Yup, it's the once-derelict, now spectacularly renovated Devon house that was the subject of the Channel 4 series Kirstie's Home-Made House. It's available for rental through Helpful Holidays, and it's really wonderful; it makes you feel like you've wandered into some sort of Enid Blyton holiday fantasy with the tweeness removed: instant good mood. We went towards the end of the Easter holidays, when - miraculously - the sun was shining and the children actually went into the sea (in wetsuits, but still). It was complete bliss.
Meadowgate, along with the Beacon House in Whitstable - which I blogged about last week - is the best holiday rental I've ever had (she said, dramatically and quaking with emotion). Actually, it probably has the edge over Whitstable in that it is *so* brilliantly well-appointed and comfortable; it's also much bigger. This is lovely, obviously, but it's also important in a country where the crazy-ass weather can still completely ruin your holiday: I am more than familiar with being huddled en famille on a nasty sofa, in front of a tiny telly with crap reception, watching the rain pour down and thinking, 'What are we DOING? Why have we PAID to be here?'. Not so at Meadowgate, which induces fairly extreme lifestyle envy; I liked it so much that I went into a six-day daydream about what would happen if I bought the local pub and set up home locally.
We had a grotty day and it simply didn't matter: this is a house made for lounging about in (it'd be nice in winter, actually - it's super-cosy, despite its size). I did giant cooking (there's a six-door Aga) while the teenagers watched tv in another room, adult guests read in the sitting room and various small children and randoms kept me company in the utterly giant kitchen, which my daughter scootered round daily and which contains every single implement you could conceivably desire. My bedroom was vast, amazingly comfortable (Vi-Spring beds - heaven) and had a bath at one end of it, so I could lie there gazing at the view and wondering where the pervo dungeon was.< not near enough to bother you, is the answer to that. The other bedrooms are lovely also; unusually for rental properties, even ones in this price bracket, there isn't a duff tiny one.
Everything was beautiful but robust, from the stacks of vintage dinner plates to the toys in the playroom, so that you could pick things up/plonk yourself down/let children run about without screeching about delicateness and the need to be careful. Speaking of which, I found this the best all-ages house I've ever stayed in - it's big enough for people to wander off and do their own thing, whether that is setting up a camp in the garden (daughter), playing table tennis in the garage (older children) or just sort of lying there, beached, with a book and a bottle of wine.
I should also mention the spectacular location. You go out of the gate, cross the little road, walk through a series of amazing National Trust meadows - when we went there were yellow irises everywhere and more butterflies than I'd seen in years - and after about ten minutes you come to a really jaw-dropping view of the sea. Walk down and there's the beach, completely empty except for about two other people, and with extraordinary stripey rock formations.
Bit gushy? Not really. I am amazingly, tiresomely picky, and I couldn't find anything to be picky about. Meadowgate is just a really, really lovely house, in a lovely place, and with a lovely child-friendly pub a short drive away. Everything about it feels generous, and generously done.
I write books, and things for The Sunday Times. But I wanted a place to stick other stuff I like, and Posterous is unbelievably easy to set up. So here we are. Yet another work-avoidance strategy by me. You can follow me on Twitter, too - I'm @indiaknight. I know, right? The interwebs: where the fun never ends.