Looking for our next house

It has been our experience that rather than seeking the ideal house across a wide area, it is better to decide on a location and to compromise as necessary. So we are looking for a house based on these priorities:

• In Berwick-upon-Tweed (a farm upbringing cured me of seeking rural solitude)
• At the seaside, which it is
• Within walking distance of the town centre and the excellent mainline railway station
• Large enough to provide 2 studies, a studio space for Cath, a workshop for me and guest rooms
• Scope for a ground floor accessible shower and a room that can become a bedroom
• A pleasant garden but not too large
• Scope for improvement project
• Houses of all ages as long as there is scope for interesting, well-proportioned rooms. 

The housing market in Berwick-upon-Tweed is not as vigorous and competitive as North Tyneside where we had been looking but houses are selling and you get a lot more for your money, potentially releasing money for other projects. There are a lot of older and listed buildings in this ancient market town, which is great for an historic building nut like me. The fast and frequent train service is 45 minutes to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 40 minutes to Edinburgh and about three and a half hours to London. Fantastic.

Rightmove is a great tool for enabling remote house searches by defined criteria but it is arguably most beneficial to vendors as their houses are exposed to a bigger market and are more likely to sell quickly. This means that the most sought after houses are soon snapped up in a strong market. Potential buyers can soon discard no-hopers and neverwozzers. Tasteless, dreary and off-putting houses predominate, so the search soon narrows down to a few possibles. It really does save a lot of wasted time, provided that the particulars are well prepared. Often, however, photographs are erratic and do not show key spaces. Those listings that exclude simple layout plans are maddening.

A particular issue is the town house yard. Usually when they are not illustrated it is a bad sign. So it proved on Thursday when we looked at 6 The Parade, a former bed and breakfast with nasty aluminium window frames, a poor paint job to the rendered front elevation. Toilets, baths and showers have been shoe horned in where possible, spoiling some quite decent rooms. The basement ceiling height was very low and the yard was shallow, didn't run the full width of the property and had no rear access. Clearly a non-starter on viewing but not completely apparent from the particulars.

There is another possible in Main Street Tweedmouth but it is under offer. Listed, 4 bed, 4 recep, terraced walled garden and including a derelict cottage. £190,000 in an area near the dock that is improving. Extraordinary.

The same morning we looked at 1 Lovaine Terrace. This generous Edwardian end-of-terrace meets most of our requirements and is of a similar age to our last two houses but with more original features and a distant sea view from the first floor front rooms. There are 5 bedroooms and a studio in a stone building at the bottom of the garden. The grey-brown render above the stone ground floor and black barge boards gives it a certain Scottish style grimness but he interior is generous and attractive and could be better still. The Kennys who are perhaps ten years older than us are retired academics and would like to move into Newcastle to a slightly smaller house, probably in Heaton. Like us, they have many books. The house is on the north side of Berwick about 3 minutes walk from the station and a little over ten minutes into town. It would suit us very well and we are negotiating. The house is understood to have been provided for the headmaster of Berwick Grammar School, opposite, now a middle school.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-57027502.html