Wreck of the Week

I see a lot of this researching properties for 'Wreck': time-stopped homes I call my "old lady gone" houses. Old lady if, like in this Cumbria farmhouse, there are trinkets and flowers and shadows of the woman who dressed this home. It always makes me sad. Especially if what I also see is a house where the owner gradually moved into the least damp room, the one they could afford to heat, waiting for family visitors or state carers that maybe never came. And then the old lady or old gent is gone, and someone puts the house on the market for big bucks. I've no idea whether that has happened here. But I do find this picture difficult - the mantelpiece of trinkets in a damp room of peeling wallpaper; the two fires. Anyway, that's me and is one of the reasons I spend my free time on this blog. Because I think that old lady gone should have her home refilled with a family who'll live and laugh and love in it again. Moss Side Farm is up for a...

This pick was sent to me by reader Jacky, and it sparked a bit of a trawl through similarly interesting end-of-terrace houses. Not least because I live in one myself.   Jacky wrote of the Welsh three-bedroom cottage: I thought you may like this one! It dates back to the 1800s, but the carpets say the '70s!! I feel like I'm in 'Saturday Night Fever' on the dance floor when I see the lounge carpet!! I love a bit of '70s pattern-mania myself, even if my own refurbs always end up in shades of grey and white. Anyway, here's that disco floor. The house is on Beaufort Road, in the pretty South Wales town of Tredegar . No. 13 Beaufort in fact, should house numbers bother you. Three reception rooms, kitchen, three bedrooms, bathroom (upstairs - yay!), and gardens to front and side. Lots of original details (aside from that decor) and some less welcome original bits - such as a right of way across the bottom of the garden for the neighbours,...

A bunch of odd bods for you today. Out-of-the-ordinary buildings that need an extra-large dollop of creative thinking to turn them into family homes. First, this original Nissen hut , in Norfolk. Sent to me by regular reader Grouse, the hut comes with planning permission (and design restrictions) to turn it into a two-bed home. The hut sits on a decent sized patch of land, on the edge of the market town of Diss. Nissens vary in size - this one is roughly 36feet by 16feet so not the biggest out there - basically two-bed bungalow size, but it does have some connected services. On the market through Hunters, who recently dropped the prices to offers around £150k. Details and more pictures here . The former youth hostel, below, was most recently a supported living project and as such is broken up into a bunch of sparse-looking bedrooms and en-suites with some communal rooms. But it's the location that makes this one worth a second look. At Stromness , Or...