Antiques now in country home

KIRK HARGREAVES/Fairfax NZ

NEW HOME: Vaughan Antiques owner Mike Kerr put a lot of work into setting up his business at his property in Rangiora after the quakes.

Being a former farmer, Mike Kerr is better prepared for the wrath of the earth than are most antiques dealers.

Kerr has owned Vaughan Antiques & Interiors for seven years and relocated his business from the inner city to his Rangiora home on Fernside Rd after the quakes put paid to his former Salisbury St showroom.

The showroom was badly damaged in the September quake and the front third of the building had to be demolished within days.

He lost some stock, but was able to salvage most of it and quickly renewed the restoration side of his business from the stable rear of the building and began trading again a couple of months later.

The damaged portion of the shop was rebuilt and the full shop was open only a couple of weeks before the February quake struck and damaged the whole building beyond repair.

Kerr was walking from a nearby auction house when the quake hit, but his employee, John Dix, was in the building along with about six tourists. Luckily, all were uninjured, he said.

The building was red-stickered and cut off by the inner city cordon so he had several months to ponder what to do.

It also gave thieves time to steal from the broken building.

Once he could cross the cordon, one part of the building was re-assessed as white long enough for him to pick through his shattered shop for a second time and save what he could. It is due for demolition.

The double blow was frustrating, but farming in Cheviot before moving south had conditioned him for setbacks, he said.

"Everyone says it must be tough to get hit twice. But that's just life. It throws these things at you and you've just got to get on and deal with it. We don't have it as bad as some people. It may have been tough financially at times, but we've always had a roof over our heads.

"Farming prepares you for these things because when you go through big floods and droughts, you become accustomed to it not always being smooth sailing."

After taking stock, he found storage space in the city was expensive and he would be hard-pressed to find another place quickly.

He decided to move the business to his property on Fernside Rd, Rangiora, and modified an old hay shed into a work space and storage for his antiques, with the overflow filling his garage. A showroom was built from scratch and the set-up was finished mid-December.

"Vaughans has been going for over 30 years. If it had been a start-up business it would have been really tough. It will have an impact, but everyone's got to learn to adapt and it's certainly made us more of a destination."

The restoration business was busy, with many antique victims of the quakes being fixed by his company.

The business had repaired countless grandfather clocks, he said.

He would like to return to the inner city one day, but the prospective cost of shop leases were too high for the short to medium term, he said.

For now, he was focusing on improving his website and attracting a wider range of customers.

- © Fairfax NZ News