Snooping around

Property of the week: Bishopthorpe, York. This audacious adventure in cedar means you can be smugly certain there’s nothing else like it in this conservatively beautiful region. Bi-fold glass doors from Norway peel back the front of the living area to merge with the garden. Inside the floors are oak and the kitchen worktops layered bamboo. It’s a shame the garden is pretty small for a three-bed village house. Yours for around £450,000.
Blenkin & Co, 01904 671672 Photograph: Blenkin & Co/Blenkin & Co

Wreck of the week: Chard, Somerset. This three-bedroom estate cottage is merely weary - £20,000-£30,000 for a bathroom, kitchen and decor should rejuvenate it, on top of the £205,000 asking price. Set amid 1,000 acres of private parkland of To The Manor Born fame, weekend fun is just yards away in the wildlife park, leisure centre and manor house hotel. If only you didn’t have to tail the tourist traffic past the car parks to reach it.
Greenslade Taylor Hunt, 01460 238382 Photograph: Greenslade Taylor Hunt/Greenslade Taylor Hunt

Take three: homes at £250,000. Thomas Telford designed this four-bedder near Portree, Isle of Skye, as a manse in 1828. The views through most of the windows eclipse any old master. A river crosses the front, a burn flows to one side and mountains provide the frame - an acre of these wild glories is all yours. As are three receptions, a kitchen/breakfast room and three bathrooms. Beware the hefty 10 miles to urban facilities.
Strutt & Parker, 0141 225 3880 Photograph: Strutt & Parker/Strutt & Parker

Take three: homes at £250,000. Slap bang in the middle of Modbury, Devon, this two-bedroom terrace boasts Georgian embellishments such as ceiling mouldings and stained glass, which have survived two centuries. Your quarter of a million gets you two receptions, a kitchen/breakfast room, bathroom and workshop, and you’re just four miles from the nearest beach, in an area of outstanding natural beauty. Parking is on the main road.
Marchand Petit, 01548 831163 Photograph: Marchand Petit/Marchand Petit

Take three: homes at £250,000. In the pretty hamlet of Coupland Beck, a couple of miles from the castle town of Appleby and close to the thrills of the Lakes, Dales and Pennines, sits this four-bedroom cottage. The front garden is bordered by a beck, which has been known to visit the house, although waterproof flooring should tolerate further floods. Completely renovated in 2002, it also has a kitchen, two receptions and a bathroom.
Penrith Farmers’ & Kidd’s, 01768 352345 Photograph: Penrith Farmers' & Kidd's/Penrith Farmers' & Kidd's