Searching in Other Areas - North Yorkshire & Wales

Since we started talking about moving to Scotland most people have asked us whether we had considered somewhere closer to home. So many of you will be wondering if there is another location that could give us what we want, maybe Wales or North Yorkshire?

Well we do look at this ... or John does a search, finds some likely candidates, then we go through them and generally dismiss them vs some of the properties we have found in Scotland. Tonight, we spent 1/2 hour with a wide search of on the market upto £350,000. You may disagree, but here goes - the best alternatives!

This character property in Wales is a converted chapel which is now a semi-detached house. It has been done out very nicely inside, but, has no view of the lovely scenery from the windows, and no garden. It's in a quiet village for £350,000. It is very close to the coast, but not amazing beaches, and there were a fair number of caravan parks nearby, which means tourists in droves in the summer. We wouldn't mind going there for a family week in a holiday let - but its not 'homely' - thanks but we will move on.

If you want something a little left field, auctions can be your friend - how about this? Starting bids, £65,000 and interestingly, a look on google maps shows that this house looked pretty much the same (ie. a development opportunity) in April 2010. The static caravan was even there over 10 years ago! The house is rural and, once in good condition, could be worth £500,000. What's going on? Well, the advert specifically says that the property regularly floods! Next please...

Back to John's roots in North Yorkshire (cue theme of 'Last of the Summer Wine') and what's out there.

This one is nice, and rural, but for £285,000 you only get 1/2 of it - it's a charming one bedroom bolt hole retreat or holiday let.

This was in all seriousness the closest to something we might like, near Penrith, £350,000. Inside though, it needs 'quite a bit of work'. So, at the absolute limit of our budget, and still with a lot of improvements to do to make it liveable, this just isn't possible us for us right now.

Or this one? John feels like sending an e-mail to the estate agent to ask if they were 'taking the Michael'! £350,000 - that's no typo - for a one bed barn conversion. Personally we think it looks like a garden shed in South Wales! And this photo was it's good side too!

So, given what we want:

1. room with a view

2. in a natural and unspoilt landscape

3. whilst not really being too precious about the weather

4. at an affordable price

we're planning on sticking with going a little further north!