News about David
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We have Moved in!
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Sunday 29 October 2005
Yesterday David did a poetry reading at Poetry in the Crypt, at St Mary's Church, Islingon. He read from Slaying a Dragon, to a paying audience of poetry lovers from around London. There was another poet reading as well - Michael O'Siadhail, an Irish poet published by Bloodaxe.
It was a lovely evening, and I was really proud of David - standing up there, reading his poetry in public, and being appreciated by people who knew nothing about him or his experiences. It seemed to represent a real victory coming directly out of a year of disaster.
The house is coming on. The first few weeks of living here, we kept discovering new little repairs that needed doing. I just hope we have done them all now, and there won't be any more for a while. The sitting room has finally got its skirting board, which means we have been able, at last, to put the furniture round properly, and actually sit in there to relax! The next job in there is decorating. Also the curtains from our old sitting room are too small for the windows, but that material is still for sale in Corcoran and May, so the plan is to get some more, to make more curtains to match.
We have managed to get some shelves up, and unpacked dozens of boxes of books. We have also resurrected a nice free-standing shelf unit that we used in our flat in Chestnut Grove, but which spent most of our George Road years stored in the loft. However, half its screw things are missing, so we are trying to find an alternative way of keeping it rigid. Once we have stopped it swaying from side to side, it will help the study get sorted out. I am looking forward to that, as it is my office three days a week, and it would be nice to work in a more orderly environment. There is so much to do, but because of work, we can only do it at the weekends. As a result we seem to be making slow progress.
However, the kitchen is almost finished. I thought it was finished, until we moved some boxes out of a corner, and discovered that we hadn't painted the wall behind them! We have put up shelves in the pantry, and several people from church came on 3 or 4 weekends and did paper-stripping, lining-paper, and painting, in the kitchen as well as upstairs, and now the kitchen looks really good. David has more skirting boards to paint - sitting on the floor with his legs off, he can get just the right angle without his legs getting in the way.
David's health is still good, and he is full of energy. He had a good first half of term - there is a lot of work, but he loves the students, the books, and his colleagues, so he is tired but happy.
He has regular appointments at the glaucoma clinic, and at his last visit, they confirmed that he will definitely have to have a cataract operation, and he is on the waiting list. The cataracts have come quite quickly in his left eye, as a result of his steroid drops (medication to help treat the pressure). The pressure in his eyes is fine, which means the operation he had on his left eye last year continues to be a success. However, after New Year, they will do some laser treatment on his right eye, to prevent glaucoma forming there.
Since we have been here, David has started to write poetry again. After Slaying a Dragon, there was a bit of a lull, as the pressures of moving and building work took over, but it is good to see him working on poems again.
New
phone number:
8408 0176
Tuesday 6 September 2005
We are in! After two and a half months of no fixed abode, we are finally where we intend to be for a good few years to come.
Moving day went really well. It was not nearly as stressful as the first time (20 June). I did some cleaning while the van was loaded up, then stood in the hall calling out rooms as they brought the stuff in. We didn't have time to think about food at all, so were really grateful for the meals brought round by old friends who have now become neighbours. It saw us through Sunday too, and just lasted until we found the saucepans!
When the removal men left, the house was a bit overwhelming. Boxes and furniture piled on top of each other, and not a clue where anything was. We quickly painted the new bookshelves in the bedroom so we can unpack some books. We have got the beds sorted, and Iona worked really hard on her room. Then on Monday David made a huge impression on the kitchen. There are some things though that we cannot unpack until we put up shelves, and we can't put up shelves until we have decorated the wall, but we can't decorate the wall until we move the boxes that are in front of it... It is going to be quite a while before everything is unpacked.
Already it is obvious what a difference this house will make to David. Immediately, his getting up and going to bed is transformed. He can easily get to the shower and loo, with or without his legs. He can use his wheelchair to get to the kitchen, if he wants to make tea before he gets dressed. The whole layout of the house means far less walking for him too, as the kitchen/dining room, bedroom and shower room are all so close and all downstairs. Meanwhile we all benefit from the extra space, which is a huge blessing after being quite cramped in George Road.
Needless to say, we have also discovered a few things that need attention, so we are hoping the builders will put them right when they come to finish off. There are still some repairs that need doing, and skirting boards fixing.
Yesterday I had an operation on my foot, to remove a Mortons Neuroma. It is great to be able to rest and recover in my own bed. David is doing a good job of looking after me and the children. He made packed lunches, cooked, did the shopping, and bought school shoes today, and attended three meetings at work.
