New home for Horsethief Bridge

The shed. (Iphone / non-flash please scroll down for photos).

Having moved house, I was very surprised to find a huge "summer house " at the bottom of the garden. Coincidently, it happened to be the perfect home for Horsethief Bridge and an associated workshop. Well fancy that.

Not that the idea had crossed my mind when I saw the estate agent's details or that I had put "a room for model railroad" at the top of my list of requirements for the estate agents - purely coincidental. Four bedrooms, listed period property, close to local amenities and close to a tube station - what was she thinking about? Women eh. Pah!

And anyway, I regard it more of a shed (suitable for a model railroad) rather than a summerhouse! Summer house - I ask you? And anyway, what use would one have for a summer house with our weather?

When Ayshen showed me the details on the estate agent's website (clearly showing said shed), I said that I didn't have to actually view the house and that we should just buy it. She made me go and see it. And here we are.

Now we are in, we find that the git that we bought the house from really bodged a number of things; we have had to have the house partially re-wired, re-plumbed, the doors re-hung and both the house and "shed" need to be completely re-roofed. It turns out he was a builder and property developer. If he carried out such poor workmanship on his own house, I fear the standard of work on his developments. For the record, his name is Michael Joy. Beware.

Anyway, we had a survey and agreed a discount to take into account the work that was required.

The house is great but the fact that it is listed makes things difficult sometimes (and expensive). It was built in three stages: Georgian circa 1750, Victorian circa 1850 and the last bit at the back was built at sometime in the 1970s! The model railroad room was a much later addition - circa 2008.

The shed.

As you can see, it looks nothing like a summer house . What are these estate agents on?

Never was there a more shed-looking shed. How could anybody confuse this with a summer house?

A view of the house - from the shed .

The workshop area is starting to take shape. There is a useful alcove for storing modules (for a second pike maybe?).