The Fold, Castle End Road, Maxey

£700,000 - £750,000 (Guide Price)
Some houses are designed to replicate the past. The best ones take what we love about it and make it work for modern life.

Individually designed and built in 2012, The Fold is a handsome stone-built detached home whose architecture takes its inspiration from a traditional barn conversion. Exposed timbers, vaulted ceilings and natural stone give the house genuine character, but behind them is a modern family home offering over 2,700 sq ft of accommodation arranged over two floors.

And there is considerably more space here than the four-bedroom description might initially suggest.

The ground floor is particularly generous, providing a collection of individual living spaces that allow different parts of family life to happen at the same time.

The breakfast kitchen measures approximately 19'7" x 18'9" and is very much an everyday hub. There is plenty of room for a large dining table alongside the fitted kitchen, while glazed doors connect directly with the adjoining sun room. Measuring approximately 18'9" x 13'4", this bright, predominantly glazed space opens onto the garden and creates a natural extension of the kitchen during the warmer months.

A separate utility room keeps the practical side of family life away from the main kitchen.

Alongside the kitchen is a substantial family room, measuring approximately 21'5" x 11'5". This is exactly the sort of additional living space that makes a larger family home work particularly well. It provides somewhere for everyday television, children or more informal entertaining, leaving the principal living room to fulfil an entirely different role.

And that principal living room is one of the architectural highlights of the house. At approximately 23'9" x 15'11", the vaulted ceiling and exposed roof timbers give the room the character and proportions of a converted barn. It is an impressive space, but importantly it doesn't have to accommodate every aspect of family life because the house has the family room, sun room and dining room elsewhere.

There is also a separate 18'1" x 16'6" dining room. While perfectly suited to more formal dining, its scale means there is considerable flexibility in how future owners choose to use it. For anyone wanting a home office, library, music room or simply another substantial reception space, the house gives you options rather than prescribing how every room should be used.

A ground-floor WC completes this level.

Upstairs, the sense of space continues. Rather than squeezing as many bedrooms as possible into the first floor, the layout provides four well-proportioned bedrooms arranged around an unusually generous landing.

The principal bedroom measures approximately 18'9" x 15'6" and has its own en suite shower room. Bedroom two is another substantial double at approximately 13'8" x 13'9", also with an en suite, while bedrooms three and four are served by the family bathroom.

It is a layout that should work particularly well for families. There is a clear distinction between the social and sleeping areas of the house, good bedroom proportions and, with three bathrooms in total, considerably less competition on a weekday morning.

Outside, the garden has been designed predominantly for low-maintenance enjoyment, with extensive paved areas creating plenty of room for outdoor seating, dining and entertaining. Mature planting and stone boundary walls soften the space, while the sun room provides an excellent visual and physical connection between house and garden.

The aerial photography perhaps explains the setting best. Despite being a substantial modern home, The Fold sits comfortably amongst the stone and traditional architecture around it, with the surrounding village and countryside giving the property a very different atmosphere from a conventional modern development.

That distinction is really the point.

The Fold offers many of the things buyers seek in an older village property, stone, character, individuality and architectural interest, but packages them within a home designed for the way families actually live today.

EPC Rating: C

Parking - Off street