House - Fort William, Scotland

Decent-sized house perfect for outdoor sporty types! No. 5 Forestry Houses, as the name suggests, is set within the lovely woodlands at Torlundy, within cycling distance of Fort William "the outdoor capital of the UK".

Torlundy boasts some of the most extensive and challenging bike tracks within the country and the outdoor pursuits centre, Nevis Range, at the base of Aonach Mhor, is close by.

The property has a big garden, three double bedrooms, a downstairs bathroom, kitchen and good-sized living room. But it needs serious modernisation and decoration. A new kitchen and bathroom for starters - tho' you might decide purple isn't such a bad colour for the living room after all...

It's on the market at offers over £80,000, through MacArthur Stewart.

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Cottage - Solva, Wales

Welsh coastal village cottage crying out for a makeover! Actually, we don't just mean a makeover, we mean complete restoration to make it livable.

And, pretty though it is, and even though it's in a very pretty location, you won't get a lot more space out of it than it has already. Which is two bedrooms, a bathroom, scullery and a 20-by-14-feet living room.

Solva itself is a lovely Pembrokeshire Coast village of pretty colour-washed cottages facing St Brides Bay and the cottage could make a great holiday home or letting.

It's semi-detached, and parts of the cottage date back to the early 1880's. It has a separate garage a short distance away and an enclosed rear garden.

It's for sale by auction (unless previously sold) on Wednesday 1 October 2008, at the Ivy Bush Hotel, Carmarthen, at 3:00pm, through agents John Francis, with a guide price of £95,000.

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Cottage and barn - Lofthouse, North Yorkshire

A Grade II listed former farm-worker's cottage and barn with walled garden. The property comes with planning permission to convert the two buildings into a substantial three-bedroom, three-reception home.

It sits in a pretty area, next to the River Nidd, with wonderful, sweeping views across Nidderdale. Lofthouse is the nearest village and Pateley Bridge and Masham are close by.

The buildings are part of a combined planning application to develop three buildings on Lower Woodale farm, within the 1415 acres Summerstone Estate, with the condition that development must start by the 11th December 2009.

The other building in the application is a detached barn - details here - both on the market through Dacre, Son and Hartley with a guide price of £150,000.

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Cottage - North Fambridge, Essex

Lovely listed weatherboard cottage on Essex waterfront. Number Two Riverside Cottages has two bedrooms and two reception rooms, plus decent gardens - but not a lot else aside from location, location, location.

You would need to add a kitchen and bathroom - even a loo - to make this Victorian holiday home comfortable enough for longer than an overnight stay. But it's a lovely building, with some sweet period features, and around £40k investment will give you a stunning second or main home less than an hour from London.

The cottage is in North Fambridge, on the River Crouch, a regular haunt of sailing types, with moorings, sailing club, a good country pub and a railway station with a 45-minute direct route into London Liverpool street. Chelmsford is around 30 minutes away, and the A130 ten minutes away.

It's on the market for £130,000, through John D Wood estate agents.

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