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I had read about the family above in the March 25, 2019 issue of the ‘Hello!’ Magazine and kept the magazine aside for I had liked the table set above. A simple practical meal of high nutritional value put on table with a pleasant presentation… .

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The fruit plate seems attractive. The melons, cut in a way my children also like, look good with the figs and grapes on top of them. I had also thought putting fresh figs on top of the salad was a good idea. There seems also tomatoes, chicken and pasta on the table; a little bit of everything in the food pyramid. I had thought then that what a practical and nutritional meal and what a pleasant table and that I should also prepare such meals.

The table is also placed very well. I liked the dining area of the family and the sight of the garden seen from the big long glass construction near the table. The house with a garden, which is stated to be in south west London, is also nice.

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The family seen around the table above is the family of Sarah Beeny, who is a famous property expert and TV presenter well-known for her TV shows in Channel 4 in the UK. She is married to artist Graham Swift and has four sons who all smile cutely at the table above.

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Sarah Beeny states in the article in Hello! Magazine that they bought the above house for its extraordinary garden and as the family grew, they extended with building projects such as an enormous basement they dug to make up a games room and two guest rooms. Sarah Beeny and her husband also used to own ‘Rise Hall’ -a historic 97-room home in East Yorkshire which they sold in 2019 after having restored and turned it into a luxury wedding venue. Their renovation had been documented in UK’s Channel 4 series ‘Beeny’s Restoration Nightmare‘.

When I decided to write this post, I reread the article in Hello! magazine and wondered about the TV property shows which Sarah Beeny is known for. I watched some episodes of the shows ‘Property Ladder’, ‘Renovate Don’t Relocate’, ‘Double Your House For Half The Money’ and ‘Help! My House Is Falling Down’ which I found quite interesting and immersive. I suggest that you watch some of these shows especially if you think to enlarge, renovate or develop your house. I think they would be very helpful and useful. Even if not, I think they are enjoyable to watch and you can learn many things. In these shows, Beeny visits the houses of families who had asked for assistance or advice regarding the development of their property.

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For instance; in an episode of the TV show ‘‘Double Your House For Half The Money”, which demonstrates how to double your space half the cost of moving to a bigger home, Beeny was explaining how you could manage to create rooms within a living space by the use of heights, floor coverings or wall coverings. The show was also emphasizing that you could double the number of your rooms especially through basement conversion. In an episode of ”Help! My House Is Falling Down’‘ that I watched, Beeny and her team of experts renovated a historical bakery building from the 17th century in Northamptonshire, worn out completely due to the flooding in its basement and the infestation of the woodworms. In one episode of ”Property Ladder”, Beeny was helping two women renovating the house they had bought so that they were able to sell it with a good profit.

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When I watched these shows and listened to the details while Beeny was advising about the subject property, I realized what it means to be a property expert. I have read that Sarah Beeny’s father was an architect who was engaged in development projects as well and that Beeny set up her own property development company in her 20s. I liked the following words Beeny said at the end of one of the episodes of her shows:

”Many of us have romantic ideas about living in a chocolate-box property. … . The houses are like people. The older they get, the more we need to take care of them.”

Besides her property shows, Beeny had travelled around the country in 2017 for her TV show ‘UK’s Best Place To Live’, to determine the most desirable places to live in the UK looking at several factors such as affordable housing, job opportunities, business, wellbeing, culture, family life and social life. South Ribble had come at the top of the list of Beeny’s 50 best places to live in the UK then for a variety of reasons including its proximity to nearby cities -Liverpool and Manchester-, affordable house prices, good schools, high wellbeing scores, a friendly community and a beautiful countryside. Manchester was 14th and Liverpool was 49th on the list. (thesun.co.uk, 21 Feb 2017).

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Sarah Beeny is an active businesswoman and an entrepreneur. As I checked her web site (sarahbeeny.com), I read that she is also the founder of an online estate agency (tepilo.com) and an online dating site (mysinglefriend.com) which are said to be quite popular in the UK. Beeny also has a podcast series “Round The Houses” where she hosts rich and famous people who allow her into their homes.

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In the article I read in Hello! magazine, it is stated that Sarah Beeny is selling her home in London and moving to the country, to a farm house in Somerset. She says in the writing that although she said she would never sell that house which represented her sons’ childhood and their magical memories there, the time had come. Then she makes the following statement which I liked:
‘‘Children grow up too quickly in London. We just want them to be children as long as they can.”.
She says the children are so free in their new home and land in Somerset where they have a river and are about to dig a lake so that they can swim in it. It is also stated in the writing that Beeny and her husband planted more than a thousand trees on their land. In compliance with her entrepreneurial side; Beeny says that they plan to establish new businesses in the barn buildings in their Somerset land including glamping or a cider brand.

During my research, I found out that a new series called ”Sarah Beeny’s New Life in The Country” is in production for UK’s Channel 4 which would follow Sarah Beeny and her family on the former dairy farm they bought in Somerset and record Beeny’s creating a country life for the family. (channel4.com). The series is suggested for anyone who’s ever dreamed of leaving the city for a new life in the country. (televisual.com)

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In the article in ‘Hello!’, Beeny tells that all her four sons are attending a school near Glastonbury close to their new home. She says she felt there was too much emphasis on the academic side in their old school and since her husband is an artist and herself not very academic, she wanted the childrens’ creative side to be nurtured. Beeny states that music, drama, arts and sports are just as important as the academic side.

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I appreciate that Beeny gives importance to nature, arts and to children’s growing up freely in nature as well as their being engaged in cultural activities. I liked the following quote of hers that I read in the article in Hello! magazine:
‘‘We’re making life simpler so we can concentrate on the things that really matter.”
I guess during this pandemic period we pass through, we all have realized that life should be simpler and that our endless hustle and bustle may cause our missing the things that really matter.

As I am to finish this post, I have noticed that a pleasant dinner table made me discover many things. As it is the case when we gather around pleasant tables which lead to pleasant chats … .

Notes: Check here for the books by Sarah Beeny.

If you are interested in property development, you may check here, here and here in Amazon for the property / real estate development books.
For the property development books for beginners check here for the book “Real Estate Investing QuickStart Guide” and here for the book “Financial Freedom with Real Estate Investing“.