Pretty in Pink

This morning people came to test for asbestos. The reason is when the house had the EQC repairs done they didn't do a very good job and all the cracks came back again within three months. Very poor workmanship as they were painting the house when it was snowing and had tarpaulins over the house and gas blowers going.

The asbestos testing is done routinely now but when they started repairing houses they didn't. Because of that there have been a lot of people exposed to asbestos. I am not looking forward to having the house repainted as it is two story place and the scaffolding makes such a mess of the garden and all the the plants get damaged.

This afternoon I had my Spin Class and when I dropped my friend back home she gave me some old paint buckets as I have to start removing my plants that I want to keep. The reason for this is John has just told me we have to sell up within a few months as we need to down size. John is a man who tells me nothing until he has to and it is very frustrating and upsetting to me. He has borrowed money on the house and the bank will give him no more. In some ways it is good to be doing it now before we get too much older. John is in his 70's and the house is a big one with lots of stairs.

The day John me about the selling up of this house it was the day I was happy as I had put in a offer for a holiday home in Akaroa. He knew I was doing that as we had been over to Akaroa to have a look around for a place I could buy with my payout from the insurance company. If I had known earlier I could have put my money to get a place together here in the city.

I did get the place in Akaroa and have to wait to get all the checks done. It is only a two bedroom unit and not really big enough to live in full time but it may have to be our home for a while, while waiting to find a new place to move to. I was really excited until John hit me with that bombshell. I am taking all my art stuff over to Akaroa as I am going to start painting again. It is a sunny warm place with a views over Akaroa harbour.

My son and his partner are going continue to live in my earthquake damaged house and next year they will buy it for the land value. They have been to the bank and can get a mortgage for it. I decided not to rebuild as it is just too much to deal with my health problems and the payout was a fair one in the end.

This is why I have been a little hassled lately. I had to go backwards and forwards to Akaroa a few times to look at houses and then take my son over to check it out as he is a builder. That was around a 160 kilometres each time over steep hills. I didn't want to say anything until I had the insurance money in the bank and I knew I had got the holiday home.

My neighbours rose is once again my blip.. as when I got home from Spin Class I started to pot up some plants that can been done just now and this rose was hanging over the fence smiling at me.