No I don’t mean you should bunk down in a field for a year – Glastonbury town is actually a very pretty little place to live. Or at least it is until all of those music revellers come and trample through it for four days of the year.

Then I imagine it’s not so great. But you do get free tickets to the festival, and you can go home to your own bed afterwards, so it does have its perks.

It’s a sleepy little place steeped in history, so if you’re looking for postcard perfect views and traditional cream teas at the weekend, you can’t go far wrong with this Somerset town.

Let’s have a look at some homes.

Headline act: £2,500,000

This house is big enough for you to hold your very own Glastonbury festival! It was previously owned by Glastonbury Abbey so if you’re looking for somewhere with a bit of history and character, this would suit you.

The property actually has four cottages so it’s perfect for renting out as holiday accommodation (although perhaps not to festival goers!).

You’ve also got a huge 40 acres of gardens and woodland to play with so if you’re green fingered, there’s certainly enough to keep you busy.

Support act: £650,000

This property is currently being used as a B&B but it would make a very pretty home as well.

The Victorian house has seven bedrooms so it could be used as a home or for commercial use. And very pretty it is too! It’s situated alongside the Glastonbury Road in Wells – the smallest city in the UK.

If you’re looking for somewhere with a bit of peace and quiet, this quaint little city could be for you.

Newcomer: £275,000

Looking for a simple semi-detached? This home could be perfect. You get the luxury of an en-suite on one of the bedrooms, and a great view.

Plus, you’ve got a fine garden in the back with a nice patio. Perfect for those summery nights.

This is the kind of home that would be great if you’re looking for somewhere you can move straight into without any high maintenance.

If you’re too busy to do any home improvements and gardening, but still want somewhere to call home, pop your head through the door and take a look.

Sound Check: £117,000

Nothing wrong with this lovely little number. You’re looking at a flat on the first floor with two bedrooms.

You also get access to a communal garden as well which is a real luxury for a flat that’s not on the ground floor. This place is great value so it’s well worth taking a look.

I’ll admit to having Wimbledon fever. It happens every year. I get giddy for two weeks.

So if you ask me to leave my prime viewing position on the sofa, you had better make sure the match has finished. Otherwise I’m going to be very late indeed (those five set matches are always an issue).

This time of year, everyone will be swarming the area to watch Andy Murray as he battles to win the title. But Wimbledon is actually a very lovely place to live all year round.

It’s in the quieter part of London and, frankly, is all the better for it.  Plus, you’re close to Richmond, and that, in my eyes, can only be a good thing.

Let’s have a look at some homes in the area.

Ace – £7,750,000

I love this property. There’s something so old-fashioned about it. It’s an Edwardian building and I can imagine there being wonderful Brideshead Revisited style parties here.

There would be nothing but fun in this home. Garden parties, champagne cocktails before dinner and all sorts of entertainment (yes, I think it would be fun to live in aristocratic England. Is that weird?)

But what do you get for your millions? Well aside from the stunning gardens, you’ll get nine bedrooms and seven bathrooms (and those bathrooms are amazing).

You’ll also get five reception rooms for all of your swanky soirees. I’ll expect my invite in the post.

Advantage – £1,150,000

If you’re looking for somewhere right by the All England Tennis Club, this home will be perfect.

Very handy after playing a couple of sets before dinner. You get the benefit of an indoor pool and some lovely looking gardens as well.

There’s a games room and five bedrooms too. Not bad for just over a million. If you happen to have that lying around, of course.

Maybe Andy Murray could buy this with his potential winnings?

Deuce – £309,950

This flat has many things going for it, not least off-street parking, which is pretty important in London.

The flat has one bedroom with en-suite and really spacious rooms. You get a balcony as well.

It’s a great option for a professional couple looking for a home to settle in, but still within easy reach of central London.

Love-Fifteen – £145,000

If you’re looking for a small flat in the area, you could do a lot worse than this property. It’s near both mainline stations and the underground, and it has everything you need.

Best of all, there’s no stamp duty. This is an expensive area of London so it’s nice to know that you can still find somewhere that’s good value, but has all the perks of living in this much sought after area.

Blackheath is an interesting area just up the road from me. It manages to stay this rather elusive place. South of neighbouring Greenwich, it’s somehow ‘above’ all of the tourism and annoying students from Greenwich University (guilty as charged; I was one once).

There’s something very serene about it. I mean, really really peaceful. But it’s not lifeless – it has a real village vibe and is full of little boutiques and cool pubs.

