Oooops!

The builder has arrived this week to start work on the Annex. Connected to the main part of the house this part of the building was probably originally part of the actual bakery that housed the ovens. We have an old photograph, taken in the 1920's, that shows this corner of the house was later used to house a shop (as well as the General store situated in the main house),  The area has been used as accommodation for many, many decades but the standard of conversion is really poor and whilst this area can be used as a separate living accommodation it is in dire need of a refurbishment.

For example the Main bedroom has a split level floor. 6' into the room the floor suddenly rises by about a foot and then carries on for a further 6' to the far wall. On the face of it there is no logic to this and it makes it impossible to place a double bed in the room. It is only when you view the room from in the garage below that the reason becomes apparent. You can clearly see an old shop front that has been bricked up. The old door and shop window were so high that the internal ceiling had to be raised to accommodate them, thus the floor above was affected.

So now it has fallen to us to get the builder to drop this floor back to its original level, as it was about 100 years ago, and in doing so we are actually, at the risk of sounding pompous, carrying out a restoration. Sadly all the floor boards were seriously damaged with woodworm and had to be removed but the original main beam has been exposed. It is unaffected by woodworm and you can clearly see that it was taken from a large branch or a small tree as the outer curves of the tree are still visible.

The floor prior to restoration.

Floor removed you can see the old shop window and door. The central heating pipes run in front of them.

When the floor was removed it exposed the top of the window where the lintel is missing and we needed to replace it immediately. There was no logic to its disappearance other than some one may have nicked it to use it somewhere else.

Today we went to the auction to try to obtain some furniture for the annex. Claire and I had already checked their web-site and selected, with Alison's approval on price bids, several items that we would try to bid for.
With our list in my clammy mitt we joined the Auctioneer at the first of the possible purchases.

I say clammy mitt as it is customary to hold the information on how much you are willing to pay close to you so that no one else knows your top price. So like a seedy Poker player you keep a steel coolness as you bid, giving no indication that you are about to give up as you approach your top price.

First was a sofa and armchair, we had agreed we would go no higher than £75. Very quickly the bid rose to my top price and then spilled over ending at £85, GOING, GOING, GONE! It went to a guy hidden away in the bustling crowd whom I only knew was there because his head kept giving the auctioneer a nod at the appropriate juncture.

And so it went on, a Bedside table, my price £20 & sold for £25. A pine chest of draws, My price £30 & it sold for £55. A rocking chair (for a friend) £30 and it sold for £45. A wardrobe (hand built) my top price £40 and it finally sold to someone for £85.  A dressing table, again I was gazumped and yet again with a heavy duty chest of draws I stopped biding at £40 and it bounced on to £70, I think. So far I had not obtained one item on my list and I was getting frustrated, then came lot 221 a corner unit for a TV and DVD player etc.

Well I had agreed a price of £20-£30 and the auctioneer asked for £30 straight away. I hesitated. I had successfully done this trick before and the price had dropped as there were no takers. This is exactly what occurred here.
"£25 then ?", "£20?", "A fiver then?", "Come on just a fiver, someone, anyone, this has been in my family for a hundred years, I'm just asking a fiver" This was no way a hundred years old (20 at best) and most definitely not a hundred years old! My daughter says that if I was a Red Indian my name would be Chief Full Of Crap! I'm not entirely sure why but I will say that this Auctioneer was doing a pretty good job of filling Chief Full Of Crap's shoes. At the risk of missing the item I raised my hand, made my bid at £5 and waited. Silence, then the sound of his pen bashing the clipboard denoting the sale as done and the item was mine.

What a great deal. I was willing to go to £30 for this TV corner unit and obtained it for a measly £5. Alison will be impressed with that, I thought to myself. I started to move away from the crowd as the next item was starting to be bid for and Claire came hurrying up to me.
"Where are you going? They've started to bid for Lot 221 !"
"But I've just bought lot 221" I replied rather smugly.
"No, no. Quick they've started bidding" she replied and pushed me back into the crowd. (Claire has more strength than I ever knew!).
I turned around to see that she was quite right, they were bidding for lot 221, the corner unit and suddenly I had two thoughts, the first was to start bidding to secure the item and the second being, well if this is the corner unit then...... WHAT have I just bought for a fiver?!

I carried on the bid and only slightly phased by the question of what do I now own that I hadn't two minutes earlier I ended up obtaining the corner unit for £34, £4 over budget.
I then put my mind to trying to establish what I had purchased on the prior lot.
Both I and Claire tried to get a glimpse of what appeared to be a piece of furniture hidden by many legs of other bidders. Like a jigsaw, bit by bit, as other customers broke away to follow the auctioneer down the room we saw more and more of this mystery item until finally, when all had gone we saw it in all it's kind of, sort of oldy worldly
glory. It was a small sideboard, fairly old, I think, with a nice polish and a small marquetry border in two door panels.
Claire found my action to be incredulous and considered me a complete buffoon.
For my part I was crest fallen, just minutes before I had made the purchase of the century! (Chief Full Of Crap) and now here I am with my tail between my legs having bought a piece of furniture that I had never even seen before in my life. (More a of a Red-skin than a Chief).

So back home this thing has become my 'leaflet table' and 'Hat cupboard' until I can decide if I should take it back to the auction next week. A kind of try before you buy, except I have already done the buying bit.

The £5 mystery item

On reflection it is probably best that I don't attend any Auctions of Houses in the near future!

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