Cottage - Isle of Lismore, Scotland

Rowantree Cottage is a cute, semi-detached cottage in need of complete refurbishment and modernisation.

It's ideal for someone looking for a quiet island hideaway (the Isle of Lismore has a primary school and a single shop) couple with a renovation project.

The stone-built cottage currently has just three rooms – a sitting room/kitchenette with open stonework walls, one bedroom and a bathroom. But also has a decent-sized floored loft space with potential to create a second bedroom.

There are gardens front and back, with open countryside views.

The Isle of Lismore sits in Loch Linnhe, on the West Coast of Scotland, and has frequent ferry access to the livelier Port Appin and to Oban.

Rowantree Cottage is on the market at offers around £80,000.

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Herdshouse Bothy, Melrose, Scotland

A stone-built, detached, original bothy with stunning views over the Eldon Hills. The property (which, let's face it is a damn fine-looking shed right now) has two rooms and comes with full planning permission to redevelop it as a three-bedroom home or holiday retreat.

It has parking for two cars and a decent-sized garden with great, open countryside views all around.

Herdshouse Bothy is at Longleefoot, three miles from the pretty border town of Melrose and 40 miles from Edinburgh. It's on the market through Rettie Estate Agents at offers over £95,000

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Cottage - Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire

We don't often feature terraced homes on Wreck, we tend to look for ones that put some distance between you and the neighbours. But look at that garden - could those dandelions look any more inviting?

The house, on Stone Row in the seaside village of Saltburn-by-the-sea, is a stone-built, mid-terrace cottage needing extensive refurbishment and updating.

There's a ground floor bathroom and the garden you can see is the front garden - it's not clear from the details what's at the back of the property.

But it has two bedrooms, a good seaside location and is on the market at just £54,000 making it a good holiday home prospect.

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The Old Cowsheds, Criccieth, Gwynedd

It being Inauguration Day today, I thought we'd kick off 2009 with a Big Project - not quite on the scale of the challenges facing Pres O... but close.

Anyway, The Old Cowsheds, ten minutes from Criccieth, are just that - a bunch of old stone sheds. Realistically, your choice will be how much of the stone and slate you can keep as you knock down and rebuild - this is a major conversion job. But planning permission has already been given to create a decent holiday unit from the buildings.

Not surprisingly because these have to be the best located cow sheds in Wales.

Stunning, far-reaching views of Cardigan Bay and the Snowdonia National Park and a tranquil rural setting at the end of a long, gated drive. Lovely.

The Old Cowsheds are on the outskirts of the villiage of Pentrefelin, close to pretty Criccieth and five miles from Porthmadog.

They're on the market through House Network, at £189,950.

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Happy 2009 wreck hunting!

Regular WOTW readers will have seen a pattern to the featured homes - pretty, great location and a great 'price v potential' ratio. And UK-based.

But, it being post-Christmas/New Year, I couldn't resist putting up this one for anyone back at work and dreaming of a jumping ship completely in credit-crunched 2009. The sales text is reproduced as it was written on the Phnom Penh Post:

This second-storey apartment in Phnom Penh’s Tonle Bassac area has an auspicious history but an uncertain future.

The apartment building was designed by renowned Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann in the 1950s as part of a huge countrywide infrastructure and construction movement under the patronage of King Norodom Sihanouk.

Father time has not been kind. The building is now notorious as the Bouding slum, and rumours abound that it is marked for destruction. Prime Location’s preference is that the building be recognized for its historic value and be restored to its former glory as a classic example of a community housing development for urban dwellers. In which case this would be a great buy.

The owner will start negotiations at $32,000 and reckons the seven-metre-by-eight-metre space can fetch $100 to $150 a month in rental.

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House - Loch Fyne, Scotland

Substantial detached villa with great views and potential. Achagoil House, in the Loch Fyne village of Minard, is currently divided up into two apartments - ground floor and first floor, but could be put back together again as a stunning home.

The 150-year-old traditional villa is at the top of the village in a quiet setting, backed by woodland and with views across farmland to Loch Fyne.The house comes with about a quarter acre of garden, bordered by a burn, and each apartment currently offers two-bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and sitting room/area. The whole lot needs upgrading and you'd need to apply for planning permissions to turn it back into one home.It's on the market at a fixed price of £210k, through MacArthur Stewart.

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House and barns - Tregaron, Ceredigion, Wales

A lot of brick for your bucks with this Welsh homestead. Bryn Brawd farm is in a lovely, secluded rural location close to the Cambrian Mountains within the popular tourism area of Ceredigion.

It's a versatile offering - you get an (unmodernised), three-bed, two reception detached farmhouse, a hotch-potch of stone barns around a courtyard - and 5.61 acres of land.

The property is offered on its own, with a guide price of £250,000, or as Lot 3 within a parcel of 1300 acres of farmland, shooting and fishing rights and buildings, offered by agents Humberts (see below).

The estate lies 9 miles south-east of Tregaron and 14 miles from Lampeter. Aberystwyth is 25 miles away.

House for sale - details

Details of full offering, including farmland.

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