Novel house but starting to let rain in (5)

I believe the answer is:

bleak

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'novel house' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'starting to let rain in' is the wordplay.
'starting to' suggests taking the first letters.
'rain' becomes 'beak' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
The initial letter of 'let' is 'l'.
'l' put into 'beak' is 'BLEAK'.

'but' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for bleak that I've seen before include "Exposed and barren" , "raw > fish" , "Novel house" , "Dreary; fish" , "Desolate, hopoeless" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.

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