Archive for April, 2007
If you go down to the sheds today…
As I have explained number four has been greatly blessed with sheds. All are homemade and come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
The general way of things at number four was that as each room reached capacity with belongings, a shed was constructed to hold some more. This continued for over forty years and as time passed the sheds became more elaborate and ingenious. I particularly like the shed made from Victorian doors and I am also keen on the shed on stilts( why this is I do not know but it kind of reminds me a Thai holiday hut - in Sarf East London of course).
Today I have rummaged through just a couple of these sheds. What a haul! More Bakelite than you could shake a stick at and in all guises - switches, finger plates, pull cords, door bells and fans and so on.
Should anyone need a bicycle then I have about half a dozen and any number of tyres, pedals and spare parts. Or how about some scaffolding - all shapes and sizes and lots of boards too. Perhaps a fire grate, we have twenty at last count. Lots of suitcases everywhere, some with full sets of clothing seemingly abandoned after the last holiday.
Tomorrow I shall open some more.
In the words of Bon Jovi
It's the final countdown - it will be our's in 48 hours time.
They were there all along…
At number four, unusual living arrangements resulted in a flat type thing being created on the second floor. The general gist is that the landing has been partitioned off in order to allow kitchen storage (outside of the kitchen area) and a loo to be put on the landing. Most unattractive and rather unsavoury to boot.
In order to achieve this result the original banister and spindles had been hacked off and the space then boarded in to create a bulkhead over the lower landing. This has meant that the flow of light from above and below has been cut off. The natural light was already in short supply as the room at the top of the first flight of stairs has been made into a photogrphic dark room by the owner. By blocking the window and door with black painted boards he made what may have been a very effective darkroom but was also sinister and light stealing from the rest of the house. I had a most pleasant surprise yesterday when I arrived at the house to see the boarding removed and light flooding through both the window and coloured glass door. The whole room is still full of toot of course but this is definite progress.
While admiring this latest revelation the owner casually mentioned a loft space running over the dark room - never noticed myself as access is in the toilet roof! We grabbed a step ladder and after a quick shimmy up I discovered this hidden space. It is full of exciting things that have clearly been there for 40 years plus.
The first thing I spotted was the missing hand rail and spindles from the second floor, covered in thick dust but in perfect condition. In fact they have obviouslyfared much better than those still in situ and look as though they must have been freshly polished prior to being removed.
There is also a huge amount of studio equipment from a photographers in Brixton, acquired by the late husband when the studio closed down. There are amazing bulbs which are about a foot long still in their original 1950' s packaging and masses of photographic plates.
Tucked behind an old water tank , was a huge box of architectural encyclopedias containing stunning colour plates. Next to this was a box of what seems to be 1930's light fittings - again in perfect condition and wrapped in newspaper dated 1963. The owner does not wish to keep any of these items but has asked if he might remove the kitchen sink as this has, apparently , sentimental value to him. A fair trade I like to think.
Just before I left his lovely wife asked if I had seen some Dante prints which she had mislaid. As I have been in and out over the months with various people I was a little anxious she might think that we had taken them, either in error or deliberately. When I asked where they had been she replied that she did not know as she put them down some twenty years ago and had not seen them since…
Then I was hit by a sniper…
Number four has only one, very primitive, bathroom. Ideal for soap dodgers but not so good for everybody else.
The plan is to convert two of the bedrooms to add to the bathroom count and to add a freestanding tub to the loft room. Because of numbers and budgetary constraints we have had to be creative in our acquisitions. An early success was acquiring a lovely Flaminia Link loo from www.smirk.co.uk , ex display and for the princely sum 125.00. These are stocked by www.alternativeplans.co.uk and are things of great beauty (and cost) and would have been way over budget ordinarily. We also snapped up a Bette Starlet Oval www.bette.co.uk bath from the same source, again making a huge saving. Buoyed by these early triumphs I frantically scoured high end brochures to identify more lovelies to buy.
Marc Newson designed a range of sanitaryware for Ideal Standard which I had coveted. Again an expensive range and not within our reach at the time. Then the damn thing was discontinued and destined to never be ours until….Iboughtthe basinon ebay for 50.00 as the seller had forgotten put on a reserve. Better still he was a local boy and when I collected the sink he tipped me off about Burge and Gunson www.burgeandgunson.co.uk in Colliers Wood where he had bought the matching WC. B&G stock masses of stuff, have huge showrooms and are dirt cheap - what a winning formula. As if this was not enough joy, they also have a clearance showroom, selling ex display models at about a third of the original price. Genius.
So by now we were well ahead in the procurement game and a chance glance at ebay showed the ultimate prize - an Axor Starck Shower Column starting at 499.00. It needed an extra part, only 123.75 from B&G, so I ordered that ready for my bidding triumph.
Bid placed, I sat back and relaxedin the way of experienced bidders, only checking every 30 seconds or so. 45 seconds to go and it was mine, 23 seconds to go and success was guaranteed, 12 seconds to go and the shower was virtually installed. 2 seconds to go and some low down, dirty dog sniped me and won by 9 quid.
May this shower rain pox upon their cheating bodies.
Four cans later and it all became clear…
Not hard liquor I'm afraid, but Nitromorse the stripper of the Gods.
I have spent the last couple of days reclaiming various fireplaces from the grip of 50 years worth of gloss.
