It might not surprise you to hear this, but I spend a quite considerable amount of time browsing the internet, looking at property. What might also not surprise you is that, a lot of the time, that property is very nice — large spacious manor houses, with acres and acres of gardens; Grand Design palazzos with hot and cold running everything; estates where one’s land ownership extends as far as the eye can see in every direction.
What might surprise you, is that I prefer the little houses. The two-to-three bedroom cottages, with comfy little gardens, and not too many rooms. This isn’t because of some socialist ideals around home ownership (not entirely, anyway), but rather that I’m quite lazy and wonder how I would ever find the time to hoover and furnish a house with six reception rooms.
A good house, that is a good size, that caught my eye recently is this cottage — for sale for offers in excess of £600,00 with Fine and Country — in the north Devon village of Torrington. It is cosy and thatched, which I like. It has three bedrooms, which is a good number, a nice open-plan layout on the ground floor, which includes the kitchen and dining rooms, and a garden of about half an acre. All very manageable, and in a good location.
The cottage is nicely elevated, catching plenty of sun, with views across the wooded valley in which it sits. It’s delightfully period, with inglenook fires, exposed beams and mullioned windows. Overall, it looks a comfortable and pleasant place to live and entertain and, more than anything, very manageable.
What might be slightly less manageable are the feature gardens, which are terraced and feature meandering paths throughout. They run from the cottage, down to the brook that forms part of the property’s boundary. Extensively planted, they will require some looking after, but they provide plenty of spots to stop and soak up the divine rural Devon wilderness.
For sale with Fine and Country for £600,000. For more information and images, click here
Credit: Savills
A handsome Georgian villa in a quiet and sought-after Dorset village
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Credit: Knight Frank
An enhanced Elizabethan Manor house in Kent with gardens by Gertrude Jekyll
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Credit: Hamptons
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Credit: Strutt and Parker
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