The week... VF

The week has gone by so fast and there has been so much coming and go-ing at the Berkley estate that I have hardly had time to e-mail or phone people, so apologies if you have not heard from us.

I had a nice birthday on Monday with many wishes from around the world, some special presents from special people as well as some nice phone calls. I am trying not to feel old but the numbers are getting quite high these days! I awoke to snow on the ground which was quite magical and then in the evening Jamie took me out for a most delicious dinner where we both ate a little too much!

The rest of the week continued with a stream of tradespeople coming and going. Quite frankly I am getting fed up with it despite knowing that it will all DEFINITELY be worthwhile in the end. Over the week we had two plumbers, three electricians, two bath resurfacing men on different days, a pest-control man and of course Brent & Brandon our resident builders who seem to have questions or require feedback every 15-20 minutes throughout the day. They are very good to us though (bringing banana nut bread for my birthday and making a CD of photos of the work for us to take to Jamie's parents for Christmas) and are doing the most fantastic work. However, I am getting a little tired of there always seeming to be a man in the loo (bathroom) whenever I need to go and having to wait and most frustrated that it is not my husband that I am waiting for. Thankfully Friday probably marks the end of the work upstairs (apart from new outside doors tomorrow), unless we decide to get painting done and also when the new cupboard for the dining room comes to get assembled in January. The next few days should also mark the end of the dust problem as the builders will have finished putting up the gib-board (dry-wall) down in the basement.

We have also had a couple of Christmas parties to attend for each of the hospitals Jamie works at so it was fun getting all dressed up formally and going out to do the "meet and greet" thing. One was at an old house - built in 1929 at a cost of $4 million US for a woman who was initally married to Mr Dodge (of early automobile fame) and then to a Mr Wilson who owned one of the large timbermills in Michigan. It is 80,000 square feet, the 4th largest house in America (the White House is 55,000 sq ft). We had a guided tour through it and it was quite amazing. Jamie's brother Joe and his wife Trish came too as he is an orthopaedic surgeon at that particular hospital as well.