Comedowntothewoods

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I can’t believe the cost! It’s madness to me but I wouldn’t want to even spend £1k for a week away in a cottage for a week in the UK
 
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I can’t believe the cost! It’s madness to me but I wouldn’t want to even spend £1k for a week away in a cottage for a week in the UK
We spend that to stay in the UK for a week but we need a lot of bedrooms, an enclosed garden and somewhere that accepts dogs. The house we usually stay at also has off road parking, beautiful views and is a 10 min walk to a quiet dog friendly cove. There‘s no way on this earth I’d be shelling out six times that to stay in a hemmed in terrace that opens straight out onto the road, an hour‘s walk from a beach! Lunacy.

*not that I would stay as she doesn’t allow dogs
 
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We spend that to stay in the UK for a week but we need a lot of bedrooms, an enclosed garden and somewhere that accepts dogs. The house we usually stay at also has off road parking, beautiful views and is a 10 min walk to a quiet dog friendly cove. There‘s no way on this earth I’d be shelling out six times that to stay in a hemmed in terrace that opens straight out onto the road, an hour‘s walk from a beach! Lunacy.

*not that I would stay as she doesn’t allow dogs
That I can understand. There’s only two of us and a dog though. If she doesn’t allow dogs does this mean her dogs don’t go?
 
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That I can understand. There’s only two of us and a dog though. If she doesn’t allow dogs does this mean her dogs don’t go?
I don’t think he does, no. I think she mentioned it on a story when she did a question box Q&A, along the lines of, “Doggy guests?”, “No, not even my own is allowed!”. Shooting herself in the foot a bit as a major reason people holiday in the UK is their dogs and lots of owners will pay a premium for nice accommodation (inc me, though not that Premium a premium!). Though I suppose there’ll be plenty of people who’ll also pay a premium for a place where dogs haven’t been (allergies, phobias, general preference). Plus the increased doggy wear and tear on those fussy finishes…
 
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Massively overshot. Overspending on/overdeveloping your own property is one thing but doing it on an investment property and expecting buyers or renters to pick up the slack and dig you out of your self-imposed financial hole is not only deeply unwise, it’s also pretty bleeping cheeky.
Well it says entrepreneur on the Smurf House Instagram. Any entrepreneur worth their salt would have a business plan in place for the development and how to fund the costs id uptake is not what as expected. I hope their expectations aren’t based upon what some holiday rental firm told them was possible as they will obviously over egg it. That new house they have just bought is a huge project. We did similar about 4 years ago when the entire house was taken totally back to brick and completely reconfigured and then fitted out. So relieved we had done everything then and not now when costs for materiel and labour have shot through the roof. Plus you always find other things that need sorted as part of the renovation so a very large contingency is needed. This is why I am struggling to understand how this is all affordable. The husband’s practice is not huge and even taking 50% of the other associates’ income will not generate the enormous sums needed to pay for all this and maintain 4 kids. Costs are going through the roof in dentistry and even if the husband works non-stop, there’s only so much treatment you can ethically do depending on what the patients’ needs are. A lot of confused people working in the same or associated professions watching this with interest.
 
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Well it says entrepreneur on the Smurf House Instagram. Any entrepreneur worth their salt would have a business plan in place for the development and how to fund the costs id uptake is not what as expected. I hope their expectations aren’t based upon what some holiday rental firm told them was possible as they will obviously over egg it. That new house they have just bought is a huge project. We did similar about 4 years ago when the entire house was taken totally back to brick and completely reconfigured and then fitted out. So relieved we had done everything then and not now when costs for materiel and labour have shot through the roof. Plus you always find other things that need sorted as part of the renovation so a very large contingency is needed. This is why I am struggling to understand how this is all affordable. The husband’s practice is not huge and even taking 50% of the other associates’ income will not generate the enormous sums needed to pay for all this and maintain 4 kids. Costs are going through the roof in dentistry and even if the husband works non-stop, there’s only so much treatment you can ethically do depending on what the patients’ needs are. A lot of confused people working in the same or associated professions watching this with interest.
Entrepreneur? Not a dentist anymore then. Worst. Entrepreneur. Ever.

They must have leveraged everything to the hilt.

I’d be very nervous about the very precarious house of cards. It may be that they‘ve got some huge stash somewhere (inheritance or other windfall) to fall back on of course, but as an outsider with experience of renovating and living in old, large houses, they’ve bitten off a couple BIG chunks they may have difficulty chewing.
 
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I can’t find the listing on the rental website, why isn’t it easily linked on the Smurf house Instagram?! Such an entrepreneur 🤣

and just like that, the link’s been changed. 👋🏻👋🏻
 
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Entrepreneur? Not a dentist anymore then. Worst. Entrepreneur. Ever.

They must have leveraged everything to the hilt.

I’d be very nervous about the very precarious house of cards. It may be that they‘ve got some huge stash somewhere (inheritance or other windfall) to fall back on of course, but as an outsider with experience of renovating and living in old, large houses, they’ve bitten off a couple BIG chunks they may have difficulty chewing.
Agree. I feel there is family money involved somewhere. It’s not unusual for a few dentists to have practices bought entirely with family money and whilst they pose all over Instagram with their amazing cars, everyone else is looking at their massive bank loans and wondering if they can afford to get their 10 year old Volvo serviced. Very important to remember that they are the exception not the rule. I feel shades of this here. If everything goes exactly to plan, they will be fine. If not, this could be highly problematic. It puts huge subconscious pressure on them both too to be generating money from dentistry as a back stop option if all else fails. That is really not ideal because it can put you in a real ethical dilemma and sub-optimal choices leading to complaints can follow just from that subconscious pressure. I would hate to be in that position. It was a huge thing for us to take on our renovation and we checked and triple checked costings, had a plan B and C and a very big contingency. The thought of having to keep checking if booking have come through just as we are about to go into a recession and inflation is a 10% makes me feel a bit sick.
 
