I have non-renovation news which will explain why I haven't been writing.

I have been diagnosed with DCIS, a non-invasive breast cancer confined to the milk ducts, and the recommendation is that I have a mastectomy. I'm still in shock having just been given the news this past Friday. Especially since less than 3 weeks ago I thought I was the vision of health - sure I wanted to lose 5-8 pounds, complained that my body always hurt when I first got up in the morning, thought about doing a few sit-ups, heading back to the gym, eating more vegetables, trying to make my stomach look more like a stomach and not something that belonged on my lower backside (you know what I mean and thank god for photoshop)...but all in all, I thought I was in pretty darn good shape.

And then the bomb dropped - what started with my going to the doctor complaining of something that felt like an infection, thinking she would hand me a prescription for antibiotics, pat me on my head and send me on my way turned into my needing a mammogram and then getting a message 15 minutes later to come back to the hospital for more tests. And so I had a deeper scan, then an ultrasound, and while still on the table dripping with the goo they use, I had a biopsy.

Overwhelmed and sore I walked home from the hospital trying to collect myself before getting the kids. And then DCIS started being bandied about and I had an appointment quickly booked with Dr. McCready last Friday morning at Princess Margaret and a breast MRI scheduled that Friday night.

Dr. McCready explained that the DCIS was so wide-spread (and I'm not that big) that it was impossible to do a lumpectomy with the traditional follow-up of radiation but would instead have to do a mastectomy. The upside is that if it is solely DCIS I will need no further treatment - after all, there's nothing left to treat. If there is a rogue cancer cell spreading in to my lymph nodes then I will need to have further surgery to remove them and go through chemo.

My emotions are all over the map. Before writing this I wanted to talk to everyone in my family personally and after speaking to my Mom last night and my brother Thomas tonight, it was time to write.

Not that timing is ever good but I really wish we were back in the house before I found out because decisions still need to made, life still needs to go on while I try to deal with something dark and scary. I also want to recover at home where I am surrounded by my wonderful friends.

I have an appointment scheduled with a plastic surgeon for next week to discuss reconstruction and am awaiting a date for surgery; probably in a month.

But I will be fine, I will get through this, and then Paul and I are going on a vacation,...without the kids.

Now, on to the house.

I will add a few pictures because since I last wrote I now have the insulation pictures as well as shots of the house with drywall. I need to go back again because now that the plastering and sanding is finished, primer has gone up and again the house is transformed. We are down to details now. John was hoping to finish up for October 15 but it's not possible and we now have a date of October 26 for having appliances delivered so I suppose we can move in any time after that. Now if I can only find someone to sublet this house for a few months (call me or email me if you know of anyone who would like to rent a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom house with a finished basement and laundry room!).

We have chosen the tiles for the bathroom and I love them! For the floor, a colour comparable to lagos blue limestone; for the vanity something lighter, speckly, made of limestone - and because John has the sample I can't tell you what it's called. They are beautiful together - they would be insanely stunning if we could have afforded the Water Works sink we initially looked at but are still beautiful with the wood vanity.

We have chosen doors for the bedrooms and bathroom and they look great. I want to try to achieve a french apartment look on the second floor for the room I call the "library" and the white doors with their 2 simple rectangle design will compliment the look. For the powder room and basement I wanted a darker flat panel door in keeping with the kitchen design and of course, crazy me, I thought they would be simple and less expensive to get. Something even Home Depot could provide. But no, John will have them custom made and I will be presented with yet another change order. We have very expensive taste it seems.

But seeing the rooms transform makes me so very excited that we will be going home in a month. Hopefully before the surgery happens.

On to the pictures...

For some reason this cursed blogging program has randomly thrown in the pictures which drives the incredibly anal side of me INSANE since I had plotted them quite carefully to show the transition from insulation to drywall for each room. But f**k it, it's 11:30, I want to go to bed and get this bit of news posted.

The following pictures in random order include the kitchen, Satchel's room, Jakob's room, the library, the hallway leading from the boys' room to the library, and the bathroom with the heating coils.