no room with a view

The portico is being strengthened and saved, so now we have a very grand entranceway to a great view if nothing else! Also able to be saved is what's left of the basement (floors, windows, stairs, fittings and some walls destroyed) and the cloisters. Soon the diggers will be out and we'll be allowed back in to put some attention (and new plants) back into the garden.

in every dream home, a heartache...

Portico still standing, now with a view.

Digger at work demolishing our bedroom; in foreground is our shipping container which we bought when feeling optimistic about how much could be salvaged.

Beautiful timber floors reduced to matchsticks.

Still some books in the library.

My 5 year old son's room full of books, toys, clothes, bed and drumkit - all unsalvageable.

Telephone box saved! Washing machine good for scrap only apparently.

Purple dining room (painted in one day when my husband was away).

Our much loved home has been cordoned off for the past few weeks, so there's been no more sneaking into the garden to pick lemons and daffodils. Now even the lemon tree, the most magnificent and huge tree that was always full of fruit throughout the year, has been destroyed. 

It has been hard to watch at a distance men in diggers tearing down our rooms still full of things we spent decades carefully collecting. Demolition workers are a mixed bunch but there were a few good ones here who rescued my husband's grand piano and a set of red painted drawers that belonged to my mother. There's other stories not so good, but I've had enough of being angry and am looking forward to when the building is all down and cleared and we are allowed back into our garden to start again. Maybe there'll even be some late blooming daffodils left.