Country vs The Town

Steven81

We bought a dormer just on the outskirts of town, we love it. Prior to this we lived in an estate which we enjoyed but looking at it now we had to put up with more noise at night, poor car parking spaces, street lamps, lot of door to door collections. Which do ye prefer and why?

smallerthanyou

My homeplace is proper in the country (grass growing in the middle of the road style) and I now live in a densely populated apartment block development.

Pros of City
- everything on doorstep, football matches, shops, concerts, grabbing a carton of milk from the shop 20 meters from house. It's all so easy.
- amenities - library is close, a football team for a kid to join is available for her to walk to

Cons
- ITS NEVER DARK!
- The noise at night, there's so so much noise.
- Lack of community spirit (I live in apartment block so there's none!)

Pros of Country
- There's nothing like bringing the dogs for a 2 hour walk off-lead and meeting noone and no cars passing
- Strong sense of community (to point of nosiness but still)

Cons
- You are missing something for dinner - 12 minute drive to shop to pick it up and 12 minutes back
- Local pub inaccessable without someone to drive you home and little else to go to to meet people
- No amenities
- Electricity or water go then be prepared to wait up to a week or more to get it back and until you've gone a week without water and electricity you haven't lived!

All in all I love living in the city and love my monthly weekend visits to the country as visits but it'll always be city-living for me!

jmayo

I can't wait for this thread to degenerate into a moral crusade to have everyone living in a major city and the clensing of the countryside of the evil of one of housing. :rolleyes:

A big advantage of country is that you haven't got a nieghbour looking in your window/backgarden, but a disadvantage is that the neighbour that is nearby is probably far more nosier and probably knows more of your business.

gammon_steak

It's hilarious how it's so black and white to people. Why does living in the countryside mean you have to drive 12 minutes to find a shop or amenities? There are many people living in the countryside who have the best of both worlds.

smallerthanyou

gammon_steak wrote: »

It's hilarious how it's so black and white to people. Why does living in the countryside mean you have to drive 12 minutes to find a shop or amenities? There are many people living in the countryside who have the best of both worlds.

Well to me it is black and white so I can only give my experiences. We have no post office, no local shop, no community centre, no anything really but we have the peace and quiet of it all. When I look out my bedroom window I can't see a single other house. It's great.

Plenty of people have the best of both but not us. We do have the best of the country though.

goat2

i live in the country, would not change that, as for shopping, i get one big shop per month, and every few days i buy the perishables, with freezer one need never be out of stock, then again if you live near a town and are used to being able to pop out for a litre of milk and other items, it will take time to get in habit of making sure you buy and have it in fridge for tomorrow, i have lived in the town, but prefer the country, no traffic noise, i do notice that alot of people who own businesses in the town, have built homes out the country, and love living out of town

StillWaters

gammon_steak wrote: »

It's hilarious how it's so black and white to people. Why does living in the countryside mean you have to drive 12 minutes to find a shop or amenities? There are many people living in the countryside who have the best of both worlds.

If you can walk to a shop, pub or school you are not in the country IMO, you are in a conurbation of some description.