“The interior of the cottage is very pleasant, reasonably well equipped and was very clean upon arrival.”
Good sized and comfortable lounge, dining room, kitchen. Main bedroom's bed very firm and comfortable BUT no summer duvets supplied - we had a winter duvet in summer heat in all rooms. The adult bunk beds are very creaky and did wake the occupants if they moved. Utter idiocy of light fittings upstairs - if you are over 5 feet tall you will crash into the light fittings about 5 times a day. Worst one is in main bedroom which is invisible at night and at below face (let alone head) height. This light looks stupid and is in a ridiculous location. All the lights upstairs need to be reviewed, they may even be a safety hazard. The biggest problem with the cottage is the lack of parking and roadside location. First the cottage booklet states that it "may be possible" to park at the local pub. It is not - we had an embarrassing encounter with the pub landlord who was annoyed at residents of the cottage parking there and made it clear we should not do so (he was polite and friendly and said he knew it was not our fault). The village car park was ALWAYS full in the evening. I mean totally full, the only free parking spaces in the village were outside the cottage and although we were usually lucky, you may not be! The owners were not truthful about the pub parking spaces and by indicating there is a village car park but not stating it is always full they are not telling the full truth. It adds stress to a holiday if you can't be sure of parking anywhere near your cottage. Finally the road outside the cottage is a nightmare. I live centrally in a large town, I was not expecting silence but this road was a nightmare with fast busy traffic and careless drivers. Although a 30mph zone the drivers were careless to the point of dangerous. We had two incidents while there, the first when someone (lorry or farmer?) crashed into the bin/recycling boxes in front of the house. They broke these items, even damaged the house slightly but did not stop. Was a massive crash, also heard by the neighbour. On our last day, a bus driver knocked on our door and said that he had seen someone reverse into our car and drive off. Paintwork was scratched, but driver didn't bother to tell us. So in the space of the week two serious stationary traffic incidents occurred. Personally I wouldn't feel safe living in those cottages! I would be worried having small children in the house - make sure you warn them of the dangers. I don't recall house having a door chain but owners should consider fitting one to keep younger children safe. The traffic is busy during rush hours at start and end of day. If you are a light sleeper expect to be woken by headlights at night. Sadly this is a really nice cottage badly let down by the lack of parking and horrible traffic.It also appears that the drivers of Devon are incompetent and dishonest!