The Old School House

The village's original schoolhouse, lovingly restored and still recognisably itself. The walls are a foot thick, which keeps it cool through a West Coast summer, and the wood-fire stove takes care of the winter. You still come in through the original school front door, and the bell is still on the wall outside.

Most of the furniture either dates from the days when this was a classroom or was made by hand by the family, which gives the rooms a character no rental ever gets from a catalogue. The older half has wooden floors, the newer addition tiles. Two bedrooms sleep five — a queen in one, a double and a single in the other — with two bathrooms, one of them holding a claw-foot bath.

Outside there is a vine-covered pergola to eat under and a big walled garden. Pets are welcome, which is rarer here than it should be, and there is a garage for bikes, boards and whatever else comes along. It sits in a quiet cul-de-sac of mostly local neighbours, a few minutes' walk from the beaches.

One note from Roger, and it is a fair one: she is an old house and needs constant care, so tell them if anything wants fixing.