It’s within biking distance of Canary Wharf, but also easy to get to the City (about 15 minutes into London Bridge). And it’s very popular with young professionals and families.

As an area, it’s pretty affluent and most of the schools are good. There’s some wonderful Georgian property here as well as a good supply of fine Victorian houses.

Some of the priciest are on the very upmarket Cator Estate (Victorian) though here you’ll also find a more affordable option: the trendy and innovative Span estate designed by Eric Lyons in the 1960s.

Below are some properties in the area you might like.

Wricklemarsh Road

If you’ve got kids, this home might just be perfect. It’s got four bedrooms, it’s off a very main road and the garden is huge! I mean, really huge!

The house has also been extended into the loft to give you even more space so it would be perfect if you need a home office or studio.

It’s a semi with a garage, which is helping to push up the price. It’s still pretty good value and is currently at £365,000.

Oh, and that garden? South facing.

The Lane

Span estates were designed and developed by Eric Lyons and his associates in the 50s and 60s.

They were basically modernist developments but cleverly incorporated elements from the English garden suburb idea to create low-rise housing in lushly landscaped gardens.

Unlike much housing built in the 50s and 60s, they’ve remained perennially popular and have, in recent years, attracted a lot of interest from design literate buyers in search of something different.

They’re also relatively good value – Blackheath is expensive, but the Span developments are within reach for buyers who would otherwise struggle to afford a house here.

This larger-than-usual example on the prestigious Cator Estate comes with three bedrooms, two reception rooms, and a garage. £450,000

Shooters Hill Road

Shooters Hill is one of the most sought after roads in the Blackheath area (if you’re on the right side of the roundabout, anyway). The old townhouses are stunning and actually deceptively large.

They don’t look that impressive from the outside, but when you’re viewing you’ll see that they’re often beautifully restored and make for very pretty homes indeed. This three-bed house is excellent.

It overlooks a bit of the heath and is in close walking distance of public transport. If you want some greenery, and you don’t mind being on a main road (no cats or kids!) then this place is certainly worth a shot.

How much? £479,995. Pricey, but very pretty indeed.

When you’re looking for a new home, one of the options available is to buy a new-build property.

Like any other home purchase, it comes with its own advantages and disadvantages, all of which should be carefully considered before you commit to a purchase.

Here’s a rundown of some of the key pros and cons to think about.

Pros:

•    You may get the chance to choose your own fixtures and fittings. Many developers offer this (assuming the house isn’t fully completed already) and it means you get to choose things to your taste, like the colour of walls, bathroom tiles or the type of door handles, so you don’t have to decorate when you move in.

•    Extra incentives are often available, too, like brand new appliances in the kitchen.

•    There’s no chain involved. This can be a major bonus, as you don’t suffer the consequences of getting caught up in a lengthy property buying chain, and completion can often be quite quick.

•    Compared to older homes, new-build houses are built to rigorous safety standards. Fire retardant materials are standard these days, for example, and homes come with fire safety doors and smoke alarms.

•    Due to increased awareness of the environment, new homes are more likely to use less energy, emit less carbon dioxide and have less of an impact on the environment.

•    There’s less maintenance. When you’re buying a new home, a big advantage is that you’re less likely to have to do much maintenance, especially in the early years.

Cons:

•    Some new houses are prone to being built close together, as developers are often keen to fit as many new homes as they can onto the available land space.

•    Due to pressure on space, some new homes tend to end up with smaller rooms than older houses.

•    Although you’d expect brand new homes to be perfect, often they’re not. You may come across minor problems with fixtures or fittings, or with the quality of the finishes. Once builders have moved on to their next job, it’s often tricky getting them back to finish things off properly.

•    The gardens in new homes often need a lot of work. The soil quality can be poor and, although it may look like there’s new turf laid, you can’t guarantee that it’s laid properly.

•    Depending on where you’ve bought and how far into a development you’ve bought, you could end up temporarily living on a building site for a while, whilst homes around you are built.

Search here for a new home to buy in the UK.

I play the lottery every week in the hope of being able to buy my dream home. Once I won £10, which was quite exciting. But then I lost the ticket, which was less so.

An awful lot of that lottery money, of course, doesn’t go into players’ pockets – it goes to helping people as well.

Village SOS is a brand new National Lottery initiative which gives you the chance to give your village its very own makeover. And we’re not talking a coat of paint and a bit of a tidy here.

