hall?wasRedirected=true

I'm never going to kow-tow to the likes of Ms Beeny, and am far more likely to be Wrong but Wromantic than realistic - give me a ruin on the skyline, a Miss Havisham in a rotting prison, a vengeful fire when the family's lineage has ended.

Who remembers the chatelaine of Plas Teg, featured on "Country House Rescue" earlier this year? Now she was a truly sympathetic figure, who commanded a great response to her plight from her community. She let the wedding punters in, I think (or was it theatricals?), but the commercial venture was always the last desperate resort of someone who truly saw herself as temporary guardian and protectress of an important piece of our heritage.

 

[robgil]

And while we are at it , her taste in hand bags stinks and ive been told she's an awful cook!
damn you beeny , look what you have driven us to! Why couldnt you just settle for help my house is falling down, no , oh no , you had to take it one more step , well its one step too far, ONE STEP TOO FAR I TELL YOU! DAMN YOU BEENY , DAMN YOU WOMAN!

:lol:

 

[Moo]

I think it's cold, unwelcoming, rushed looking and plain on the inside, and enduringly ugly on the outside. I ... can see it could appeal to a certain type.

Cold and unwelcoming? Surely you can't apply that to the book room? I could happily spend my leisure time in there, curled up on one of those squashy sofas with a good book and a glass or two of wine, before retiring to that bedroom with the en-suite bathroom with the copper bath. And my dogs (lots of, of course) and poor housekeeping would soon give the hall a patina of shabby chic.
I like the outside, as well. Oh, dear - I think I must be one of those 'certain types'.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I don't care - I think she is as fit as a Butchers dog.

 

[robgil]

you have got to be out of you mind.

the question that is most likely niggling at us all though,
Who would win in a fight, Sarah beeny or Kirsty Allsopp?

 

[FamilyWiggs]

That's a grim pic!

Kirsty would win (I fancy her too!)

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: :lol: :lol: to Rob.

I think Robin is blinded by one or two prominent features. :wink:

Moo - the book room is nice I must admit ( though I think it could be still nicer). The central hall with the parquet floor and the lonely looking zebra and little lost chandelier doesn't appeal much, and bedrooms are just not detailed enough for my taste ( I suppose you either love or hate wallpaper - I'll never forget all the hand painted papers at Hambleton Hall on Rutland Water, which is to my taste) - but I'd never lump you in with the types I mentioned, and was really referring to typical workers from the Hull area ( which is where it is) who'd be impressed by the celebrity endorsement and see it as a good place to get drunk.

 

[Feltwell]

Kirsty would win (I fancy her too!)

I thought you might somehow! She does wear some very, very frumpy outfits though - or so Mrs F tells me

I agree, I think Kirsty would win. Have you seen her little sister Sofie ? Still a bit "jolly hockey sticks" but I think you'd be impressed!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Watched it, loved it , admire what Sarah is doing, but above all she has a lovely family and a jolly good rapport with her other half, that's what really counts. Many of us, however big or small our houses, do sometimes think that the house should earn its living, and as Ruth Watson says, these fine properties must be preserved, whatever it takes or they will be lost for ever.

What about Chicheley, that was a family home, now it belongs to The Royal Society where members can reflect and research. I believe that several million has been spent on it, but better that than an absent owner who just leaves it to fall apart.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I agree, I think Kirsty would win. Have you seen her little sister Sofie ? Still a bit "jolly hockey sticks" but I think you'd be impressed!

Is this the gal?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-409171/Kirstie-replaced-property--sister.html

Sorry for the outbreak of un-pc behaviour from me on this thread!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Well, if we're going to lower ourselves to lusting after strangers in the public eye, may I join in please?

Sacheverell Sitwell please, who famously remarked in the twenties to his sweetheart "I am, though I say it myself, about the cleverest young man of my age in the country, and I know you would like my companionship." I think I'd have liked it too.

 

[Gervase]

I agree, I think Kirsty would win. Have you seen her little sister Sofie ? Still a bit "jolly hockey sticks" but I think you'd be impressed!

Is this the gal?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-409171/Kirstie-replaced-property--sister.html

Sorry for the outbreak of un-pc behaviour from me on this thread!

Eh? De gustibus and all that, but in that picture it looks as though someone has wiped something faecal under the woman's nose. And, given that the Daily Mail salivates over posh totty, that must be the most flattering portrait it could lay hands on.
However, I'm sure it will come as a great relief to the Hon Hindlip women to learn that none of them is remotely my type.

 

[robgil]

I agree, I think Kirsty would win. Have you seen her little sister Sofie ? Still a bit "jolly hockey sticks" but I think you'd be impressed!

Is this the gal?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-409171/Kirstie-replaced-property--sister.html

Sorry for the outbreak of un-pc behaviour from me on this thread!

Eh? De gustibus and all that, but in that picture it looks as though someone has wiped something faecal under the woman's nose. And, given that the Daily Mail salivates over posh totty, that must be the most flattering portrait it could lay hands on.
However, I'm sure it will come as a great relief to the Hon Hindlip women to learn that none of them is remotely my type.

ha ha , yes , or walloped her in the face with a spade, she has a face like a display plate.
come on guys , if its lustful beings we are looking at i am sure we could do better than this?

 

[Jill]

Kirsty would win (I fancy her too!)

I thought you might somehow! She does wear some very, very frumpy outfits though - or so Mrs F tells me

I agree with Mrs F. Paul has a thing about Kirsty aswell.

 

[Feltwell]

Just to clarify - Kirsty doesn't do anything at all for me, but as she floats FW's boat then I thought her little sister definitely would! Her sister, when I saw her on television once, is quite an attractive girl - but I agree, that photograph does her no favours at all, the facial expression is far too haughty. As to if she is actually arrogant and superior - I have no idea!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or occasionally the beer-holder.

This thread has become very un-PC. I notice none of the ladies have replied to say that Kirsty's sidekick, the eternally annoying and smug Phil, is worthy of their consideration. I suspect Kevin McCloud scores higher though????

 

[CatherineB]

This thread has become very un-PC. I notice none of the ladies have replied to say that Kirsty's sidekick, the eternally annoying and smug Phil, is worthy of their consideration. I suspect Kevin McCloud scores higher though????

You beat me to it, Feltwell. I was about to say I wouldn't kick either Kevin or Phil out for dropping crumbs in the bed... :mrgreen:

DH might, though, as he already has to share it with me and an extremely bossy cat!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

You beat me to it, Feltwell. I was about to say I wouldn't kick either Kevin or Phil out for dropping crumbs in the bed...

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Channel 4, Thursday, 8pm.
Incase nobody has spotted this yet, Sarah Beeny is restoring her own 97 (yes I do mean 97) room Georgian mansion, on television. Will she be ripping the guts out of it ? Will all the period features go in the skip ? We will just have to wait and see.

Scandal has broken - an unfortunate oversight in getting planning permission...

http://www.thisishullandeastriding....ion-historic/story-12969250-detail/story.html

The usual chorus of idiots in the comments ("oh, but she's done a lovely job" - well yes, but that's not the point)