I dropped a line of muddy footprints along the pale blue carpet when I came into the house from the garden. I really should have taken off my wellingtons at the back door. Now I would have to waste time cleaning up the mess. I opened the hall cupboard door to pull out the Hoover.

On a shelf high in the cupboard I spotted a VHS tape. What could this be?

When we played the video back later that same day, we discovered footage of our house in the early 1980s. From this, we learnt that our garden flat had previously been the lower part of a very smart single dwelling comprising our floor and the one above.

The former owners would be terribly disappointed if they were ever to return and visit our scruffy basement.