Anything up to £400,000 could go towards helping make your village a lovely  – or even lovelier! – place to live and visit.

And you could end up on the telly, too. The lottery scheme is teaming up with the BBC for a series next year. The Beeb feel that people are at the heart of a village community so they’ll be following the activities of residents in the six chosen villages next year.

Want to nominate your village? Well, you’ve got to be sure it has less than 3,000 people in it first (any town records should be able to tell you this – you don’t have to line everyone up and count them!)

You’ve got until August 14th to apply, but you won’t find out until May 2010 whether or not you’ve been accepted.

It might be worth starting up a couple of community projects before you apply, though, so the judges can see that you’re at least making an effort on your own. Besides, that community garden might be fun if everyone chips in.

And that’s the whole point, really -  to get everyone working together and making a happy, safe place for people to live.

If you’re planning to apply (or if you’ve been quick off the mark and applied already!) let us know. We’d love to find out more about who is getting involved. We might even pop round and see your village!

If you’re looking for a quirky or unusual home that stands out from the crowd, and aren’t too worried about having oodles of space, then a traditional toll house could be the perfect answer.

Toll houses are small houses or lodges that were traditionally built and used to collect money at bridges or junctions on toll roads.

The toll collector lived in the house and had the job of collecting the money. In order to ensure people did pay, there was often a gate across the road which was only opened after the toll was paid.

Over time, many of the traditional toll houses have been demolished, but others have successfully survived and are still lived in today.

Most are quite small and compact (although there are exceptions), and stand out because of their dinky size. Sometimes they’re built in unusual shapes, like hexagons, and you can be assured that they’ll almost always be on the side of a road or bridge.

Whilst they may not be the most practical property purchase for families or anyone who likes a large driveway,  if you don’t mind not having loads of space, are an individual or couple, or want to be able to rent out the property as a quirky holiday home, then toll houses can be the ideal buy.

Toll houses on the market

Tavistock, Devon

A Grade II listed former toll house.

This hexagonal shaped toll house has two bedrooms (one with en-suite), a bathroom, large lounge and a kitchen/breakfast room.

There’s a small garden outside.

The asking price is £175,000.

Bath

It’s not often you find a house for sale in a bridge, but that’s the case with this toll house. Located in Cleveland Bridge, in central Bath, this fab toll house is Grade II listed and is a former toll lodge designed by architect Henry Goodridge.

It was built in 1826 by William Hazledine and, although it has quite a grand and striking exterior, the interior has a contemporary and light and airy design.

Unlike a lot of toll houses which are simply by the side of the road, this house benefits from fantastic river frontage too. It has two bedrooms, a kitchen/dining room, bathroom and sitting room. £299,000.

Cornwall

This Grade II listed 16th century detached toll keeper’s cottage is another property that’s built into a stone bridge. It’s located on the edge of St Columb Major in Cornwall, where the bridge crosses the River Menalhyl.

The cottage has two bedrooms, gardens running along the riverbank and extra storage under the house. It’s full of character and has some very quirky features, such as unusual shaped windows. £195,000.

West Yorkshire

This stone-built detached lodge was formerly a toll house to Blackgates House in Tingley, West Yorkshire.

Believed to have been built in about 1840, the lodge has three en-suite bedrooms, two spacious reception rooms, a contemporary kitchen, a cellar and a study.

In the garden a feature has been made of the re-sited stone gate posts from the original toll gate. £350,000.

Gertrude Jekyll is famous for her garden designs. And rightly so:  they’re pretty stunning.

She designed over 400 in her time and she’s generally acclaimed as a remarkable colourist and as a champion of a less formal Arts & Crafts style.

Here are some lucky homes currently on the market that come with their very own Jekyll garden (click the pics to view the full details)

York

This home is a bit of a double-whammy. Of course, the garden is designed by Jekyll, but the house itself was designed by the architect Walter Brierley.

It’s not often that two different worlds of design meet so effortlessly, and the combination here makes for a really stunning property.

The eight bedrooms and two acres are just a bonus. This is a status property. £1.75 million pounds worth of status.

Surrey

Ok, a communal garden might not be your ideal scenario, but there are communal gardens and then there are Jekyll-designed communal grounds running to 15 gorgeous acres of landscaped loveliness.

The property itself is rather wonderful too – a large and beautifully presented wing of a refurbished mansion with soaring ceilings, ornate plaster work, panelled walls and high windows looking out over that fantastic garden.

