Things sometimes get worse before they get better!

Note to readers: For the avoidance of any doubt, every character in this blog is Baggy! No Baggy was harmed in its writing, although some of them get pretty confused!

Just as well that Hormonal Hannah isn't a woman of 'nervous disposition'. Oh wait - yes, that's right; she suffers from anxiety! 

Now that Baggy and Calum have some funds, the work is starting on the house. Yesterday the scaffolding went up. This morning, the two workmen from Topcote turned up to start the preparation work. 

As Baggy just took them out cuppas and Victoria Sponge cake a few minutes ago, Creative Clara decided to take some photos of progress so far! This is what Baggy returned to, after taking Hannah and Pepper Pooch to the beach this morning. Yep Baggees, it was a bit of a shock! Clever Bird knew that there were quite a few cracks that would need to be fixed, but still.....

Eighteenth-century hand-made bricks are extremely porous, and a lot of these ones appear to be 'blown'; no blooming wonder that the house is so damp. Baggy had been warned when the work was booked, that she might be in tears when she saw the first stages of preparation work! But actually, even Hormonal Hannah is not only not in tears, she is quite happy for the house. It's been around for nearly five hundred years, having been built in the seventeenth century, so it's time it had a bit of loving. She's excited that it's going to be looking wonderful again soon. It deserves to be around for another five hundred years, and Baggy and Calum are chuffed that they are able to help it to achieve that end whilst they are its caretakers.

Clever Bird is very impressed with the guys doing the work too; not only do they clearly know their way around old crumbling houses, they have been non-stop getting on with it! The Domestic Goddess might have bought their cake, rather than making it, but she reckons they need the sugar, and to enjoy it! What's more amazing Baggees, is that so far Baggy has resisted having a slice! She really wants to lose enough weight to get Grotty Groom back on her Boy Wessles, and as she has put a stone back on, with the comfort-eating of the last few stressful weeks, she needs to resist.

Even though, as Creative Clara sits here with the telly on full-volume, still barely able to hear it over the noise of the banging, Hannah is surprisingly chilled. Clever Bird suspects that this might not last though - especially as things are likely to go slightly pear-shaped through this process. For instance, a terribly apologetic chap has just come in to check that Baggy is still watching the telly.

'Yep, I am - I can almost hear it. Why? Am I disturbing you?'

'Oh good. No, of course not! It's just that we've just cut through a TV-aerial cable that was underneath the render on the end wall.'

'Urrrm, what? What on earth was it doing underneath the render?'

'Well, it might be a redundant one, but I wanted to make sure that you still had television.'

'Yes I do, as we watch it through the satellite dish,' said a relieved Baggy, who is supposed to be getting a TV-aerial engineer out anyway, as there is something extremely odd about the whole set up. She hadn't organised it, because she figured that Hannah would have enough to contend with over the next couple of weeks; but maybe she now needs to. Sigh!

So to help Hormonal Hannah cope with all the change (and constant banging), Clever Bird has a plan for the next couple of weeks. 

• Greet the guys with cuppas and biccies at 8.30.
• Take Pepper Pooch and Hannah to the beach.
• Go and see Wessles and Joey.
• Go home and make cuppas, with cake.
• Breathe deeply......