Edging towards normality

I have storage! I finished painting the wall units today (they were blue and brown) and actually put things in them. The chances of some cooking getting done round here are increasing by the day…

Kitchen progress

This is where I’m up to so far. The cupboards were a bargain at £5, and come with doors, which are currently being painted white (they were blue). I’m also going to be painting the cupboards white, too, so they match and don’t look so laminate-y.

Sink worktop

This was a hard, hard job, but with the help of J and his father, we have installed the new sink and worktop, and replumbed everything in. Eventually, it will have doors in front of the washing machine and the under sink cabinet. The spice drawers will extend along the wall on the left in front of the little cabinet (currently housing a bag of cat food) and we also need to fit the little bit of worktop to the left of the cooker.

Reframed Pollock

I forgot to post this last week. I have reframed the Pollock print above the fireplace in the sitting room. I think the smaller frame looks so much better:

A Good Friday

We spent another day working on the kitchen today. We cut another bit of worktop to size ready to fit the sink tomorrow and moved all the kitchen stuff upstairs out of the way. My new kitchen table was also delivered this morning (pics to follow, as it’s already been buried under piles of junk in the study). Tomorrow is also going to be a busy, busy day - we’ve got to remove the existing sink worktop, fit new cupboards, cut the sink hole in the new worktop, fit the worktop, fit the sink and taps, lay some more pipework for the radiator and plumb everything back in. Fortunately, we will have an extra pair of hands to help with all that.

In the new skill department, today I tried my hand at plastering. I knew I wasn’t going to get great results, but didn’t really care as all I needed to do was to even up the walls where tiles are going to go. To make things easier, I used ready mixed plaster and the results turned out OK:

I’ve been dreading doing the plastering for weeks, but it really wasn’t that hard. Getting a smooth finish would be completely beyond me though, so I’ll still get a professional in to do the bits that matter elsewhere in the kitchen.

Cooking is something that is really hard at the moment, however. We’ve been living off ping cuisine and fish and chips all week, but tonight we are treating ourselves to home-cooked baked potatoes with super-runny brie and baked beans. Yum.

New worktop and picture

We’ve been very busy this weekend. We’ve installed some of the pipework for the radiator-move in the kitchen and done some other structural bits and bobs in the kitchen. But the most pleasing thing is getting one of our new worktops installed:

This is upside down and back-to-front at the moment, as I’ve just put the first layer of oil on to seal the bottom, but you get the idea.

The other big (and I mean BIG) change this weekend, is the new picture above the fireplace.

I think it’s too big and might have to be reframed. I hope not, though. It’s already been quite expensive.