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.