Snooping around – in pictures

Wreck of the week: Bar Close, near Carlisle, Cumbria. A stone barn with permission to become a two-floor, three-bedroom house with ample living space. It's unconverted and you’ll need about £100,000 to domesticate it. The location is agreeably rural yet handy for the M6. However, the front yard and access is shared with the former farmhouse and the garden, which is all to the side, is compact. £135,000.
H&H King Photograph: H&H King

In the country: Curland, near Taunton, Somerset. It’s in its own 0.36 acres on the edge of a village with gorgeous, rolling rural views. It’s a shame that the lounge is the conduit to bathroom and kitchen, and the second bedroom leads off the first. It needs modernising. Yours for 285,000.
Smiths Gore Photograph: Smiths Gore

In town: Spittal, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland. The promenade runs past the end of the road and it is yards to the beach. It’s a shame, however, that it has such a small garden. £225,000.
Smiths Gore Photograph: Smiths Gore

Dream home: Plush, Dorset. Christmas revelry can surge round the inglenook fireplace in the beamed sitting room of this cottage, built to house the butler of the nearby manor in the 18th century. It's set in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Planners, accepting that two bedrooms are inadequate provision for the hordes who will wish to take advantage of your thatched hospitality, have allowed for a two-bedroom extension with a new kitchen dining area. You can plant your Christmas tree for next year in the third of an acre of garden. £495,000.
Jackson-stops.co.uk, 01305 262 123 Photograph: Jackson-Stops and Staff