Luckily, not only were the surrounds heavily coated but also painted rather expertly using primers, undercoats and several layers of paint on top, probably sanded in between coats for extra devilment.
Oddly, most have been painted in shades of mustard yellow which is not especially attractive nor very easy to use other colours with. Not that this bothered anyone at number four, who have decorated with abandon using any colours they fancy and not touching the fireplaces which had been painted before they took up residence.
I was always hopeful that the great strip would reveal beauteous objects - not disappointed. The master bedroom yielded a rather fine white marble surround, veined with grey. Perfect condition thanks to the gloss.
The rear bedroom has a stunning black surround, which had been painted bright yellow and black ( odd thing to do..).
I also discovered that the original fireplace in the main reception room is still at the house although not in the original position. Indeed this surround is rather well travelled and has moved outside of the house and is scattered rather liberally over the path. For reasons I could not bring myself to ask, our dear vendors ripped out the fireplace, smashed it into small pieces and then laid it as crazy paving up to the front door. Now that is thinking out of the box.
Anyway the stripping was a doddle thanks to some very sharp stripping blades, tons of Nitromorse soaked wire wool ( fine gauge to avoid scratching) and some light swearing as I went.
My hands are a little worse for wear - resembling elderly elephant pre manicure- but beauty is pain…
Finding number four
Finding number four was a very long process indeed. We have lived in East Dulwich for six years and my quest for renovation houses has brought me into contact with many of the Dulwich agents - some are undoubtedly better than others by the way.
When we bought Matham Grove I do not believe a single offer had been received before ours as the house was truly dreadful ( at which point of course my heart started beating faster and when I saw the graffiti, drawn by the owners of course, I knew it was mine) but we went ahead and bought the place. The agent was a nightmare - rude, aggressive and thoroughly unpleasant to deal with although since he still got his commission what does he care?
On the day of completion, the owner did not move out though - slight problem for us as we were outside in a van with nowhere else to go. Eventually she crept out, leaving all her belongings behind, lunch in the oven and allof herkids stuff as well. Odd. In fact about a week later her teenage son knocked at the door saying he did not know his mother was moving and could he have his stuff please…
Renovating Matham Grove was a joy - only one dodgy workman who painted the windows shut and put his rice and peas on my tab - but overall a positive experience. I knew then that we would stay in the area and begun to make connections with local agents for the next house.
I met some interesting characters along the way and also some thoroughly decent and honest agents who clearly knew their stuff. It would be fair to say others did not - you know who you are - including a young man who told me in all seriousness that a large cellar built in a house in the 1870's was in fact a bomb shelterincorporated by the original builder for just that purpose. Another told me that an unmodernisedVictorian house may well be covered by an NHBC certificate - bless.
At one stage in the quest for number four we were approached by Wallace Jaffrey of Hamptons International who had a natty idea to secure a property for us. He pitched a retained client scenario to us whereby he would write directly to the owers of house we were interested in but were not on the market. This would be on the basis that if one of our target houses were to respond and result in a sale to us then we would pay a fee of 1% of the sale price to Hamptons but no commission would be be payable by the vendor. Win win for all. This was very attractive as the market locally was a classic London situation with demand far exceeding supply. Moreover, the houses we were interested in were unlikely to come onto the market unprompted as the “season” was ending. Many owners replied tempted by no fees, no mass viewing's and in fact by what was a very relaxed way to potentially sell their property. Sadly, none proved quite right for us but I would definitely consider this route in future.
And then there was the endless traipsing around properties that were coming onto the market in the conventional way. Ugh- very frustrating. Despite specific requirements being sent to all agents we were directed to properties that had been recently developed or had no gardens or only half the required square footage blah blah blah. Very annoying.
I viewed lots of properties in Dulwich Village - much sought after but for reasons beyond me. Unless you have serious money to spend - 2-3 million++ you do not get a lot for your cash. A very ordinary 1500 sq foot house, small garden and probably a bit of pebbledash for good measure will be about 900k++++++. I viewed one such monster, with a large garden on one of the most popular roads. Completely basic in every way and in fact rather run down - if I had not known I would have thought pensioner poverty is alive and well - what a disgrace in 2006. However, this squalid little number was on at 1.2 million, had, I am told, 27 viewing's on the first day and went for over the asking price. No accounting for taste. The cachet of a village address must do something to the good sense gene.
By the way there is a fantastic blog called poshmum which exposes the Dulwich scene beautifully - a lot of laughs to be had, even though my own daughter attends one of the schools she lampoons. I am definitely not a posh mum and would be more likely to be removed from the school gates for looking unsightly than embroiled in a debate about this seasons Jimmy's.
When all hope was lost we got a call shortly before Christmas from a local agent we had bought and sold through before - Winkworths. The very lovely (in fact far too beautiful for her own good - do not risk a viewing with her if you are feeling a little jaded and past your best) Aiysha told us they had been invited to value a large house, unmodernised, requiring some imagination etc etc. The house would not come onto the market until spring but the owners had no objections to us having a peek now.
We went immediately, were delighted by what we saw - even though two main rooms were impenetrable because of floor to ceiling piles of toot..
Many weeks of negotiating later it was ours and now all we have to do is limp to the finishing line on the 27th April when the games will begin.