Page 20 - It's a Rum Life Book 3 "Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984"

Dick, the estate agent had explained that there was one of the workers cottages in north
row for sale by the Lely family, at the same time.
We could have bought it for just £250 but we had not 250 pence to spare so had to turn
this wonderful offer down. At the side of Ivy House to the north though there was a large
plot of land included in the sale to us. We did not realise at that time just how important
this plot would be in the year to come.

45 WOODSIDE
Back in Boston we had put 45 Woodside up for sale and waited anxiously for a buyer to
appear. Houses were selling reasonably well but it took eight months for someone to
actually make a firm offer.
No 45 was a good house in a corner position, we had equipped it with under floor, gas
powered warm air central heating. French doors to the rear of the through lounge/diner led
into the garden and a car port behind the garage was where we kept Bamboozle.

The family that were interested dragged their feet and then on the day they should have
signed at our agreed price, demanded a further reduction.
We were furious as to us a low price had already been agreed. We always stuck to our
agreements, now we were being ‘held over a barrel’ they knew we were very anxious to
sell and had to agree to reduce the price even further as our Bank charges were growing
on the bridging loan.
Ruth and I decided that if the purchasers wanted the house on the cheap, then we were
entitled to take from the house, what little extras we could that had given it just that bit
better value.

On the final day of our possession we removed all the substantial planking we had
installed in the loft to give us extra storage space, we also removed the electric extractor
fan that I had installed in the back door panel.
I replaced it with the original glass panel but only used ‘polyfiller’ instead of putty! We did
leave them the light bulbs!

It so happened to our intense amusement, that on our next visit to Peter and Margaret’s
house just diagonally opposite No 45, Peter told us he thought the new owners were doing
something with the bedroom ceilings as some sort of fabric was poking through in the
ceiling of the front bedroom.
On close inspection as the new owners were not there at the time, I could see that
someone had been in the loft and consequently fallen through the ceiling while trying to
balance on the roof beams. The material dangling through the hole was the fibreglass loft
insulation that had come through with their feet and legs!
We felt somewhat compensated for their last minute ’niggardliness’ in their demands for
further reductions in price!

Life quickly changed with our first real taste of ‘country living’ as a family. The relief from
the constant circular saw noise we had to endure at No 45 was a weight from our minds.
But apart from this, the house and gardens and outbuildings were huge and we found
ourselves constantly amazed with this wonderful space and character of the house that
was to change our lives.

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