OK. So the kitchen... in Juggling with Hedgehogs

I said I would post some indoor pictures of the house. Our builder came to see us yesterday to say his hand will be suitably healed by the 27th of Jan, and he can start work then. He’s going to be removing 2 walls, a fireplace and a chimney, making good, painting the walls and tiling the floor. Then, we will have a large, empty room in which to install our chosen kitchen (most likely from IKEA). So, for your delectation, here is the vile thing we’re currently using as a ‘kitchen’…and I didn’t even bother to clean or tidy it up before taking these pictures, so it’s a ‘warts and all’ thing.

This is the view from the sliding door entrance. We had to take all the doors off the cupboards, as I’ve mentioned previously. We keep potatoes and other vegetables on the windowsill, because it’s essentially a fridge. The tiles are BURIED in the wall. I’ve never seen anything like it. So on the right hand wall, which is staying in place, we’re going to get the builder to just gyproc over it. The wall facing the door currently will be covered over with appliances and cupboards anyway (two ovens, cupboards above and below etc) so the tiles will hopefully mostly disappear, or be gyproced and tiled over. It’s stunningly ugly as it is.

The big silver thing on the shelf is a Berkey filter. That was literally a life-saver when we moved in, as we didn’t have mains water - only water from the bore hole. So we ran the taps into the Berkey, the Berkey filtered the water super clean, and then we boiled it so we could make coffee and cook. Otherwise it would have been bottled water the whole time until we got the mains on, which took about a month.

This is the bloody awful cooker - and the Remoska sitting on top, because that’s what I mostly use to cook anyway. And we use an Optigrill for meat. Up on the wall is the gas water heater - no longer in use, as we now have the pellet boiler - but when we first moved in, this was all we had for showers etc. And the sodding pilot light wouldn’t stay lit. And look at the pipes! I mean, what were they THINKING? Oh, wait until I show you the staircase. That’s an entry for another day, but you will laugh so much when you see that thing. If I don’t do the staircase, please remind me, because damn.

General store cupboard above the dishwasher

The grey and black things above the fridge are what we use to eat our meals off, currently. We do have a dining table, but it’s too flaming cold in the dining room to sit in there, so we sit in the lounge, by the fire, with these lap trays instead. Once the kitchen is done, there will be a larger radiator in there, and a breakfast bar, so we will probably eat in there a lot more.

Isn’t it hideous? I haven’t built up to photographing the downstairs yet - or the bathrooms (oh. my. god) - but at least the kitchen will be obliterated soon, and we’ll have a nice clean space to fill up with all the stuff sitting in boxes on the floor downstairs at the moment.

Work on the pool begins early March. You can bet there will be lots of progress pics of that when it happens.

Last updated January 12, 2020