Our friends over at mydeco are concerned that we’ll forget, so they sent us this as a reminder.

The bunker cuckoo clock is composed of 111 small bricks, arranged to resemble a war bunker. Popping out of the bunker is a hand-painted cuckoo that stays silent and wears a helmet for protection.

We like!

A few days ago, I read a Knight Frank report proclaiming that the price of country houses had risen for the first time in two years.

Ever since, I’ve been plagued by the Blur song which features that particular property type. You know the one: he lives in a house, a very big house…

Anyway, I digress. A bit like M&S fare, the properties in the Knight Frank report aren’t just any country houses; they’re the cream of the crop of country houses, with an average price tag of £1.3 million.

I know that’s way above the budget for most of us Common People - I was always more of a PULP girl! - but that shouldn’t stop us checking out the lay of the land, and taking a look at how much country house £1.3m will buy these days.

It may also be the exorcism I need to get that damned ditty out of my head…

Here, then, are our Five Very Big Houses in the Country:

(Click on pics for full property details)

1. Maybole, Ayrshire
£1.4 million OIEO

2. Builth Wells, Powys
£1.3 million

3. Westerham, Kent
£1.3 million

4. Jedburgh, Borders
£1.3 million

5. Sidmouth, Devon
£1,250,000

Richard Rogers, as you probably know, won the Stirling Prize for architecture last week.

I meant to blog about this property then, but, well, it slipped my mind.

It’s by David Chipperfield, a former Stirling winner (2007) and currently the subject of an exhibition at the Design Museum in London.

If you like crisp lean minimalist spaces, this is definitely one to drool over, though you’ll need a beefed up overweight wallet to afford it (£2.15m - Unique Property Company, Tel: 0870 900 4050).

Other people’s homes: always interesting, aren’t they? Following on from Joss’s post below about a very pink house in New York, here’s a video from style magazine dwell about a very black apartment in the same city.

It’s owned by Cindy Gallop, an international advertising consultant.

Cindy, who has enough shoes to put Imelda Marcos to shame, says that when she comes home of an evening after a hard day’s consulting she likes to relax in a place that brings to mind “a Shanghai bar at night”.

Don’t we all Cindy, don’t we all?

She also describes her apartment as “the ultimate bachelorette pad. When any guy walks through the front door I want him to be a sure thing within two minutes.”

Hmmm. Ok guys, time to vote on Cindy’s black walls, floors and ceilings, the goat’s head, the stuffed crocodile covered in gold, and (gulp!) the Gucci branded chain saw.

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I love New York. And I love pink. So how much do I love this NYC townhouse with its fabulously pink bedroom? Very, very much, is the answer.

However, even I’m aware that intensely pink bedrooms with golden angels adorning the walls are likely to be the stuff of nightmares rather than sweet dreams for most people.

But the former owner of this house certainly wasn’t most people: she was the famous-in-the-80s New York clothing designer, Abbijane Schifrin, creator of the one-name ‘Abbijane’ brand.

Following her untimely death earlier this year – sadly, just before her new collection was due to be previewed – her flamboyant five-storey Gramercy Park townhouse was put on the market for a whopping $8.75 million.

While that may seem like a hefty price – particularly if you were planning on a repaint – you have to consider that this property is steeped in New York legend, courtesy of its famous former owner.

Not only that, but East 19th Street, where it’s situated, is recognised as being one of the city’s most delightful residential roads, so much so that it’s actually known as Block Beautiful.

I wonder how the residents of such a prestigious street would feel if pink-loving Paris Hilton were to move in…

(Via Curbed)

As shiny homes go, they don’t get much shinier than this.

Source: Inhabitat

Looking like another escapee from the set from Blade Runner (cf. The Pyramid House), it is in fact the overall winner of the 2009 Solar Decathlon over in Washington D.C. - a competition which seeks to raise awareness about renewable energy whilst encouraging and promoting new techniques for creating zero-energy homes.

Right, that’s the serious bit over, now on to the fun fact that, despite USA fielding 15 teams, the overall winner was Germany. Again.

Vorsprung Durch Technik* as they say in Washington.

More details over at Inhabitat

* roughly translates as: “We’ve Been Green For Years And What We Don’t Know About Renewable Energy You Could Write On A (Recycled) Post-It Note”

Here’s an interesting graph from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ last market survey.

It shows the relationship between sales and stock levels.  If the ratio is rising, the market tends to favour sellers and this puts upward pressure on prices.

This is indeed the case: the ratio has risen for nine consecutive months and stands at 29, its highest level since December 2007.

Small wonder, then, that the net balance of surveyors expecting prices to increase rather than decrease pushed up to 25 per cent, from 18 per cent in August.

This reading of the market is borne out by our own House Prices & Affordability Index, the last issue of which shows stock levels on the slide (by 20 per cent year-on-year) and prices edging up.

The beautiful Cornish manor house that featured in the film Saving Grace is for sale with an asking price of £2.75m.

(click on pics for full property details)

The film, if you haven’t seen it, is a wry comedy about a widow who decides to grow top class cannabis in her greenhouse in order to raise the money to avoid repossession.

It starred Brenda Blethyn as the widow, Craig Ferguson as her dope smoking gardener, and Martin Clunes as the local doctor.

Trivia alert: the character played by Clunes later became the basis of the very successful Doc Martin TV series.

And the property? It is, says the agent, a beautiful example of an early 18th Century Queen Anne country house – something of a rarity in this part of the world. And as an added bonus, it’s surrounded by 38 acres of land, gardens and woodland. Nice!

Movie still courtesy of 20th Century Fox

Converted windmills are rare enough – but top-notch conversions that still have a full set of sails are even rarer.

So, my friends, feast your eyes on these two beauties (and check out the awesome wine cellar in the Reigate property!)

(click on pics for full property details)

Battle, East Sussex , £1,495,000

2. Reigate, Surrey, £995,000

Art Deco is quite possibly the architectural equivalent of Marmite, given its tendency to divide people into two distinct camps: lovers or loathers.

I’m on the loving it side, myself, particularly when it comes to properties. I love the blend of gracious curves and crisp lines, the flat roofs, the flurry of windows, and the frequently extravagant designs.

But most of all, I love Art Deco’s ability to transport you to a different era, back to the glamour and elegance of the 1920s and early ’30s - no surprise, then, that these properties are also feted by producers of period TV shows and films.

So, in the spirit of the Roaring Twenties, whip up a Martini, adopt a languid pose on a chaise longue, and peruse our lavish five to view:

(click on pics for full property details)

1. Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire
£2,600,000

2. Poole, Dorset
£1,495,000

3. Stanmore, Middlesex
£995,000

4. Newquay, Cornwall
£750,000

5. Stoneleigh, Surrey
£330,000