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I know that area really well and am staggered at the pricing and the responses of the holiday let people. They are being pretty misleading saying yes its walking distance and "it depends on what people's walking abilities are" - half implying for reasonably young, fit people it would be totally fine. It is at least a 50 min walk to Salcombe or the beach along really narrow single track lanes with no pavements or places to duck in away from cars. Imagine tackling that with kids, especially tired and wiped out at the end of a beach day.
Just doing a quick search and for £1,400 less a week you could rent an utterly stunning farmhouse in Malborough which sleeps 12, has huge gardens, lots of parking etc and likes dogs!
 
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I know that area really well and am staggered at the pricing and the responses of the holiday let people. They are being pretty misleading saying yes its walking distance and "it depends on what people's walking abilities are" - half implying for reasonably young, fit people it would be totally fine. It is at least a 50 min walk to Salcombe or the beach along really narrow single track lanes with no pavements or places to duck in away from cars. Imagine tackling that with kids, especially tired and wiped out at the end of a beach day.
Just doing a quick search and for £1,400 less a week you could rent an utterly stunning farmhouse in Malborough which sleeps 12, has huge gardens, lots of parking etc and likes dogs!
She’s pissing in the wind with this one
 
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I know that area really well and am staggered at the pricing and the responses of the holiday let people. They are being pretty misleading saying yes its walking distance and "it depends on what people's walking abilities are" - half implying for reasonably young, fit people it would be totally fine. It is at least a 50 min walk to Salcombe or the beach along really narrow single track lanes with no pavements or places to duck in away from cars. Imagine tackling that with kids, especially tired and wiped out at the end of a beach day.
Just doing a quick search and for £1,400 less a week you could rent an utterly stunning farmhouse in Malborough which sleeps 12, has huge gardens, lots of parking etc and likes dogs!
I know that area really well and am staggered at the pricing and the responses of the holiday let people. They are being pretty misleading saying yes its walking distance and "it depends on what people's walking abilities are" - half implying for reasonably young, fit people it would be totally fine. It is at least a 50 min walk to Salcombe or the beach along really narrow single track lanes with no pavements or places to duck in away from cars. Imagine tackling that with kids, especially tired and wiped out at the end of a beach day.
Just doing a quick search and for £1,400 less a week you could rent an utterly stunning farmhouse in Malborough which sleeps 12, has huge gardens, lots of parking etc and likes dogs!
I know the area really well too. I agree that the company are being misleading. It’s a really tricky walk to Salcombe.

People do pay a lot in that area to holiday, however they would expect to bring a dog, have far more outside space and to be a very quick walk to Salcombe.
 
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I really don’t understand mizz knits. I find it extremely… frumpy 🤷🏼‍♀️
What I don’t understand is how it all works. Form the bits I’ve seen Mizzle whatevers follows come down to the woods about and does filming. Does she get paid for all this?! Or is just free stays at the holiday house and spare canapés from the Waitrose events?
 
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More before & afters of the holiday home, she’s spent far to much on that home to reap the benefits. Has she had any bookings? She sounds deflated on her stories.
 
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More before & afters of the holiday home, she’s spent far to much on that home to reap the benefits. Has she had any bookings? She sounds deflated on her stories.
I looked last night and saw only the weeks that were initially blocked- which are for their use? They’ve kind of missed the boat for this summer as most reservations are made January/February time. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
 
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I looked last night and saw only the weeks that were initially blocked- which are for their use? They’ve kind of missed the boat for this summer as most reservations are made January/February time. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Yes it will be, I can’t help but feel it’s all been a huge mistake. Unless they have a huge pot of money tucked away.
 
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I’m sure that when she first bought it she said they didn’t intend to do a lot to it.

I wonder if they been better off just decorating and some minor additions.
looking at the original floor plan on Rightmove, she could have added 2 en-suites upstairs, still had an accessible bedroom and shower room downstairs, but she could have then kept additional living space. The garden did need work, but given guests need to go inside at 10pm (WTF) then that could have been limited too, patio new grass and planting and BBQ/outdoor seating. I am sure greedy Katie would have got a lots of freebies still so wouldn’t have had to pay for much.
Then she could let dogs stay rather than a ‘request’ and also not have a expensive finish that will be dated and extortionate to maintain

Additionally, guests in this very high end price bracket expect all the details to be high end. So george from Asda plates and slight seconds mugs isn’t going to wash!
 
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They were probably always going to go full Reno as they have had so much gifted to them so hasn’t cost them as much as it would a normal non influencer. It’s still beyond many people’s means though. And on top of that they buy another million pound Reno project which again will be funded by all the freebie flooring, radiators, tiles, furnishings and probably a freebie kitchen.
 
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Now a week’s giveaway as a competition. I bet Mizzle Knits “wins” and had to spend the week deep cleaning the place or the winner will have to go in the depth of winter and agree to post 97,000 photos and have every moment documented.

This is somewhat jarring with the earlier proclamations of the holiday company - first comes is first to get booked. Best to manage the expectant hoard’s expectations 🙈
 
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Yep or Man with a Hammer will win but he’ll be expected to make that outdoor kitchen for Katie whilst he is there. Because, despite much much begging - she hasn’t been gifted one.
 
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