Trading up, trading down

Trading up: Norfolk. The beer store at the back and the name – The Old Maid's Fact – betray this five double-bedder's pub past. The last pint was pulled in the village of Hindolveston 24 years ago, so you should remain unmolested by thirsty strays. Bold brick chimney breasts dominate both receptions, the beer store could be annexed as a third living chamber, and there is a study and scope to expand the kitchen into the outside workshop. It's buffered from the road by lawns, a gate and a driveway. Yours for £330,000.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01603 612333
Photograph: Jackson-Stops & Staff

Trading up: Isle of Wight. Happily, a fire in the 1970s spared the inglenook fireplaces and the outer walls, so this £395,000 four-bedder could regrow with its centuries of character almost intact. It sits on a large plot with stables and a detached garage in the village of Chillerton near Newport, and the current owner rents an adjoining paddock. Renovations have added a conservatory. The fourth bedroom, being downstairs, could double as a study.
Isle of Wight Homes, 01983 721831
Photograph: Isle of Wight Homes

Trading down: Sussex. A dainty slice of clapboard, what you lack in space you make up for in convenience. For £199,950 you reside on Burwash village high street with most of life's essentials nearby. The two bedrooms, one reception and kitchen are miniature but gracefully organised with polished floorboards, beamed ceilings and a wood-burning stove in a bold brick hearth in the living room. The kitchen opens on to a leafy little garden.
Winkworth, 01892 519 600
Photograph: Winkworth

Trading down: Gloucestershire. Guests are unlikely to invade your gnomish idyll here in the Cotswold village of Tarlton – the miniature spare room leads off the master chamber. And so you have all this thatched glory for yourself. You can bake in solitary before the huge inglenook fireplace, climb unmolested up the spiral stone staircase, and survey fields beyond the large dry stone walled-lawn from your window seats. An outbuilding could be usefully converted, and the decor could do with some 21st-century refreshment. Cost: £295,000.
Strutt & Parker, 01285 653101
Photograph: Strutt & Parker

Dream home: Inverness. From the windows you would suppose yourself in the wilderness as you gaze over the river mouth to Loch Ness. In fact lattes, cocktails and schooling are available in Fort Augustus, just beyond the cul-de-sac where this £275,000 three-bed cottage sits so peacefully at the southern tip of the watery expanse. The gardens, where an original ice house usefully survives, tilt down to the river and from them the views are all woods and water. An exposed stone wall with a fireplace dramatises the large living room.
Strutt & Parker, 01463 719171
Photograph: Strutt & Parker