Saturday, 26 December 2009

Well, here I am on Boxing Day - not much to do here as we have had such a quiet Christmas so I thought I'd try and update the blog.

Paul's stem cell transplant went ahead on 21 October down in Bristol. He was there for four weeks altogether, having been admitted on 12 October for a week of chemo prior to the transplant. He was then transferred to Bangor where he stayed for another five weeks. Very unpleasant after effects of the transplant now in the back of his mind, his recovery is going well and he was allowed home on 9 December, weak and frail but happy and, as usual, positive about the future. By Christmas he was starting to look better - an early Christmas present was that his hair is starting to grow back and he's quite excited about the fine stubble he has coming through - and he is managing to get about the house well and make a cup of tea and a sandwich. He's not allowed contact with anyone who has anything infectious, and as Molly has a cold at the moment we had to cancel Christmas dinner with Neil, Tracy and the grandchildren. He can't go out shopping either, far too risky where infection is concerned, so apart from hospital check ups he's a bit of a prisoner at the moment. Not to worry, it's a small price to pay for what is hopefully a successful recovery.

In November we had a bit of a problem with leaks in the loft following some very freakish weather, 50mph winds, torrential rain which I'm sure was more horizontal than vertical, which all combined to allow the water to find the tiniest place to get in. Mark and Sid came back the week before Christmas, when the weather had calmed down, removed the big window, Sid climbed out onto the sloping roof below and sealed between the lead flashings and the slate surrounding all the windows in the loft, plus some sealing on the sun room roof where the rain had blown beneath the flashing. All appears to be OK so hopefully this has solved any problems.

So today I've been going through all the photographs and tried to pick out some before and after pictures to show what an amazing transformation has been done at Westbroke. I think there will be quite a few so I shall put them on a new page. Hopefully, my fellow renovators over at MSE who are still in the throes of their projects, and who may be getting a bit despondent and thinking "Will this ever end?", will look at them and be cheered by the fact that yes, it really does come to an end. Looking back it's hard to remember how it was, all the mess, the cleaning up, the moving in and being surrounded by so many boxes while rooms were still being decorated. But we got there, it's soon forgotten, we're comfortable, warm, cosy and happy.

We've still a few things to do - sort out wardrobes for bedroom 1, level the floor and get some floor covering in the sun room, tile the porch and store room floors, get some floor covering for the loft bedroom, and curtains for the bedrooms still need sorting out. But these are all minor things for which there is no urgency and we can take our time with them in the new year when Paul is able to get out and about again. So go and have a look at the next post, hopefully I've covered everything and the photographs that I have taken have turned out OK.