Trading up, trading down

Trading up: Devon. You can expand your family recklessly while residing among five bedrooms (two with en suite) and the capacious reception rooms. Devonshire mud can be rinsed painlessly off the flagstoned floor in the hallway before you defrost in front of the open fires. A former farmhouse, it is in the fetching village of Kilmington near Axminster, and because the A35 shaves close by it is a good £100,000 cheaper than you'd expect. Yours for £395,000.
Palmer Snell, 01297 35244 Photograph: Palmer Snell/Palmer Snell

Trading up: Nottinghamshire. The large self-contained annexe in this £399,000 four-bedder is used as office space, but would readily absorb semi-detached relatives. The rest of you can spread out through three large receptions, a conservatory and an Aga-warmed kitchen/breakfast room. The cellar could be converted into a teen brooding area. Good-looking neighbours are assured since it is a grade II-listed building in a conservation area of Newark.
Humberts, 01636 701401 Photograph: Humberts/Humberts

Trading down: Essex. Your neighbour is the parish church and its surrounding greenery in the medieval market town of Thaxted. It is a £249,995 grade II-listed cottage with a walled garden in the centre of town, and if two bedrooms downsize you too severely you could rejig the cellar, which has natural light. The whole place has been renovated leaving intact beams and a wood-burning stove within the inglenook fireplace. A utility lobby and a separate dining room free up the kitchen.
Mullucks, 01799 520520 Photograph: Mullucks/Mullucks

Trading down: West Sussex. This is a £225,000 miniature foothold in Chichester. For those who can shrink untroubled into two bedrooms and two dainty reception rooms it has all the ingredients for bliss: a pretty face, a fireplace, a generous back garden and a no-through road – all a 10 minute walk from the city centre. Unusually for small quaint cottages the bathroom is upstairs, leaving room for a ground-floor loo.
Stride & Son, 01243 782626 Photograph: Stride & Son/Stride & Son

Bargain of the week: Aberdeenshire. This is rock star living on a white-collar budget. There is the swimming pool – a long, glassed and raftered affair culminating in a conservatory. Then there is the top-floor flat – two bedrooms and a shower room to supplement the four bedrooms (three of which are en suite). The three receptions and kitchen have views to the Angus Glens, all for £300,000. The catch? It's hard by a dual carriageway, otherwise you would need an extra £100,000.
Bell Ingram, 01738 621 121 Photograph: Bell Ingram/Bell Ingram