When the rewiring in the house started, I went away for a couple of days and came back to a very ‘fired-up’ David who said he thought we should get our fingers out and finish two of our rooms before Christmas – the dining room and our bedroom.

Now while I agree we need the boost of something finished and clean, I also know that to achieve this I am going to have to give up a lot of my precious private time with David and the dogs. Still, no pain no gain and the sooner we get it done, the sooner we can relax and enjoy the fruits of the grand plan so OK then, let’s do it.

We’ve negotiated with the builder who has agreed to get the plaster skim on walls and ceilings by mid-November for us so that will give us time to get the rest of the decoration done and carpets down before Christmas. (Ho ho ho – that’ll be the day.) Downstairs, the internal walls are solid but upstairs they are made from lath and plaster, which is over a hundred years old and very crumbly.

This affects two of the four walls in our bedroom but one of the two, we’re planning to take down and move in a couple of years time anyway so it’s pointless making it into a masterpiece in the meantime.

The other one needed to be stripped of laths and plaster so it can be plaster-boarded and skimmed. Champ was going to do the job for us but of course he’s now out of action (we’re still sending good vibes in his direction). The only hope then of getting to where we want to be so that the next step of the plan can fall into place is to do it ourselves.

That’s where the problem arises. You see, I don’t want to spend my precious weekends doing this stuff – I’ve spent more than twenty years seemingly living in a constant building site, which is bad enough but I’ve also invested hour after hour in doing much of the work myself. I’ve had enough. The plan was to pay someone else to do all of this around us. Because of a nasty quirk of fate, the plan hasn’t worked out and so we’re ‘doing it ourselves’ again.

Anyway, to make matters worse, DMs asthma is at crisis level, I can hear his chest from the other side of the room as he struggles to breathe in this dust-filled atmosphere.

So, the plaster needs to come off, DM is already sick and to add to that, the plaster is old and full of horse hair – which he’s shockingly allergic to too! I’m sure you can now see where this is leading – yep, yours truly up a ladder for the day, in a dust-mask wielding a claw hammer.

This is the result, job done. I ache all over. The house is even more full of dust but we are now ready for that builder to come back and do the next bit. I have spent about twenty minutes in the shower trying to wash off the dust and I can still feel it on my skin.

If I ever suggest moving again – will someone please give me a shake?

Last year, we were re-enacting the battle of Trafalgar with beacons along the shore and French boats being set alight on Looe beach!