The children were quite pleased to go back to school today, to the extra responsibilities of year 6. They were very proud to walk there and back by themselves. I am so pleased we moved here in time for my operation, otherwise we would have been too far away to walk, when there is no-one to take them.
Despite the start of term, the boxes, the operation, work etc, we are all less stressed. Yes we have a lot of unpacking and decorating to do, but that is exciting, and there is no rush.
It has taken us over a year to get here, but We Are Here! and I say, through gritted teeth, God's timing is perfect.
Saturday 3 September 2005
Well, it's arrived - the day I thought would never come! Today (TODAY) we are moving into Grayham Road!
This day is very symbolic for me - it is the day I have looked forward to for over a year, when "all this" will be over. The day that everything starts to come right, and we can start again, with our "new lives". We will not be stressed any more, life will be normal, David will be healthy, we can spend quality time together, things can be properly organised. We can finally RELAX!
I have tried to resist the feeling of looking forward too much. I want to value every moment of my life, whether good or bad - life in all its fullness. I do not want to junk the last 18 months, and just as I tried not to become bogged down in the material side of the bad times, so I hope to see beyond the good times too. I pray that God will enable me to see his work in my circumstances now, as he did so clearly during difficult times.
The removal van is arriving at Big Yellow Storage at 9.00am. While they are loading up, we will be doing some last minute cleaning. Then by this evening, we will be surrounded by boxes! We have been trying to plan where each piece of furniture will go, but I can hardly remember what we've got! I just hope everything will find a home.
The house is starting to look really nice. On Wednesday we had carpets put down upstairs. We managed, with some help, to get all the skirting boards painted during the weeks beforehand, and on Tuesday we cleaned and washed the floors. Now it is carpeted, you can see that it will look really smart. The walls are bare - we stripped all the wallpaper too, so the upstairs is ready for lining paper and paint. It seems a shame to clutter it with all that furniture...
I feel very excited, teetering on the edge between the old and the new. I can't wait, but I'm also a bit nervous, as if it hardly seems possible. I think today will be a very emotional day.
Thursday 18 August 2005
Our house is starting to look more like a house, and less like a building site. The kitchen has started being built, and the shower room is almost finished. The shower room looks lovely - clean and bright and modern. The loo works, it has a door now, and next week it will even have hot water. That and the non-slip flooring are the only things left to do.
The flooring is being put down in the kitchen at the same time, on Tuesday. The units are almost finished, with gaps left for the oven and appliances. We were there this afternoon, trying to imagine actually cooking there - where will we keep the saucepans, where will the toaster go etc. It is hard to imagine it, but at least it is starting to look real.
The flooring fitter is bringing some carpet samples with him, so we are looking forward to choosing what to have upstairs. Unfortunately his schedule means we have to wait another week to have them put down, so we have postponed our moving date from 29 August to 3 September. It is a bit frustrating, but I think it will make it a bit less stressful, as we will have a few days after the builders leave, to do some cleaning beforehand.
The decorating is progressing slowly. It is hard to find the time or energy for it during the week, but we are very focused at weekends. Our top priority is to get all the skirting boards painted before the carpets go down. We are also doing some wallpaper stripping, so that if we uncover any disasters, it will be while the builders are still here.
David is very good at these floor level jobs - he takes his legs off, and sits on a dust sheet, and he's away!
David finds the hot weather quite difficult. His plastic leg sockets are not designed to be cool, and the thick socks he wears inside get very hot, not to mention the extra exertion it takes to walk about. David has an appointment at Roehampton on Monday, to get his new leg fitting better. He has not been walking nearly as much as he used to, so hopefully that will help.
David's eye has improved. As long as he takes his drops and medicine properly, he has no problems. He is still waiting for an appointment with a cataract specialist, but as only one eye is affected, it does not cause him any trouble.
Friday 12 August 2005
Tonight we are sleeping in Grayham Road for the second time. The first time was moving day, 20 June, and tonight we have one night here before we move to the Lucas' house for two weeks while they are on holiday. Although there is practically no furniture and no carpets, it is really nice to be spending the evening in our own home. We got the microwave and some bedding out of the storage place, and we will all sleep on the floor in Iona's room.
We are very proud of our new sitting room floor. It took three days to build, with tongue and grooved boards, a lovely pale pine colour. Last weekend we lightly sanded them, stained them light oak, and varnished them. We hired a sander, and the whole process was spread over four days, and the result is stunning. The stain brings out a lovely rich texture which makes you want to touch it, and the finish is soft and smooth to bare feet.
