Christmas was our first one in our new house. Admittedly we only had a shell, and there were big gaps under 5 of the doors. It was cold, but we wrapped up in lots of layers, and had our first, magical Christmas in our new house along with Ryan who was visiting.
We were sleeping in the motorhome, Ryan was in the garden house, but during the day we cooked a dinner and sat at our make shift table and just loved being inside our new home on Christmas Day. That was right at the start of our part of the house build. The shell had been put up, and because I had been so ill in September and was still recovering, we had made the decision to pay to have the cladding put on — so we had a beautiful looking shell to start work on internally.
My right knee was completely knackered, having torn the patella tendon in August , the left one was struggling as it was needing to compensate, I had been rushed to hospital with appendicitis and the operation had left me with a problem in my ileocecal valve.
Then I was diagnosed with H-pylori and needed treatment for that which completely floored me for months. What we thought would have been the most exciting time of our lives — a blank canvas to make our own mark on — actually became the biggest challenge of our lives.
And sometimes more of a nightmare than the dream that it should have been. So, laying out clearly our starting point and now reflecting back on where we are, I can see how we should be nothing but extremely proud of what we have achieved.
