Trading up, trading down

Trading up: Devon. For the sum of £420,000 this merrily coloured sliver of Totnes will spread the family through four bedrooms, two receptions and a kitchen/dining room. Apparently designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the grade II-listed house is in the centre of this medieval market town with Dartmoor 10 miles in one direction and beaches 10 miles in the other. There are views to the castle and behind is a decent garden with fruit trees.
Marchand Petit, 01803 847979 Photograph: Marchand Petit/Marchand Petit

Trading up: Lincolnshire. Once a farmhouse, this four-bedder still presides over two acres of land near Spilsby on the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds. Life is luxuriously expansive inside the two reception rooms and kitchen/breakfast room. The garage is powered up for use as a workshop and a five-bay coach house should lend itself to further ambitions. It is an easy drive to the coast from the village. Yours for £400,000.
Humberts, 01522 546444 Photograph: Humberts/Humberts

Trading down: Nottinghamshire. Keep calm: yours would only be a small segment of this elaborate pile in open countryside 10 miles from Nottingham. It was built in 1871 by the Robertson (jam) family, and future residents of the newly converted flats and mews houses will share the surviving lavish communal areas and acres of parkland. Prices start from £294,950 for a two-bed flat with Smeg appliances and Villeroy & Boch bathroom installed.
Savills, 0115 934 8020 Photograph: Savills/Savills

Trading down: West Sussex. This dainty, once-thatched ex-lodge on the outskirts of Chichester is yours for £230,000. Beyond the gothic windows, which have internal shutters, is a reception room with sitting and dining areas wrapped round a central fireplace, a flagstoned bathroom and two bedrooms, one with its own dressing room. Retro radiators combat the coastal chill. Sailing, shopping and beaches are all a short drive away.
Henry Adams, 01243 533377 Photograph: Henry Adams/Henry Adams

Dream home: Gloucestershire. A Thomas Hardy novel could be filmed here without anyone noticing a century had passed. This £325,000 cottage in the village of Gretton is surrounded by equally fetching neighbours all clustered at the foot of a Cotswold hill. Inside it is a delectation of ceiling beams, an inglenook and country views. Both receptions and the two bedrooms are large and there is a good helping of sheltered, shrub-screened garden.
Hayman-Joyce, 01386 858510 Photograph: Hayman Joyce/Hayman Joyce