The house comes with four bedrooms, one/two reception rooms, three bathrooms and the kind arcadian peace and quiet that, in this part of the world, commands a guide price of £1,450,000.

Buckinghamshire

This property is my favourite.

The gardens themselves are a bit of an enigma; they may have been designed by Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens but no one is absolutely certain.

The added mystery appeals to me. So do the vast reception rooms and four bedrooms.

If I had a spare £1,150,000 in the bank…

Surrey

Ok, this one doesn’t have a garden designed by Jekyll, but it is her childhood home and it features a beautifully picturesque garden complete with a bubbling millstream, cascading waterfall, leat and fishpond.

A wooden bridge with a pergola of climbing roses crosses the stream to the vegetable garden, and to the rear of the house a secluded courtyard is bounded by lawns and a range of ornamental trees and shrubs.

Further away from the house are areas of wild garden and wet woodland which provide the perfect habitat for a wide range of wildlife.

With this as a formative inspiration, it’s hardly surprising that Jekyll went on to become one of the most influential gardeners in the history of British horticulture. £1,250,000 and it’s yours.

Q: We are thinking about placing our home on the market but are unsure whether now is the right time. We have certainly seen our property’s value drop heavily in the past year but want to know whether to cut our losses and sell now. Do you have any advice?

Advice, yes, but not a crystal ball, I’m afraid! Selling one’s home should be determined by need. So the key question is: do you have to move? If not, then I would hold on until prices have stabilised.

This said, one bit of advice I was always given when I was an estate agent was that the only right time to sell is now – and this holds true, even in a poor market, for although the value of your home will have dropped, the value of the property you intend purchasing will have dropped too.

The signs are that the rate of decline in property values has slowed right down,  with some areas actually showing a slight increase.

So, if you need to sell, do so – and if you don’t have to, then perhaps wait six months to see how the market is then.

I certainly believe that once more mortgage funds are freed up by lenders and more first-time buyers come into the market, the knock-on effects will eventually be felt right up the property chain.

Q. Given the excessive level of rainfall in recent years, you might think I am mad asking this.  I viewed a property which was beautiful, completely perfect and something I had been searching for, for years.

The only trouble is that it falls within a ‘1 in 100 year’ flood risk zone. The elderly couple who own it and have lived in the property since it was built in 1925 say that they haven’t had a single flood.

Statistically, this suggests that it may be due to flood sooner rather than later. I am really reticent to proceed. What’s your advice?

A. Firstly, floods do not happen at predictable and regular intervals. If they did, weathermen would be more highly regarded than they are!

Secondly, if the property didn’t flood during the unseasonal summer rains of 2007, although it is not impossible to rule out altogether, it seems highly unlikely that it will flood in the foreseeable future – as that year’s rainfall was unprecedented.

The only issue you may encounter in a flood-risk area is obtaining insurance cover. So my first action, before making any formal offer, would be to contact several insurance companies to see what the issues are, if any.

If the property is uninsurable, think very carefully about the financial ramifications and rebuilding costs should it later suffer flood damage.  There’s more on the issue on the Environment Agency’s website.

In my imagination, my ideal home has a perfect garden as well. Maybe with a pond and with roses growing and a little wishing well at the bottom. But in reality, I kill every single plant that I come into contact with.

My friend spent three months growing me sunflowers as a present. How lovely!  I killed them in less than a week. I just don’t do well with gardening. So why do I want a garden?

Well, I like the idea, but not necessarily the execution. And I get hayfever too. All that work and all that sneezing is a silly idea.

Gardens are hard work. Even though the really pretty ones always look easy to maintain, they’re not. And unless you’re going to get a handsome gardener in (they’re rarely handsome, by the way) then you’re going to have to put in some work.

Unfortunately, the novelty of having a garden if you’re not green-fingered wears off after about …  two weeks. Usually after it rains and ruins your bank holiday BBQ plans.

By the time you’ve decided on a house, bought some gardening books and unpacked, you’re bored of the garden and want to do something else instead.  Like go to the park where it’s a bit like a garden, but someone else has made it pretty.

Roses and daises are all well and good, but once you’ve got a garden, you’re stuck with it. There’s a reason so many people patio over half of them. They’re just too much work.

Even mowing the lawn looks really, really dangerous with all of those electric cables and choppy blades.

So before you spend your cash on somewhere with some outside greenery, have a bit of a think about how green fingered you really are, because that grass doesn’t stop growing just because you’re bored.