A New Home - 2015 - A Year in review

MARCH 2015 - Part 3 of 12

March 2015 gave us a new home, which meant we weren't renting and one day would have a property that wouldn't cost a fortune every month! Grant House had been in my family ownership since the mid 1970’s when it was purchased by my Mum’s sister and her husband. My Aunt sadly passed away within a year or so of moving in, but Albert stayed until 1990 when he suffered a stroke and went to live with his daughter in Newcastle until his death a few years later.

My parents bought it from them in the mid 90’s and we used it as an office until the firm outgrew it in 2003 and moved to Leigh Broadway, but Dad continued to work from there and being a bungalow, it was ideal to see the elderly or disabled clients who couldn't manage stairs.

But as of now, it will be a family home again. It was a bit of a culture shock as we have had to lose a lot of stuff - it’s about ½ the size in floor area - but it is so much more manageable, giving us (theoretically) more time. We’ll see. But part of our New Year resolution has been fulfilled… we are getting smaller!

It wasn't without some sort of last minute drama though, as you would expect; the day before moving in the fridge was discovered as being ½ cm too high, which posed an interesting conundrum for the kitchen fitter who had to re-make one of the cabinets to accommodate, and EE completely mucked up our internet, meaning that for the first few weeks we had no Wi-Fi. This affected the girls more than us of course, and more than a few minutes amusement was had watching them either sitting against the back door or hanging out of the window in all weathers trying to connect to Mum and Dad's!

My parents, of course, were absolutely delighted with the move and I think Dad now felt as though everything was complete; I was 100% on hand to help Mum as he entered the final stages of his life. I know she was thankful for the fact that I was next door and this gave her great support. Dawn was brilliant and treated them as if they were her parents; nothing was too much trouble.

We have pretty much decided that this is where we’ll stay, as it is a place that will not be too big for two and also on one level, important in our later years as we enter our decrepitude. Having said all that, I sincerely hope that we will be here for many, many years as despite being nearly 10 years older than Dawn, I'm not planning on going anywhere just yet!