Two (more) rundown smallholdings to buy

Two Welsh smallholdings to show you this week, but you'll need to get a wiggle on if this first one appeals.
The four bedroom house comes with a whopping 20 acres of land, split into multiple paddocks, plus interesting outbuildings.
It is, however, up for auction (and you all know how I feel about that particular cash sink) and the auction date is tomorrow (27th March).
The property is in a lovely location, down its own track off a quiet country road, a mile or so from the village of Llanybri, in Carmarthenshire, and close to two rivers (the Taf and the Towy) as they drift into the sea.

Downstairs is a large kitchen, two reception rooms, shower room, boot room, utility and hall. Upstairs are four bedrooms and family bathroom.
All needing a LOT of stripping out and reworking. The decor is 70s disco, ceilings are artexed (likely asbestos), and bedrooms have challenging shapes. There's a good possibility you'll be rebuilding.

But the land, the privacy, the location, the gorgeous views, the large footprint of the house and the cuteness of this stone outbuilding, combine to make this a really interesting project.

Up for modern auction via John Francis with a guide price of £300k. Details and more pictures on the agent's site here and on Rightmove here.
My next pick has a great deal less land to work with (just under two acres) but perhaps less work to do on the house itself.

Like the first property, it sits just outside a small village (Pontsian, in Ceredigion) and off a quiet country road.
Your near neighbours are a gaggle of corrugated farm buildings, part of the original farm which looks to have been split and sold in parts. Your part is the farmhouse, garden and a paddock of 1.7 acre leading down from the garden.

The house itself is a jumble of wreck and the least that might be done to make the house roughly livable for the old chap who presumably made this is home for as long as he could.
So, a walk in shower in a rundown bathroom; new gas central heating radiators alongside ancient electric storage heaters; peeling, damp wallpaper on old walls facing off against replastered new walls after windows were updated.

Downstairs are three reception rooms, kitchen, large pantry and that shower room. Upstairs are five-ish bedrooms, plus access to a large loft room. 

Again, a fair bit of stripping out and remodeling to do, but you are starting with a well-shaped, traditional stone farmhouse in a lovely bit of the Teifi Valley.
On the market through Morgan & Davies at £320k. Details and more pictures on the agent's site here and on Rightmove here.
If you're up for browsing more smallholdings to do-up, have a look at this post from a couple of weeks ago.
Talking of Welsh valleys. There's a scene in one of my favourite Sunday afternoon films that I always think of on days like this. Spring days when the sun warms your desk through windows grubby with the remains of the winter's weather.
The film is How Green Was My Valley, which won the Best Film and Best Director Oscars for John Ford in 1941, beating Citizen Kane. The bit I always think about when I look at those streaky Spring windows, is when young Huw, bedridden for months, realises that Spring has arrived and with it his hoped for healing. Spring's arrival is signaled by the women in his family arriving in Hollywood-styled headscarves and aprons to start the big Spring clean. I couldn't find the full clip but this will do. Enjoy.

Isles of Scilly and Dartmoor - two rare do-ups

I'm going to start with an apology, because my wreck picks this week are pricier than I would normally show you. But as they say on the telly: location, location, location (and in the song: money money, money).
This first. A detached, three bed do-up just about on the beach. The particular beach is at Hugh Town, on St Mary's, the sort of capital of the Isles of Scilly.
Properties to renovate on Scilly are about as rare as the proverbial from rocking horses, not least because most of the land and a third of the housing is owned by the Royals. Put it this way, in my 11 years of Wreck, this is the first one on the Scillys that I've written about.
Which is by way of explanation for why this particular wreck is up for a Scilly price (ouch!).

Ice House has a  bathroom, large kitchen, living room and dining room downstairs and a very large bathroom and three bedrooms upstairs. 

I presume the downstairs bathroom was added to make the house more accessible as its owner/s aged, and the whole property has the sadness of happy retirement overtaken by infirmity.
This was once a much-used workshop. The house is full of wood and projects.

Like many coastal properties it's also showing the effects of bad renovation ideas from the 70s and 80s - concrete render rather than breathable materials outside, varnished cork tiles on inside walls - both trapping damp rather than holding in warmth. There's a fair bit of stripping back and remodelling to do.
But the house has kept its beautiful stone bones to the front and rooms are all a good, workable size. And if you're looking for inspiration, this beautifully renovated terraced version a few doors away is on the market at £1.2m.

