A (personal) story of perseverance and resilience. OK, and being in love with your business partner as well

This is a lesson in perseverance and resourcefulness that a lot of people could hopefully gain inspiration from in these awful/strange/troubled/unprecedented (delete as appropriate or use your own preferred adjective) times.

On a personal note, yesterday was a bad day. We found out that our stalled building project at home was going to get delayed further as there is a nationwide shortage of plaster.

Because our house has been rendered uninhabitable since the middle of March, we have been locked down as a family in a rented holiday cottage in a remote part of the country. The remote part was our choice as initially we thought we'd only be away for a couple of weeks while some heavy lifting happened at home, so why not go somewhere nice? Then lock-down happened, the build stopped and we haven't been able to go home since.

Don't get me wrong. We are very lucky to be where we are, there are some many people in a far worse situation, but we all really want to go home for a variety of reasons, not least the financial aspect. Plus the kids really miss their 'stuff'.

With the partial easing of some areas of lock-down we were recently told that we could look forward to going home at the end of May as our house was going at least resemble a home enough for us to live in it while the builders finished off with us living there.

Then yesterday the building company owner dropped the bombshell that it was unlikely he'd be able to get hold of any plaster for perhaps a couple of months. And would we mind staying away until some time in July? Ouch.

So my amazing wife got to work. She spoke to everyone we knew who had any connections to the building trade. These lovely people went out of their way to speak to their networks, but couldn't find any plaster anywhere in the whole of the United Kingdom.

Frustration and I'm afraid a bit of gloom pervaded the household this morning, at not knowing when, if at all, we could go home.

But Mrs D didn't give up. She hit the internet. She hit the phone. Until about an hour ago when she found enough plaster to satisfy our needs. It's not in the UK; it is after all a Nationwide shortage of plaster. It's not even in the EU. It's on the Isle of Man. But it's only going to cost us about ￡100 in haulage costs to get it delivered to our building site, and it is being collected tomorrow for delivery on Monday!

Now, there are many reasons why I love and respect my wife, and her resourcefulness and never-say-die attitude are just a couple of them. She did after help me found our business on the back of a recession in the IT industry.

I like to think that part of the reason we rub along so well as a couple is that I tend not to give up either. Which is why we're launching a new brand and entering a new market here at KDR in the near future.

Hopefully I'l be able to play my part in the launch while commuting from our home to the office, at least some of the time, social distancing rules allowing :-)

Watch this space!