I have lived in my own home in Worthing for just over 10 years. I live alone, although with a dog, you are never alone.
When I first moved in, I received a small settlement as a consequence of an accident in a public space. It was entirely not my fault, and as someone that was still walking but with crutches, my fall though not serious did much to damage my confidence.
This small settlement I spent almost entirely on the redecoration of my small apartment, just one bedroom, two or three streets back from the seafront.
It is a 1920s house, the ground floor or what we would in the UK call a garden flat.
I have access to the rear of my property over the adjoining property, which enables me to gain access in my wheelchair from the street.
When I bought the house, on a mortgage, I was aware that all of the internal walls had been dry lined with plasterboard.
After 10 years, what I might have suspected has proven to be the case, that the plasterboard walls hide a general problem of damp.
Not serious damp, but sufficient to require sorting out properly now.
When I first moved in, I was able to benefit from a disabled facilities Grant, which meant that the local council spent a considerable sum turning my bathroom into a wet room, and giving me a new ramped access at the rear, with new double glazed wider opening to the ramped access, as well as the installation of superior fire alarms.
In spite of these improvements, when it rains and the wind is from the south, I get water coming in and spoiling the decoration, which is simple and minimalist white throughout.
I had the notion that I would like to live in something that approached a gallery space, and so the ceilings throughout were skimmed to smooth out the stippled texture, and the overall feel is simple and perfect for the display of my numerous pictures and photographs.
One of my last means of earning money before I ceased working entirely because of my condition, multiple sclerosis, was as a freelance graphic designer.
To facilitate this, I purchased a large format printer, which can print in full colour up to A1 size. At very high quality.
This means that some of my picture frames contain images that I have printed myself, either from photographs I have taken myself, or of images that I like.
Thus I can change my environment to a great extent. And I can offer to print large images at photographic quality for friends.
This printer is a great luxury, and I still keep it in working order even though it is much less used them once it was.
It is a great pleasure to be able to print images in this such a large format, and at such a high resolution.
To complete the needed improvements to my small apartment will cost more than I can afford, and a good friend of mine has offered to help me with some fundraising that may be needed.
I have already had the assurance of a local council officer that I may be able to secure a small grant from the same council that helped me with the disabled facilities Grant, but the available money is small, and I may have to find some additional resources.
This is my project for the next season, it may be that work will not be able to commence until next spring, and I will need to be relocated for about six weeks whilst the work takes place.
But my independence depends upon having this island of my own in my sea of troubles, somewhere that is shaped to my needs, and from where I can survey the world.
I don’t know exactly how much will be needed, but the issues and problems have begun to be more closely identified.
So as experts are consulted, my dog has new people to bark at. And she barks so well.
Oscar is a girl, and we have been together for the whole of her life, since she was rescued at the age of just over a year.
And so she is elderly, very protective, pays no attention to my commands, and yet remains my constant companion.
She is walked professionally by my most important carer daily, and so in spite of suffering arthritis for which she receives anti-inflammatories, she is happy and healthy for her age.
Any help the two of us, strays both, can keep back the waters will be most gratefully received.
No doubt this blog will regularly update any readers on the progress of my little scheme.
