Chapter 18 - THE TOOLS SOPHRONIA TRIED TO SELL
After removal, the estate accounting found one more issue.
Sophronia had contacted an antique-tool dealer two weeks after Dad died.
She sent photographs.
Asked for offer.
The dealer proposed $27,500 for a group of collectible planes, chisels and gauges.
No sale occurred.
Why?
Miles had already required court approval for non-routine personal-property disposition.
Sophronia complained but stopped.
Then she told relatives:
“Dad wanted the workshop liquidated.”
Did he?
The amendment did not say that.
It gave me several specific hand tools.
The rest could be sold.
No instruction about speed.
Then an email from Dad six months earlier:
If Dacre wants the hand planes, let him have them. Sell the duplicates when I’m gone. No museum.
Simple.
Sophronia had interpreted:
Sell everything.
Again.
Her preference became Dad’s wish in retelling.
Then I had my own bias.
I wanted the entire workshop preserved.
Why?
Because Dad worked there.
But the estate had bills.
Insurance.
Property carrying costs.
Nobody wanted the building.
I could not afford to buy every tool at appraised value.
Could I demand they sit untouched forever because I was grieving?
No.
So I selected the specific tools Dad left me.
North Coast scheduled an auction for the remainder.
I hated it.
Still.
Sophronia attended preview separately.
She wanted Dad’s old drafting stool.
Not listed specifically.
Value:
$90.
I could have objected.
Instead I told trustee:
“If she wants it, let her buy at appraised value or bid.”
She bid $140.
Won.
Good.
May you like
No one needed a court hearing over a stool.
Progress sometimes looks embarrassingly small.
