Malcolm Smith's Family History Archive

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Biography of

Malcolm  Archbald  SMITH

[Ref. S.1]

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Biography index

Part A: Shaftesbury House

Part B: Pine Walk

House

Garden

Holidays

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After rejecting several other properties in the area, Malcolm and Brenda selected this house as it was well situated in relation to the town. They had viewed the property several times and found the condition to be not too good. The owner had several untrained dogs in the house and besides having chewed furniture and woodwork they had abviously been allowed to foul inside the building. At one visit there a fresh pool of urine on the kitchen floor. The owner was also reluctant to open the garage for inspection but did agree only to reveal it to be stuffed from floor to ceiling. Malcolm and Brenda made the purchase through the agents Goadsby & Harding of Fordingbridge, and were obliged to pay the full asking price in order to secure it.

Malcolm and Brenda finally moved to the house on 16 December 2004. The previous owner had not left by the appointed time and Malcolm had to negotiate between her and the solicitors in order to gain access. The delay put the removers behind schedule and at the end of the day they just dumped the remaining boxes into the conservatory.

Having seen to the urgent work, Malcolm set out to redecorate the house. The woodwork was in poor condition and thus very difficult to put right. All the old wallpaper was removed but with difficulty as the plaster underneath was of very poor quality and liably to come off. Malcolm also replaced all the internal doors putting in glass panel doors in most of the rooms downstairs to give more light.

Having got the house sorted out, Malcolm turned his attention to the garden. The front garden was very uninteresting and the back garden was completely overgrown.

More to follow.