A fisherman's cottage in Port Isaac in which you can write the next Great American Novel

We’re no fools here at Country Life. We know that a lot of people who come to visit this website like to look at very expensive houses, with oodles of trimmings, for two reasons. Reason one is usually to see how the other half live: what do you get in a house that will cost you £30 million to buy? Is the pool nice? What does the kitchen look like? And so on. 

Reason number two is judgement. Not only do you want to see how wealthy people live, you want to make sweeping comments about their poor interior-design choices. It’s fair enough, I do it too. ‘How can you have so much money to spend on a house and such ghastly curtains’ is a sentence I have caught myself uttering.

So today we are going to do something a bit different. I am going to show you this adorable little cottage in Cornwall, that does not cost (relatively) very much money. It might be Cornwall’s cosiest cottage. You could still buy it as a Christmas present if you are running out of ideas. It is called The Shrimp, and it costs £280,000 from JB Estates.

What is The Shrimp? The Shrimp is a one-bedroom, one-bathroom fisherman’s cottage tucked away in the heart of Port Isaac. It is listed Grade II, and needs a bit of love, but as I am sure you will agree, having looked at the pictures, it is very charming and adorable indeed.

To give you a feel of the layout of the property for you, let me describe the floorplan. It is two squares. One square, on the ground floor, is the kitchen and sitting room. The other square, on the first floor, is the bedroom and bathroom. The floorplan suggests there is a staircase between the two, but I would argue that it is a ladder. 

It’s hard to look at this place and not be inspired. I spend a lot of my time, perhaps too much of my time, looking at some of the grandest homes for sale in the country. Plasterwork by Robert Adam. Pools and grand halls and party barns and helipads. Crenellations and cathedrals of stained glass. They are beautiful, yes, but they do not move me like The Shrimp moves me.

Maybe it’s because I can see myself there, and not for the simple fact that it’s probably the only house I’ve written about on this website that I could actually afford. I can see myself in the middle of winter, writing the next great American novel while the wind and rain howls outside. I can see myself enjoying the beauty of Port Isaac in the glories of summer. I will grow an even bigger beard somehow. I will grumble about tourists.

It goes to show that when it comes to buying property, it’s not always about how much you can get for your money. Maybe it’s what a house says to you. The EPC rating is F, which isn’t great, but nobody is perfect, not even The Shrimp. But it’s pretty close.

The Shrimp is for sale with JB Estates for £280,000. For more information and pictures, click here.

Credit: Zoopla

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