Two houses with snow potential
I've woken up to snow today. Well, snow-ish - mostly pavements like glass covered by a white dusting that fools you with its prettiness.
Anyway, now me and the hound are back from our slip-sliding walk and are hunkered down with treats and the fire, I thought I'd find a couple of wrecks for you today in locations that do proper snow.
And I'm going to start here, top of the tree price-wise to properties I'd usually choose, and more tired than a wreck, but absolutely beautiful.
Ingleside House is in the borders town of Hawick. It's a mixture of Arts and Crafts princess palace with 1950s housewife decor. The challenge for whoever takes it on will - hopefully - be how much of both you decide to keep.
On the ground floor are three reception rooms, kitchen with walk-in pantry, large utility room, boot room and wine store. There's a gorgeous entrance hall and a downstairs loo.
It's that plaque left on the stairs ('Queen of the garden') that gets me. And yes, her gardens are still beautiful.
On the first floor are five bedrooms and two bathrooms, with a further bedroom on the second floor and an enormous games/playroom - possibly big enough for one of Sir Rod's trains sets.
The house has lovely wrap-around gardens, garage, brick outbuildings, a summer house and large greenhouse. It sits in a quiet area of Hawick - the largest of the border towns, with everything a pretty and popular tourist town has to offer.
My second pick (top picture and below) is this part-finished renovation project sitting in the grounds of a Scottish estate.
Keeper's Cottage on the Cambusmore Estate, Sutherland, has planning permission, architect drawings and a fair bit of work already done to update it. To be honest, I'm puzzled why you'd get this far and then drop it onto the market at under £160k?
Planning was applied for in 2023 and approved February last year to remove that wooden extension and replace it with a fancy brick and render and big windows build.
It doesn't look like that work has started and don't know what the status/issues are with the current plastered extension or whether you'd be able to just work with what's there. You'll need to ask questions because there'll be a deadline on starting the approved works.
The current owner isn't Cambusmore Estate's owners and may live 600 miles away, so perhaps plans for renovating a holiday home/let just proved too difficult at that distance? Or perhaps the agent's instruction that "no further land is available" indicates Cambusmore's owners' control over future development?
Anyway, a big enough garden space for most of us and the location is absolutely breathtaking.
Downstairs are two reception rooms, kitchen, separate utility room and loo, plus that large lounge extension and a downstairs shower room and store. Upstairs are three bedrooms and a bathroom.
It currently shares a septic tank with the Big House; you'd need to install your own. Access looks ok the estate is on the A9 and given it's a visitor destination with its own holiday lets, access around the estate should also be good, if needing negotiation for your trades and trucks.
On the market at offers over £155k through Paul Coutts agency. Details, more pictures and videos on the agent's site here and on Rightmove here.
The snow has gone while I've worked on this, replaced by a biting wind the east coast excels at. My 'to-do' garden is looking even wetter and scruffier without its icing-sugar coating. The gnome is the gnome.