The shower room is nearly finished. There is cold water but not hot, and the drain is not connected yet. The wash basin and loo are both finished. The next thing to happen will be the floor. The special non-slip floor covering is here, for the shower and the kitchen, but I'm not sure when the fitter is coming. Once that is down, they will start building the kitchen.
Meanwhile our decorating is coming on slowly. We have done quite a lot of wallpaper stripping upstairs, and are starting to paint the skirting boards, so they will all be done before new carpet goes down. We are both very frustrated at what little time we have during the week, to get decorating done. I am working almost full time, and David is taken up with a million jobs, and running around. He has been taking me to and from work in Wimbledon, going to various appointments with the children, etc etc, as well as choosing skirting boards, hiring sanders, buying varnish, and dealing with the builders. Iona has spent a lot of time this week reading.
This week Arran has been away on Juno's camp. It is his first time away on his own, so I hope he is alright. He sent us a letter saying "wish you were here" with lots of cheery pictures too, so I think he is OK. Iona goes away with friends tomorrow, a few hours before Arran comes back. One of David's jobs was to take them each to Kingston to kit them out for their trips.
David's eyes and his legs seem better at the moment. The sore patch he had after his fall in Richmond Park has cleared up. He is not walking much at the moment though, as he has a cold which is making him feel under the weather. He is still waiting for an appointment with a specialist about his cataracts.
Monday 1 August 2005
I can't believe what has happened in a year. This time last year David was just beginning to come out of hospital for visits - his first visit to church was the holiday club service, which took place again yesterday.
It is only looking back that I now recognise that period as the beginning of David being well, and the start of our new life. We were finding ways to cope at home, on his short visits, and we were coming back together as a couple, desperate to spend more time together. We were even tentatively starting to look ahead. 28 July was the first time we saw this house in Grayham Road.
One year on, we are still not living in it! Today the sitting room floor was taken up, and all the rotted joists will be replaced tomorrow. The lovely new boards will go down on Wednesday, ready for David and me to sand and varnish at the weekend.
We have started stripping wallpaper upstairs, in the lodger's room. The little fireplace needs to be paint-stripped before it can be re-painted, so I am painstakingly doing that bit by bit. I never realised what a fiddly, messy job it would be, but it will look good when it's done.
On Wednesday I crashed our old car. It was a drizzly morning, and I skidded on a roundabout, straight into a lamp post. The front of the car is completely buckled, and cannot be mended. Fortunately no-one was hurt, but we are sad to lose our nice green car that has served us so well. It was very useful being a 2 car family as well. So it is back to the bike and the train for me.
What is worrying about the crash I think, is that it reveals the stress I am under. I am trying to settle in to my new job, and work in the house, and make decisions about the building work, and commute from Surbiton to New Malden/Cambridge, and try and spend more time with the children, while living out of a suitcase. David is looking after the children and doing the cooking and shopping, and is doing a really good job of keeping the children happy with limited resources. Needless to say, he has not had much time for decorating either.
Roll-on moving day, currently estimated at 29 August.
Tuesday 26 July
The building work in the house is just starting to take shape. A lot has been done that you can't see: the house now has a damp course, and all the timbers were treated for woodworm. Unfortunately that revealed that the floor in the front room was riddled with woodworm, so we have to have it completely replaced. When it is done, we will make the most of it by varnishing it instead of having carpet.
The drainage is all in place for the wet room, and the wiring is done for that and the kitchen. The plumbing was done the week before last, and we now have central heating! Apparently the house now contains 180 meters of copper piping, in three different sizes! Click here to see piping
Yesterday Transco dug up the road (click here) and brought gas to the house (hence the road works outside) and today British Gas gave us a meter. Next week the plumbers will come back and connect the plumbing to the meter, and we will have a working boiler!
The wet room is starting to look good - the tiles are up, and part of the shower. The tiles are white, and we have chosen a mosaic border (see picture). David and I had a little disagreement over which border to choose, until we realised David's choice cost £18 whereas mine was £79. They are just as nice really - blue speckles. At the same time we chose a blue bowl for a wash basin, which will stand on a white shelf. I can't wait to see it put in!
