Love It Or List It viewers branded a mother “miserable” and “impossible to please” after she refused to consider moving house, despite her original home having a wide range of problems.
Shaun and Sarah’s £432,000 three-storey Victorian terraced house in Whitley Bay featured in the latest episode of the Channel 4 show, as they decided whether to stay in their current home (“I love it”) or move out. house (“include it”). ‘).
Despite being just minutes from the beach and boasting an enviably designed interior, their suburban seaside residence was plagued with problems that made it almost impossible to manage family life with five children.
The couple had spent five years struggling to decide whether to keep their home, which included a small two-person kitchen with no space for a dishwasher, a tiny garden the “size of a slice of Dairylea” and a singular bathroom shared by seven. Additionally, the property was very nice for a Kwik Fit store.
Sarah and Shaun decided to enlist the help of property experts Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer with a budget of £70,000 to renovate their current home, or £650,000 to find a new one.
Sarah, who runs a reusable cloth nappy library, firmly said she “loves” the team and insisted their current home had a “lovely family feel”.
But viewers disagreed with their decision and said they would have “moved in a heartbeat” due to lack of space for their large family.
Meanwhile, product marketing manager Shaun was convinced the family should “list it” as there were “a number of things in this house that just don’t work”, namely the “impractical” facilities.
Love It Or List it viewers branded Sarah (left) “miserable” after she refused to move out of her Whitley Bay home, even though it was too small for her large family.
‘The kitchen is really small, you can’t put a cat in there. “Actually, we are a maximum of two people,” he admitted, adding that the family did not have space to install a dryer or a dishwasher, which only increased the domestic burden borne by the couple.
Sarah revealed that she was forced to wash dishes three times a day and, without proper laundry facilities, had to wash 10 loads each week.
The couple initially started with a budget of £70,000 but ended up shelling out a whopping £110,000 to renovate their home.
The works included a kitchen extension, renovation of a former living room and an additional bathroom and laundry.
Their decision to keep the house came as no surprise to Kirstie and Phil, who had struggled to convince them to even look at other houses.
Because Sarah was determined to keep the family home, she showed little or no enthusiasm when it came to looking at other potential properties.
After discussing the big changes that would be required to renovate their new home, including installing at least one new bathroom and adding an extension to their kitchen, the couple finally went with Phil to view a potential new property.
Even though the other house was just one minute and six seconds from her original home, Sarah was immediately concerned, telling the property guru that there were “some compromises that I can’t understand.”

The two-person kitchen was shared with seven people and there was not enough space for a dishwasher.

The couple also only had a single bathroom shared between them and their five children.
The couple decided to move forward with the renovations, but described the Victorian home as “stubborn as a child” as the changes only seemed to reveal other problems integral to its construction.
Later in the episode, Phil took Shaun and Sarah to see two other properties, which they quickly turned down.
With their five children, the couple had a number of demands about where they could live: including that the house be close to schools, nurseries and universities, and that it be “within walking distance” of a corner store.
“I like being able to walk to the corner store and buy a pint of milk,” Sarah insisted, arguing that she and Shaun would quickly become a “taxi service” for their children if they lived more than a walk from a city. . .
Phil described the search for a property that met all the family’s needs as “one of the most complex searches” and admitted that Sarah was “proving a tough nut to crack”.
Viewers of the show criticized Sarah’s lukewarm response to the properties, with several on X, formerly known as Twitter, describing her as a “misery”.
They wrote: ‘You miserable woman! Calm down chicken, your own house is a coup d’état;
‘What misery! The house is huge and much better than the one they have!’;




Viewers of the show criticized Sarah’s lukewarm response to the properties, with several on X, formerly known as Twitter, describing her as a “misery”.
“The husband is afraid to get excited in case she doesn’t enjoy it”;
“The children are overcrowded and have nowhere to play”;
“I would have moved in a heartbeat. They have a garden the size of a portion of Dairylea.
As none of Phil’s suggested homes turned out to be a success, the property guru commented that she “wasn’t really giving it time”, despite her husband’s desire to move.
The decision not to move came as no surprise to Kirstie and Phil, who were convinced the family would stay there after their lukewarm reaction to other properties.
The couple added ample space to their previously small kitchen by knocking down the wall of one of their living spaces and adding an extension to the front of the room, creating “the heart of their home”.
When the property gurus came to visit the property, they were both amazed by the renovation, with Kirstie even going so far as to say it was “the biggest kitchen transformation we’ve ever had.”
However, Phil was quick to point out that the transformation did not “escape all of the house’s natural challenges.”

Even experienced property experts Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer appeared to grow frustrated with the search.

Sarah’s husband Shaun was also frustrated by the lack of family space, especially in the kitchen (pictured).

The couple added ample space to their previously small kitchen by knocking down the wall of one of their living spaces and adding an extension to the front of the room, creating “the heart of their home”.
The couple’s former games room was also renovated into a custom utility room with plenty of storage space for Sarah’s business.
They even managed to make way for another bathroom after “stealing space” from the old game room to make way for a small bathroom.
The budget was also expanded to allow the family to transform their bathroom facilities, extending their existing bedroom upstairs and adding an additional bathroom downstairs.
After almost six years of decision-making and £100,000 later, the couple decided to stay with their current home, but said they had deliberated “for many nights” about what was “the best balance”.
Shaun said “proximity” was the biggest factor in his decision.
However, the couple had not finished all the renovations and were hoping to spend a further £10,000 to complete the remaining rooms.
Despite the high costs – almost 25 per cent of the house’s value – the couple were left speechless when Kirstie revealed its value had risen to £632,000, meaning they made a £90,000 profit.
Sarah couldn’t believe the valuation and said the two were “just hoping to break even.”
Kirstie and Phil’s Love It Or List It is now available to stream on Channel 4.