Home: Bewdley, Worcestershire

Although this chalet development looks like a holiday camp, you can live here all year round. For a relatively affordable £120,000 you can acquire a three-bedroom house with a 30ft living area and gardens in front and back, but you’ll need to find that sum in cash because lenders are unlikely to want to commit. You’ll also be asked for an extra £1,600 a year in service charges, which includes water rates, because the place is leasehold and residents jointly maintain the communal areas.Onthemarket, 01562 309924

Home: Aboyne, Aberdeenshire

The whole place is a hymn to wood with its larch cladding, hardwood floors and staircase, exposed beams and surrounding woodland. And where the wood ends, glass begins – the double-height living room is almost entirely glazed on one side with a glass mezzanine overhanging it. The largest of the five bedrooms has a beamed cathedral ceiling, adjoining study, dressing room and bathroom, and a Juliet balcony overlooking the woods. Guide price: £545,000. Strutt & Parker, 01330 826800

Home: Llanharan, Rhondda

This four-bedroom house and its fellows were modelled on Canadian log cabins to suit the rugged, rural setting. Inside the floors, walls and stairs are of wood, and wooden decking in the front garden faces views over the wooded valley, but this is no backwoods lifestyle: there are two more receptions off the enormous lounge, and the master suite is 27ft. It’s freehold, but residents pay £100 a month in service charges to cover water, sewerage and the upkeep of communal areas. Yours for £499,950.Watts & Morgan, 01446 774152

Away: South Yarmouth, Massachusetts

‘A diamond in the rough’ is the agent’s description of this 1850s Cape Cod farmhouse. The owner has started making renovations, but whoever buys it has to finish its initiation into the 21st century. Superficially its all genteel elegance inside, with tall windows, wood floors, beamed ceilings and three fireplaces. There’s also a barn with potential within the 1.36 acres. It has an asking price of £278,714.Robert Paul Properties, 00 1 508 240 4984

Away: Doussard, Haute Savoie

Lake Annecy and the surrounding mountains lie beyond the two balconies of this five-bedroom chalet. Walls, floors and ceilings are of wood, and a wood fire will thaw you in winter. For summer there’s an outdoor kitchen on the covered terrace. On the market for £421,765.Groupe Mercure, 0013 628 3284