The Wanderlust Lady and the Door to Door Salesman - 35

March 5, 2013

 

I made my way to Marple Hall Drive the next morning and found the house in question. It was a large detatched four bed roomed house on a corner plot.

“We bought this house a few months ago now, and need to get it ready for the new
minister to move in,” said the woman who came to the door. "All the rooms need painting, but we thought we'd really need to get this one done first – as it sort of overwhelms anyone who goes into it.”

The room was painted bright orange, and she wanted it to be painted a soft beige with white woodwork. The woodwork was white at the moment, so that was a relief.

“I'll just get the measurements,” I said, putting down my notebook and pencil. I
measured the two walls, and knew from that I could determine the area of the room. It was 4 metres long and 3.5 metres wide. It would take about 5 litres of paint for each coat, and I thought it probably would need three coats. I thought the job would take a couple of days, and so I roughly thought that at £15 an hour, for 16 hours, plus 15 litres of matt paint and 5 of gloss. “I'll work this out and send you an estimate tomorrow,” I said, remembering Fred's advice.

“Can you give me a rough guide now? Only I'm on a committee of church people and they'll want to know at the meeting I'm going to tonight, roughly how much it will cost.”

“About £300, counting the paint and labour – but when you mention it, say it's a rough estimate and might well be a bit more.”

“That seems a lot. If we had all the rooms done, it would be well over our budget.”

“Are all the rooms painted as brightly as this?”

“No this is the worst.”

“Well I'm quoting on having to do three coats here. Most rooms would only need two. So that would reduce the time and paint by a third. And probably most of the rooms are not as big as this one. So if you roughly calculate £200 for a similar sized room, and £100 for one half the size, you'll get a rough guide. And if I were doing the whole house, I probably would be able to give you a better deal.”

I had no idea of what I was talking about. I was roughly thinking £1000 for the whole
house was not such a big amount to pay.”

“You won't be wanting payment in cash will you?”

“I would be happy to take a cheque,” I said.

“We don't want anyone who is skipping out on paying their fair amount of tax doing
the job.”

“I do the best I can to avoid breaking the law,” I said.

“That's good.Well, I'll tell them that at the meeting tonight, but will wait for your proper quote before we make any final decision. Thank you for coming around.”

“Thank you,” I said, shaking her hand.

I spent the rest of the day at Fred's house, top coating his bedrooms' walls. I was still
there when he got home from work, so I told him all about the house on Marple Hall Road.

“Have you sent the quote yet?”

“No, I thought I'd do that tonight and take it around tomorrow morning before I come
back her to do some more painting.”

“Have you got a computer or typewriter?”

“No, I'll just write it out by hand, I guess. I never thought of that, but I suppose it'll look pretty sloppy.”

“You can use mine. Go home, get cleaned up and have some tea. Then think about what
you're going to write and then come back and you can get it typed up in a few minutes. You do know how to use a computer I take it.”

“Yes, we had lessons on them in school. I was pretty good, but I never owned
one.”

So home again I went, and did as Fred advised. I got the quote down to £250, which I
thought they might be happier to accept. I went across, and he showed me how to load the printer, and waited while I started typing. Then when he knew I would do a reasonable job, he went back to watch TV while I finished it. I popped in to say thank you and he just said. “You owe me.”

Boy did I owe him. I'd never had a friend like him before. He not only did what I asked
him – he volunteered things that I hadn't even considered asking about. Between him and Minnie, what a change my life has had. I was nearly in tears thinking about it all, so decided that maybe I was tired and a good night's rest was what I really needed.

 

March 6, 2013

 

Wednesday morning, bright and early, I took my quote over to Marple Hall Road and pushed it through the letter box. I hadn't had any more phone calls relating to work for me to do, but it was early days, and I still had another day or so to work for Fred.

After putting in a full day's work – fielding a few calls relating to the items for sale – I came home exhausted. Another day would see the work for Fred finished, and then of course, the payment. I would have spent about 20 hours on it all together, so that made another £160 to put into my pot.

The problem with this sort of work is that it isn't regular – so you can't count on having £50 a week or whatever to put into a fund to pay for accommodation. At least with being on job-seekers' allowance, I knew there would be money at the end of each week.

Soon I would get my payment for the painting work on this house. They'd given me £250 up front – but still owed £1000, and then with my cut from the sale of the silver and gold.

The bag from the gold buying company came today, and I put the gold coins in it, and
once again trusted in the mail service to take good care of them. The difference with this time from last time, was that I had the blessing of the rightful owner (well maybe that's putting it a bit strong – as the coins are not the same ones that came from the rightful
owner.)

Right after I'd had my tea, the phone rang and it was Mrs. Mills. She said after due
consideration, she had decided to go with the people from Mellors. She said my step-father's ideas had been in line with the others – but that she thought that a local dealer would be more likely to get viewers – and I had to agree with her. So as soon as the estate agent people had done their paper work, they'd be sending potential buyers around to see the house.

Thursday morning brought a phone call from Mellor's – asking if I would handle
viewings on my own, or would I require them to do them. I said that as I probably would be working much of the time (assuming I got the painting job) so unless it was in the evening, it would be better for them to do them. “In that case,” she said, “we will require a house key which will be keep at the office.” Having already cut a spare key, for my own purposes, it was easy enough for me to drop that over and I said I would do it later in the day. This was my morning to see how the silver would go down with the jewellery
dealer.

As I was buzzed in, my friendly jewellery man said, “Ah, I expect you're here to buy a
golden bracelet.”

I laughed rather half-hardheartedly at his humour.

“No, as a matter of fact, I'm selling again – this time silver,” and out of my bag I produced what I felt were the most valuable silver items – certainly the heaviest in terms of scrap weight. There were two silver trays, and the tea pot with creamer and sugar and the four piece cruet set.

“Are these items yours?” asked the dealer.

“No, as a matter of fact, I'm selling them on behalf of my employer, Mrs. Mills. If
you wish to check with her, I can provide you with her phone number.”

“No need,” he said, and smiled ingratiatingly.

“I need to weigh these, as I really am only interested in the scrap weight. I don't as
a rule sell silver in my shop.”

“I've checked on the internet about the scrap value of silver, and I know these items
are pretty darn heavy,” I said.

“Well we have to have a bit more accurate weighing that that.” He put the items on
his scale and said, “I make that just over 1000 grams.”

“What's that in pounds?”

“About two and a half pounds.”

“It sure seemed heavier than that to me.”

“Check the scale if you don't believe me.”

Sure enough it was 1003 grams. “So what will you give me for it?”

“£500”

“I know that my internet site said for 1000 grams, which amount I just put in at
random, I should get £544.57.”

“Well I have to make my commission. If you are unhappy with the amount I quoted, you are welcome to take your items elsewhere.”

“No, I guess I'll settle for the £500. And I have lots more silver to bring in, but
mostly lighter items. These were the biggest and heaviest.”

“I would be pleased to deal with you again. Now how would you like your cash?”

“Fifties would be fine.” He counted me out ten £50 notes.

“I look forward to seeing you again,” he said with an slimy smile.

“I'm sure you do. You've been doing pretty well out of me,” and with that I went out
the door. I stopped at the NatWest bank on the way by and paid in the money. £100 of it was for me, and the rest for the Mills, but I didn't want the cash hanging around the house, with people coming in to view. You never knew how honest people were.

Afterwards, I put my grubby painting clothes on and went and finished off the work for
Fred. He seemed pleased with the work I was doing, and I wanted him to recommend me to his friends, so that was important.

I found a note had been dropped through the door, by hand, and reckoned it was from the people at Marple Hall Drive. And it was.