Wreck of the Week

Two for me and three for you: five wee cottages all in a row. Probably. Sunlawshill Cottages are in the middle of fields and farmland a few miles from pretty Kelso , in the Scottish Borders. First time on the market, presumably because they used to belong to neighbouring Sunlawshill Farm (you'll want to check what else is up for sale or in the planning pipeline...), they're up for sale as two lots - numbers 3-5 Sunlawshill cottages, and numbers 1-2 have been remodelled as four-bedroom Smiddybank Cottage. The Sunlawshill cottages have one, two or three bedrooms, and each has a living room, bath room and kitchen in various groupings. Here's the plan for Lot 1: Keep them separate (I'm thinking holiday cottages for a family collective), or knock them into one (or two) houses, but please don't knock them down and start over with something glass-faced and modern. These are way too sweet not to be renovated and lived in! Lot 1 (cottage...

I once lived in a house not dissimilar to this. I'd split with my then husband and, in the post-break moving out panic, ended up renting a five-bedroom Georgian house in Cottingham, just outside Hull.  I couldn't really afford it, and the only furniture I had when me and my son moved in was a bed, a trampoline and two deckchairs. But damn, we loved that house. So, despite the not-great photography, I was drawn to this detached five-bed on the edge of Egremont , in Cumbria. Same child's drawing, black-and-white frontage, same double gardens. However, this Georgian beauty is in a prettier location - fronting onto the River Ehen, overlooked by Egremont Castle, and around five miles from St Bees and the Cumbrian coast. Plus, rather than one property, you get two - with an adjoining two-bedroom annex which could stay separate or be incorporated into the main house. That main house has two reception rooms and kitchen downstairs (and a shower room under the stairs...)...

Time for some Cornish sea air. The semi above and below is in the pretty seaside village of Porthleven . Sent to me by regular reader Angus, 2 Cliff Road has four reception rooms and a kitchen downstairs, plus bathroom (hurrah!) and three bedrooms upstairs. The agents details describe it as four bedrooms but goodness knows where they think the fourth would be. There's a bit of a yard area at the back, and the property faces directly onto the street. It needs a lot of work, obviously, which might make the £275k guide price feel a bit steep. Until you see the location. Close enough to smell the sea but not have it burst in through your front door. What throws me is the contrast between the neatly-painted outside of the house, and the state of the inside. Although that may have something to do with its position in Porthleven's conservation area. Lots of original features, and I love these left behind links to the people who once loved this house: T...