Ice House is a home that should have a family in it. Children running down the path to the beach after school. Parents working on the island, contributing to its economy. But with a guide price just under £650K plus renovation costs, that's not going to happen.

Which is not the fault of the estate agents, who simply reflect a market where scarcity sets prices, but it can be changed by bigger, bolder public decision making.
Doubling the council tax paid for second homes may push a handful of private holiday lets onto the market but it doesn't impact proper property businesses. If we really want more family home owners rather than renters, its the 50 landowners owning 12% of the UK that need to give up assets. Starting, on Scilly, with the Duchy of Cornwall.
Politics aside, this is a gorgeous house in a gorgeous bit of the UK. On the market through Stacey Mann Associates. Details, pictures and video on the agent's site here and on Rightmove here.

My next pick to show you this week is also a chain-free, long-time family-owned property in a beautiful if pricey location.
The five bedroom detached house is in the Dartmoor National Park which, like the Isles of Scilly, also has the Duchy of Cornwall as its largest landowner.

Brook Lodge sits on its own acre of land and paddock, in the middle of moorland and fields and about a mile from the Devon village of Horrabridge, ten from Plymouth. 
It's an odd shape but one that would easily lend itself to a two family or shared living set-up (also, see my suggestions from a couple of weeks ago), but it's the land (1.04 acre) and location that appeals most.
The single storey bit at the front currently has a bedroom, large living room, study and attached garage - plenty of scope for remodelling into a one-bedroom bungalow with its own kitchen and bathroom.

The larger section has a kitchen, utility, bathroom, living room and bedroom downstairs, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs.
As with the Scilly house, it looks like the downstairs has been altered to deliver more accessible, ground floor living but could be reconfigured into a more conventional three bedroom house.
Plus there's masses of space outside for extending or rebuilding. And honestly, those views deserved to be looked at through nicer windows.

On the market with a guide price of £575k through Stags. Details and more pictures on the agent's site here and on Rightmove here.
And for inspiration, Stags has this beautiful 6-bedroom Georgian semi for sale in Dartmoor, which has absolutely nailed country house decor.

Bungalow with land, ancient church to renovate

Two awkward properties to show you today. Both have been kicking around on my "possibles" list for a while because I couldn't decide what I thought about them.
This one for instance. Plain and dated bungalow but with a GINORMOUS strip of land stretching out behind it to the Fenland fields beyond.
Honestly, what would you do with that? Run wild horses, zoomie greyhounds, rescue all the chickens?

Paddy's  zoomie

The pasture land is just under three acres, with a garden area in front and to the side of the house.
Plus outbuildings, some in better condition than others, and a brick garage.

The bungalow itself is a reasonable size, two bedrooms, accessible bathroom, separate loo, utility room, a living room and a kitchen diner. 
The bedrooms face onto the land at the back and, personally, I'd look at opening up Bedroom 2 to create one big living, dining, kitchen space with views both ways, and turn the living room into a bedroom.

There's also plenty of space for extending or adding a floor. Or even another house.
It's on the market for a fairly hefty £399,950, presumably the agents were thinking of the land's build-upon potential? But given the lack of buildings on neighbouring plots, I would expect any major development to be a battle.

Also, the property itself isn't registered on the Land Registry - that will be a job you'll need to add to the legal costs of buying it.
All that aside, it's in a good location, in the Cambridgeshire village of Benwick, about eight miles from March and 15 from Peterborough, both with train stations and London commuter links.
On the market through Brown & Co. Details and more pictures on the agent's site here and on Rightmove here.
This next one is also a bit of a price-punt I felt, given the work that will need doing and the permissions and covenants (including overage clause limiting resale profit) that will need agreeing.
It is however a very, very beautiful building.

St. Peter's Church is in the village of Astwood, about six miles from Newport Pagnell, and is the village's landmark building.

 

The 12th century (mostly) church is Grade II* listed and had been closed for a decade. It was put up for sale last year with (now-lapsed) planning permission and Listed Building Consent to convert it into a three-bedroom home, retaining most of the gorgeous original features and structure.

On the one hand you have a beautiful, ancient building in a pretty and practical location which has already made it once, successfully through the listed buildings planning goo.
On the other you have a lot of legals and replanning to sort before you can move forward - aside from the time and money investment needed to turn it into a home.
On the market through Bidwells, with a guide price of £250k. Details and more pictures on the agent's site here and on Rightmove here.
If the idea of redeveloping a church appeals (if not this one), do have a look at my post on churches and where to find them. 
Or just watch Keith and Marj have a go.