Page 93 of The Garden of Forgotten Wishes
The builder had already arrived at the shop when I got there next morning and Ned had moved away a shelf unit that was hiding the blocked-up opening that had once led through to the lean-to building on the other side.
‘Don, this is my new gardener, Marnie, who came up with all the bright ideas,’ Ned introduced me. ‘We just need you to tell us if they’re practical or not.’
Don, who was a skinny, fair and freckled man, totally unlike my idea of a builder, gave an engagingly gap-toothed grin. ‘We’ve looked at the outside lavs already and the plumbing part would be easy enough,’ he said. ‘And I’ve seen the blocked doorway, so let’s go round and look what it’s like from this outbuilding.’
We went out of the visitors’ gate and Don cast a critical eye at the outside. ‘Those stone roofing slabs tend to stay put, but the walls need pointing up and that door and the window frames replacing. That’s a wide door frame, though,’ he added. ‘I reckon they must have kept animals in here, at one time.’
‘A wide door is good from the point of view of getting wheelchairs through,’ I said, and he agreed.
‘Get one through there easy.’
He examined the interior carefully, especially the blocked doorway and the rafters, which, luckily, were dry and sound. Then he did some measuring, scribbling on a rough tablet of paper.
We watched him, then when he seemed to have finished and was contemplatively scratching his head with the end of his biro, Ned said, ‘So, how easywouldit be to make this part of the shop –andadd a toilet at the back?’
‘Oh, easy enough,’ Don said breezily. ‘Like when we did the shop, we’d take up the flags and damp-proof under them … replace the door and windows … electric update. I wouldn’t eventryturning on that single bulb – it’s a deathtrap …’
He paused and scratched his head again.
‘Knock through that old opening into the shop, but with some good supports and a proper lintel overhead, then make good all walls … install a ceiling …’
The list seemed endlessandexpensive, but he hadn’t finished yet.
‘Then there’s the plumbing to the new big toilet compartment suitable for the disabled that you want and with a baby-changing area …’
‘Is that all possible?’ I asked.
‘Yes, no problem. You need a good turning circle in the compartment for a wheelchair, so the partition wall would come to …’ he pointed to a spot, ‘aboutthere. Maybe with an entrance through a partial stud wall in front of it, because you’re going to have a display of garden stuff in the rest of this side, Ned says?’
‘Yes, sort of a mini museum,’ I agreed.
‘Pictures of the garden through the ages and a few antique gardening tools in a glass case, maybe,’ said Ned. ‘The shop displays can extend into the other end, near the door.’
‘The idea,’ I explained, ‘is that the visitors come into the garden through the gate past the ticket office, as now, but they’ll have to exit by the new door on this side – meaning they have to pass through the shop to get to it, with all the tempting things on offer.’
‘Smart idea!’ Don gave me a look of approval and made a couple more notes. ‘You’ll need a small ramp outside both doors – the steps are low, anyway – and you’ll have to leave a path clear that’s wide enough for wheelchair access, right through the shop.’
He put the pen and pad back in his pocket. ‘I’ll put all that on the computer later, break it all down for you.’
‘It sounds expensive – and it’ll make a mess in the shop while you’re doing it. We’re closed only on Tuesdays.’
‘Shouldn’t cost too much. I’ll give you a quote when I’ve worked it out. I’ll have to send Larry and Jon over to look into the electrics and plumbing.’
‘Don’s got a trusty team of experts on tap,’ Ned explained to me. ‘He arranges everything.’
Don gave his attractive, gap-toothed smile. ‘I wouldn’t worry about the mess, either, because we can do a lot of the work on this side before we knock through, and then we’ll seal off the opening with thick plastic sheet to stop any dust getting through while we open it up.’
Ned, initially reluctant to part with any more money on something that wasn’t directly related to his beloved garden, now seemed to have moved beyond mere acceptance of the fact that he would need to install disabled facilities sooner rather than later and was warming to the idea.
‘I’ll wait for the estimate and, if that’s OK, it’ll just be a question of when you can start on it.’
‘Fit you in fairly soon, I should think – and you know me, once I’ve started a job, I don’t hang about.’
‘Fair enough,’ said Ned.
When he’d gone, Ned said to me, ‘I’d better start looking out some old photos and stuff for the museum! Once Don gets going, he’s amazingly fast. He had the shop sorted in no time.’
‘There’s sure to be lots of interesting things in those boxes of papers you’ve got in your study – maybe even a plan of the rose garden!’ I said.
