Snooping around: Rural, urban or renovation

Wreck of the week: Harcourt Terrace, London SW10. Renovation projects are rare in Chelsea. This one, a two-bed flat for £695,000, has original features and a shared garden. Its condition dates from the depths of the 1960s, but £25,000 should fast-forward it half a century. You would still be a basement dweller, however, and annoyingly the bathroom is through the living room.
Friend & Falcke, 020 7581 3022 Photograph: Friend & Falcke/Friend & Falcke

In the country: Edderton, Easter Ross. From the domed, circular sitting room (and most of the four bedrooms, too) there are spectacular views over Dornoch Firth, while the roof terrace offers an equally panoramic outlook. The house sits in a good-sized dollop of garden with a burn on its west side, and on the east a gate leads you out into neighbouring woodland. The bedrooms are all on the ground floor. Yours for £295,000.
Bell Ingram, 01463 717799 Photograph: Bell Ingram/Bell Ingram

In town: Broseley, Shropshire. This 18th-century grandeur is a short walk from both town centre and pastoral bliss. Big gardens, almost a quarter of an acre, buffer it from neighbours and it is just as expansive inside, if a little weary. The breakfast/kitchen room has a four-oven gas-fired Aga, and the master bedroom has an en suite shower. There are three other double bedrooms. Cost: £365,000.
Nock Deighton, 01952 432533 Photograph: Nock Deighton/Nock Deighton

Dream home: Cornwall. The sound of rushing water pervades this £495,000, 16th-century mill house and the detached one-bed cottage that comes with it. The two are connected by a wooden footbridge spanning the Jordan river, which pelts between them. Woodland surrounds the terraced gardens and it is a few minutes to the National Trust-owned harbour of Boscastle. There are three beds, two receptions and a kitchen big enough for family dining.
Lillicrap Chilcott Limited, 01872 273 473 Photograph: Lillicrap Chilcott Limited/Lillicrap Chilcott Limited