The home of Pauline Ross for the past 10 years, the Grade II-listed home is within a courtyard development of seven other similar properties all created from old farm buildings at Brunstock near Carlisle.

Pauline, who is retired, said: “I moved out from in Carlisle and one of the things that attracted me to the place was that it’s like living in the country but only 10 minutes from Carlisle, near the motorway and the bypass, it’s convenient but you get the benefit of feeling you live in the country.

“It’s semi-rural like a little hamlet, I have a wildlife section of the garden and I get a lot of bees in there and loads of butterflies on the buddleia. There are hedgehogs in the garden and deer in the woods.”

Her home is on a corner plot in the courtyard and has gardens to the front, side and rear. Although Pauline is The Cornerstone’s second owner since the site was developed in 2000, she is the first to have touched the gardens which were just as the builders had left them.

Since then she has planted and landscaped them and they are now attractive outdoor spaces with lawns, shrubs, flower beds and trees.

Pauline said: “I’ve completely done the garden myself, planted it and landscaped it. The front faces west and the courtyard gets the sun in the morning then over to the main garden in the afternoon.

“The living room in the house also gets the sun, and it is my favourite room. It has two huge nearly floor-to-ceiling windows so I get the sun through one window in the morning and through the other window in the afternoon.

"It’s really light and that’s another thing that attracted me to here, it just gives a sense of space and light.”

This sitting room is one of two reception rooms in the property, alongside the dining room – although this room is flexible enough to be converted to a fourth bedroom or a workroom. The entrance hall, with stable door and understairs cupboard, and modern kitchen complete the ground-floor layout.

The kitchen has a range of fitted units and integrated appliances, all electric as there is no gas piped to the village. Pauline’s heating comes courtesy of an oil tank, which still has a three-year guarantee on it. The timber in the property is also guaranteed until 2030 and the damp-proof course guarantee runs until then too.

The Cornerstone has an en-suite double bedroom and second double with one single, both served by the four-piece family bathroom.

All the rooms in the property have feature beams, many of them original and an echo of the home’s past as a hay barn, as Pauline explained. “To my knowledge the beams upstairs are original and the beam in the living room is all patched and there’s a big old peg in it so I would imagine that’s original too.

"The original farmhouse is still in the complex, a pale pink building, and the rest of the houses were barns. I’ve been told by older residents that this house was kept for storing hay and farm implements.”

She is selling up to join her three adult sons who live down south and has somewhere she can go before then if a buyer wishes to move in straightaway.

“It has been a lovely home,” Pauline said, “just so convenient for Carlisle and with this lovely semi-rural feel.”