close

The Househunter Room by Room

Given the glorious weather and the fact that this week is summer (expect normal rain service to have resumed by the time you read this) I have been hunting for properties with pools or great views this week and first up is this two bedroom Modernist flat in Hampstead which is on for £1.100,000 via The Modern House.

modernise house via the modern house

This is the urban flat for those who don’t want to leave the City but like a bit of greenery and outside space. It’s on a private estate and is surrounded by woodland. It’s also on a hill so it’s arranged on three half levels with a private south-west-facing garden.

sunken dining room via the modern house

It has two bedrooms but that wooden wall in the picture below is actually a sliding door, and there’s a pull down bed in this room which can be separated from the main living area to make a guest bedroom.

spedan close via the modern house

There’s masses of storage and although the building is now listed, it was completed in 1978 as one of Camden Council’s flagship low rise developments. It has been finished in its so-called house style which means a white concrete finish with dark joinery and the structural skeleton exposed. It’s impossible to overstate how screamingly fashionable this place is now.

spedan close via the modern house

Especially if you replaced the red kitchen doors with something, well, less red, but perhaps that’s just me. If anyone needs me this week I’ll be lying on the floor outside the bank manager’s office begging for an interest-free mortgage.

red kitchen via the modern house

Right, that’s the city pad sorted out. We’ll be needing something for the weekend now. How about this Cornish town house in Fowey which is on for £1,250,000? Well it is Fantasy Friday Folks…. via Savills.

cornish house via savills

That’s it there – the right hand grey house, arranged over three floors with three or four bedrooms – the fourth is currently used as an upstairs sitting room, harbour access and great views. I could have breakfast here quite happily couldn’t you?

roof terrace wtih sea view via savills

Not too much of the interior as it is, well, quite magnolia, but a lick of modern pale grey – to tone with the outside – and you’d be winning. It’s got an undercover parking space as well, which, if I know my Cornish holiday towns, is probably making up a decent proportion of the overall price. You could no doubt rent it out for a tidy sum if you didn’t need it although you will already have to pay £850 in annual fees to keep it.

rustic kitchen with aga via savills

Right town and country now we need one with a swimming pool to finish the trio. And if that doesn’t ensure the heavens open by publication day tomorrow I don’t know what will…

Screen Shot 2017-05-25 at 16.47.46

Mind you, this one is all about the house which, it will come as no surprise is spread over five floors. There is a large indoor pool and a tennis court and it’s in Lymington via John D Wood. The price? Well even the estate agent is embarrassed to print it out loud but it’s definitely more than £3m.

LYM160118_07

But it has four bedrooms and bathrooms and two receptions so perhaps we can come to some sort of sharing arrangement. I believe that’s what they used to call time share.

LYM160118_06

It’s both cosy for winter and then you have this wonderful, almost gothic style, conservatory for the summer. The views are of the Solent and The Isle of Wight.

LYM160118_01

So who’s having what this week? I think I’m probably staying in the city in the final analysis. Not sure I can cope with the stairs in this tower. What about you?

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

6 Comments

  1. The Lymington house! (If I can afford this house, I can afford to put a lift in!)

  2. Hampstead pad for me! I like the thought of a coastal weekend retreat- but the hours spent in traffic would stress me out.

Comments are closed.