Two cottages and a country manor to renovate

A little while ago, I wrote about a gorgeous, off-grid Cumbria farmhouse but also confessed that I'm not Cumbria's biggest fan. I mentioned the lack of sunshine. 
Anyway, the gorgeous farmhouse sold (hurrah!) and I got lots of emails from readers telling me that yes, the sun did shine on Cumbria and was in fact beaming down that very day.
To be fair, this was in the middle of June's heatwave so pretty much everywhere was sunny. But OK, I accept; the sun does also shine on Cumbria.
Anyway, just to show that as a Yorkshire lass, I do very much appreciate God's other county, here are three more Cumbria beauties to share with you.
The first two are around the old market town of Sedbergh. Which I've never visited but given that it describes itself as England's "book town", I'll definitely be planning a trip there soon.
Hubby and I are the sort of people who have books in every room, and I'm that annoying person who gets excited about re-categorising them every couple of years. This year, I've done the spine colour thing and, aside from the prettiness, I like the juxaposition factor.

Back to Sedbergh. My favourite of this week's picks is the very lovely end of terrace above and below.

Stunning views from every door and window, in the middle of countryside in the tiny village of Millthrop, a couple of miles outside Sedbergh.

Lounge, dining room, kitchen and pantry downstairs; three bedrooms and wet room upstairs. Pretty gardens front and back, detached garage and parking. Sweet, compact and pretty damn near perfect.

On the market through Milne Moser with a guide price of £200k. More here and here.
In Sedbergh itself, is the cute terraced house, below.
Now we all know I don't generally feature terraces, but this one is right in the middle of arts and crafts and books central, positioned on Sedbergh's historic Main Street.

Bit dark and unappealing inside, but nothing a lot of white paint and a sensitive refurb couldn't deal with.

Three bedrooms and bathroom upstairs, two large rooms downstairs, including kitchen. A bit of a higgledy-piggedly arrangement and shape to it, but that adds character as well as challenge.
Rather like this rowing machine in the middle of the bedroom...

Outside is this sweet little yard.

All in all lots of potential, particularly if you're looking for holiday home/let in an increasingly popular area.
On the market through Cobble Country at offers over £125k, by Friday, September 21st. More here and here.
And finally, if those two are rather more cute than challenging for you, Michael CL Hodgson has Darfield House, below, up for auction on September 21st.

The three storey, five-bedroom country home is in lovely countryside three miles outside Kendal, at Selside.

An abandoned wreck, it's the neatly stacked albums in the living room that got to me.

Lovely big space, lots of period details, and surrounded by large - overgrown - gardens.
The barn is being sold separately, which is a pity, and none of the services to the house are currently working.
Beautiful space though and really needs someone to take on its restoration, back to something akin to its past loveliness:

Up for auction with a guide price of £220k. Details and more pictures here and here. PDF brochure here.

Fab Anglesey do-up: the sequel

I've "done" Anglesey a handful of times over the years. The first time, way back in 2014 when I wrote about the lovely and neglected mansion of Caerau. Then again in 2015 when I featured three handsome homes (we'll come back to that later), and last month, prompted by a colleague's family-friendly holiday on Anglesey.
Anyway, that 2015 post featured three fab do-ups, one of which - a former coaching inn and stables at Mona - is up for auction this month. Back on the market or perhaps never left it?
The property (above and below) is stunning. Reader Anna spotted it and emailed me (thank you, Anna). But back in 2015, it was James the son of the house's owners that told me about it.
He said his parents had bought historic Mona Inn to renovate it but stopped because of issues with planning. No idea what those issues were at the time, but his parents being septuagenarians decided to give it up the task and put the property on the market.
At that stage they were asking £545k and the coaching inn and stables were being sold separately to the adjoining house.
Anyhoo... it's back. And with planning permission. And (potentially) cheaper. But still without that adjoining house (I'm assuming it's Mona Farm and therefore not on the market).
To be fair, the adjoining house is in the background, behind buildings and isn't part of the estate in anycase - as the pictures suggest:

However, rather more disconcerting is that the photos on the agent's site are exactly the same ones used in 2015, right down to that blue rug in the hall and the trestle of tools in the downstairs room.

 

I do wonder sometimes what auction houses do to earn that hefty Buyers Premium, because it doesn't seem to be about providing any useful services to the buyer?
However, as well buying a very handsome building to renovate, you are getting those static caravans and space to live while you work.

The Grade II listed property is packed with period details and has masses of space. Eight rooms downstairs and eight up, plus five or six large cellars; that quadrangle ringed with two-storey coach houses, a garden area to the front and an (overgrown) orchard of heritage apple trees to the side.

 

 

It's a beautiful and historic space that really does need someone with energy, vision and a couple of bucketloads of cash to bring it back to life and loveliness.
Up for auction on August 23rd with a guide price of £315k, plus fees and tax, via Town and Country. Details and more pictures here and here.

A bunker, a mill and a home for dragons

Currently catching up on a bit of an email backlog from readers (my bad, sorry) but thought I'd use that as an opportunity to show y'all some of the yummy properties Wreck fans have spotted.
Like this WW2 decoy bunker, sent to me by Karen who came across it while looking for a house with land in the area. The bunker is in the village of Wix, a couple of miles from Essex's east coast.

Built to attract Germany's bombs, it's now on the market with planning permission to turn it into a glamping site.
Er... yes.
Actually the plans are quite cute and the building's a nice shape; it could work.

But no idea whether there are restrictions on, for example, living there or using it as a holiday home rather than a business. It being on farmland, and a listed historical monument.
On the market via Stanfords at £95k, more here and here.
Rather at the other end of the scale is this mill on the river Frome, in the Dorset village of Maiden Newton.

Sent to me by David, the Grade 11-listed former corn mill comes with planning permission to turn it into a three-bedroom, three bathroom home.

And if you - like me - immediately thought "all that space - why only three bedrooms?", that's because the PP comes with a hitch in that the ground floor has to stay as a commercial, B1 use space. Up until 2004, The Mill had been used as an engineering works and the local authority is understandably loathe to turn every pretty building over to posh folk housing.

So, if what your ideal is a live/work space of ground floor offices or maker space, with two further floors of living area (and we're taking a chunky 60ft x 20ft each floor), plus 1.8 acres of land and gardens, plus a large barn, and in a beautiful part of England, and you've got a decent wedge of cash to spend...

A fair bit of work has already been done, including renovating the water wheel, sluice gate and bridges, but obviously more to do on property itself.

It's an end terrace, the other bits of the mill buildings having already been converted (Mill House and Mill Cottage) which gives you an idea of the potential.
On the market through Symonds and Sampson with a guide price of £375k. More here, here and pdf brochure here. 
This final property, sent to me by Gary also has a bit of watery theme - albeit the water appears to be on the inside.. ; )

Two adjoining cottages in the lovely Yorkshire village of Holmfirth ("one for Last of the Summer Wine fans", wrote Gary).

Cottage  number one is lovely, if dated, with three bedrooms, bathroom, lounge and dining kitchen.

Plus this amazing large, triple-vaulted vaulted cellar:

personally, I'm thinking...

Cottage number two is the sadder sister, having clearly had some roof issues and then some rain issues, and is not currently watertight.

However, Gary viewed the property himself and said the vendor did say they were going to get the roof repaired, and: "The photos don't really do it justice, there are loads of original features not shown, like fireplaces, door mouldings, cupboards, etc."

On the market via Wm Sykes & Son at £265k, details here and here.