Upstairs we have discovered two fireplaces. In the front bedroom was a built-in dressing table hiding some boxing. We moved the dressing table and dismantled the boxing, to find a large, rather grand fireplace behind. It has a decorated wood surround, and a cast iron middle with tiles either side, and art nouveau patterns (see picture). There was some similar boxing in the back bedroom, so we took a crowbar to it, and there was a sweet little cast iron bedroom fireplace with green tiles. Both badly need some cleaning and painting, but they give a lot of character to the rooms. It was very exciting to discover these original features.
While we were at it, we also removed some boards on the banisters, and there were the original bannister supports inside (see picture). They are not spindles, but rather graceful art nouveau loop shapes which match the ones on the landing. When they are cleaned and painted they will make the stairs much lighter, and open up the hall.
All this has made the house impossible to live in. Fortunately though, we are still able to stay at my sister Fiona's flat in Surbiton, living out of suitcases. Generally we are coping well although Iona has been quite homesick, and the children do miss their toys. David is getting plenty of exercise on the three flights of stairs.
David is quite worried about his eye. He takes drops every day for the glaucoma, and when he went for a check-up last week, he was told that he has developed a cataract in his left eye. He was warned last Summer that he was vulnerable because of the treatment he has had, but I didn't expect it to be so soon. He is waiting for an appointment with a specialist. That explains why his vision is getting fuzzy in that eye.
David has two new legs. His left leg is working well, but the right (below knee) one is still uncomfortable. He needs to find the time to go to Roehampton early one morning and wait while the fitter tries to improve the fit.
Yesterday David had a fall in Richmond Park. He was walking along a path, but tripped on a dip in it. He did not think he had hurt himself, but today his left leg is painful at the end of his stump.
David is working hard looking after the children and manning the fort at Grayham Road, while I am working hard at my new job. It is going well so far, and I am going to Cambridge about once a week. Now most of the work is finished upstairs, our work begins, as we start stripping wallpaper and preparing to paint skirting boards. We want to get at least that done, so we can have carpets put down before we move in. Any offers of help gratefully received, weekdays or weekends!
Sunday 17 July
Things are gradually progressing at our new house. We had to put all our furniture and boxes into storage. The work and adaptations on the house are about half way through.
The damp and timber people came during the second week (a few days late due to one them suddenly becoming a father). They took one look at the two rooms filled with stuff, and said that they could not do their job in those conditions. They said the house had to be cleared by 10.00 the next morning, or they could not treat the timbers. David was at the house, and I was at work, so he was faced with the task of getting all our belongings moved somewhere else in a day. After much panicking and many phone calls, he managed to book some storage, my cousin managed to put together a team of removal men, and they and his lorry carted out all the stuff they had put in a few days earlier. Our worldly goods are now in storage at Shannon Corner. At the end of the day David was exhausted but satisfied that he had done a good job. He said this experience enabled him to start seeing the house as a challenge to be tackled, rather than a problem opressing us.
Now the house is much freer for the builders as well, so it is simpler all round. I kept out my desk and computer, but the house was pretty inaccessible for a couple of weeks while the timbers were treated and the damp course put in, hence no update here.
Thursday 23 June 2005
We managed to get packed up over the weekend, and on Monday, we actually moved! At last! With the hitches we have had, we were half expecting a problem at the last minute, but it all went smoothly. Again, it was only some amazing help on the day that made it all work so well.
Actually, the boxes have moved in, and so have the builders, but we have moved out. We are staying at Fiona's flat in Surbiton. It is great to have somewhere to escape to
The builders started work by pulling up floorboards to do plumbing and wiring, and discovered the joists in the front room are riddled with woodworm. Good job the timber treatment people are coming on Monday. They have started work on the downstairs bedroom, taking out old cupboards and the ugly tiled fireplace, and put in some new wiring. The uitility room is also stripped bare, ready to become a shower room.
But most importantly, the broadband internet is installed. I was very frustrated at not being able to post my blog until today. That means we also have our phone line now: 0208 408 0176. It took all day to install, because there was a break in the cable ducting somewhere down the road, so the road had to be dug up in three places to locate the problem and repair it. The engineers were here till 8.30pm putting the finishing touches to our line.
This was just in time for my new job, which starts tomorrow. I will be working from home, using an internet connection to the office systems. I am going to Cambridge tomorrow for my first day.
People have been talking about God's perfect timing, but it has been hard to see why we had to wait so long. Now though, we are seeing so many benefits of moving now. The weather means we have been able to use the garden while the house is so inaccessible. Fiona's flat would not have been available any sooner, and my new job will take away some of the financial pressure of our increased mortgage. This is also a good time for David, as college is much quieter, so he has been around much more than usual. Hindsight is so much easier than faith!