Old and new

Historic home: Wiltshire. Georgian pedigree with millennial grooming near the centre of Devizes. Antique window shutters, cornicing, fireplaces and exposed timbers in two of the three bedrooms have survived a lavish refurbishment, which has added a glamorous basement kitchen and an enormous en suite to the master bedroom. Planners have also agreed to a garden room at the back. There’s a parking area to the front and a blank canvas of a garden plot off the kitchen. Cost: £400,000.
Martin Walker, 01380 888207 Photograph: Martin Walker

Historic home: Devon. Almost everything you need for the good life is combined in and around this £200,000 skinny thatched cottage in the village of Holbeton. The windows overlook church and fields, and it’s a short stroll to the Erme estuary and Mothercombe beach. The large reception opens on to the garden, both bedrooms are doubles and, unusually for a house of this size and antiquity, they share a first-floor bathroom. You will want to save a bit over for a cosmetic rescue programme. Outside, the car can be left in a communal courtyard.
Marchand Petit, 01548 831163 Photograph: Marchand Petit

New build: Middlesex. This Middlesex mill house in Cowley, near Uxbridge, is more than 200 years old, but has been born again from a ruin along with its surrounding outbuildings. The result is a 16-home gated development on an island with the river Frays bordering one side and the Grand Union canal on the other. The £625,000 house, which accommodated American GIs during the last war, plus generations of millers, is an upside down arrangement with four bedrooms and three bathrooms downstairs and an open-plan living area above, all shiny white and modern, but fetchingly trussed with beams.
Savills, 01344 295361 Photograph: Savills

New build: Suffolk. From a distance it looks vintage: a clutch of cottages ranged round a green. But this extension to the village of Walsham Le Willows, near Bury St Edmunds, is still in progress, the houses painstakingly prettified to meld inoffensively with their ancient neighbours. This gabled white option has a kitchen/breakfast room opening on to a conservatory, an open-plan living area, a study and five bedrooms Cost: £399,995.
Savills, 01473 378064 Photograph: Savills

First-time buyer: Kent. You can live a lifestyle well above your station in this miniature segment in Newnham, Sittingbourne. There are rustic walks from the door, views over a green valley from the kitchen, a long landscaped garden backing on to woodland, and a large reception room with a wood-burning stove, exposed brick, and wooden floors – all on a budget of £170,000. It’s a stylishly refurbished two-bed cottage near a good pub, a 10 minute drive from Faversham.
Ward & Partners, 01795 883133 Photograph: Ward & Partners