It was the right thing to do, unquestionably. But what remains of its sad, cold bulk is tons of cast iron, worthless on the resale market apparently, either whole or in pieces. Our builder – a man of few but perfectly judged words – is keeping it whole for now, holding out for someone to make an offer, if only to take it away.
As the project proceeds the scale of it becomes apparent. Sure enough in the lead up, the builder and his mate had looked a bit quizzical as I explained my intention to remain in situ with the dogs and cat. Apart from a desire to stay at home no sanely-priced pet-friendly rentals were available anyway. Within 12 hours l had fled to family members willing to tolerate an invasion for upwards of 10 weeks. And that was after a head-melting month of clearing out the house and storing the contents.