Hunting for Location, Location, Location

January 28, 2012 12:55 AM

I love reading The Hunt column in the NY Times. Love watching "Location, Location, Location" (which I only get to see on cable when I'm at a hotel I travel to for work). Loved House Hunters when I saw it while overseas. I even like reading Ask Metafilter questions about where people should rent or buy when I have never even been to that city. What else would I like?

I would love some more to read - any similar newspaper columns? Blogs could be good - even if they are a good long individual person one about house hunting. At some point, I may become a technological genius *and* get fast internet access so I could watch stuff that has been on tv outside Australia, so suggest it, even if I can't get to it yet. Bonus points for hipster, or hysterically middle-class.

posted by AnnaRat to home & garden (10 answers total)

Grand Designs
posted by ellieBOA at 1:33 AM on January 28, 2012 [3 favorites]

These are my "watch while ironing" favourites:

George Clarke on Restoration Man and Build A New Life in the Country
Escape to the Country
Secret Location
Wanted Down Under
Relocation Down Under (Phil Spencer from Location, Location, Location)
A Place in the Sun


I'd also love to hear about more blogs and columns but I enjoyed reading Steve Carter's account of building a log home in the west highlands of Scotland.
posted by humph at 3:28 AM on January 28, 2012

Another vote for Grand Designs - it is especially good at ticking the "hysterically middle-class" box you are after.

Sometime Marine Biologist, Monty Halls, has made several programs which might also fit the bill. Here he is at "Beachcomber Cottage" an old bothy on the Applecross peninsular, Scotland. We watch him spending a summer there and worry about which of his pigs to slaughter (see also Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and "River Cottage").
posted by rongorongo at 4:56 AM on January 28, 2012

Here in NYC, real estate voyeurism is so acceptable we've got a tv channel that alternates local news with Open House NYC, which showcases apartments on sale in NY. I believe you can watch episodes straight off the website.
posted by larthegreat at 5:26 AM on January 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think humph has covered it, but here is a screenshot of all of Channel 4's property shows.

Correction: two screenshots.

Main one missed so far is Property Ladder. Chiefly of note because Sarah Beeny tends to get a bit exasperated when the participants don't listen to her, which is frequently.
posted by danteGideon at 5:28 AM on January 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Not a tv show, but a website - www.rightmove.co.uk. Pretty much every house for sale in the UK, searchable in a hundred different ways, usually with extensive image galleries. I spent about an hour looking at million-pound-plus London flats this morning.
posted by cilantro at 5:36 AM on January 28, 2012

Blog wise, what you want is Curbed.com. 100% House Porn, 24-7-365.

You may also like the Wall Street Journal's House of the Day, which is far more hysterically posh than hysterically middle class, but is also frequently eye-popping. (My fave was the CEO that had created a wing of his house devoted to museum of natural history style diorama of all the stuff he's shot, and invite local boy scouts in to gawp. Oh, there is video, and it is not to be missed.)
posted by Diablevert at 6:35 AM on January 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ah, talking of Sarah Beeny, I really enjoyed both series of Beeny's Restoration Nightmare (the website has lots of details too). She and her husband bought the 93 room(!) Grade II listed stately home in Yorkshire, first as a family home then as a wedding venue to generate income to combat the huge costs of said renovation. Fascinating stuff. (Rise Hall on Twitter.)

She's also got a new show coming up that you might look out for.
posted by humph at 7:15 AM on January 28, 2012

humph has a great list, out of all of those, my favorite is Escape to the Country.

I also like Relocation, Relocation (which is Location, Location, Location's cousin).

You might even like Country File, although that's not necessarily about moving, but the theme is similar.

If you're in England any time soon, try picking up a magazine called Town and Country House.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 7:43 AM on January 28, 2012

Ah, Grand Designs, yes, already familiar with Kevin; we have spent many hours together. The dvds are passed around my office like they are dirty magazines! And Property Ladder has been another favourite precisely because they never listen to Sarah Beeny!

I was more after that decision making on real estate type of voyeurism, rather than renovations or just straight real estate ads. It is always interesting as to what people say their priorities are vs what they end up choosing, and I guess also whether sellers are prepared to listen to advice on getting their place sold.

larthegreat is probably the closest since there is a short video segment called "The Hunt" on Open House NYC!!

But there are few suggestions in here that will entertain me still, even if they don't quite fit the brief.
posted by AnnaRat at 12:10 AM on January 31, 2012