Doors and Windows!

Forgive me, for forgetting to get a before picture, but I was side tracked, ordering Emily's flowers!

Sooooo: the old door came out after some pretty heavy duty banging and pulling on behalf of the window / door fitter. These had only been organise two weeks ago, and suddenly it was all happening, and we would soon have a watertight door.

Before long the framework had gone into place, and everything was screwed in

and it was just finishing strips to completed the door and make it all beautiful one more!

Then it was off upstairs to the bathroom - normally a very cold and draughty place as the seals on the previous window did not work!

out came the old one - leaving a pretty awful gap

and in went the new one. - Beautiful! Once the new sill was in place it made the bathroom a haven of warmth.

Great job, messy, but worth it. I want some of the others doing now that's the only problem! Think we need to save up and do them one at a time!

The Kitchen 1 Year On!

Finally, one year on from the first upheaval of fitting the kitchen, we are nearly finished!

Whilst I was working today, Paul spent his Good Friday Bank Holiday attending to some of the finishing touches...

He did some grouting, some sanding and some painting.....

pictures went up on the walls

and it finally feels like its coming together. There are some more bits to complete, like painting the skirting boards, door frames and walls where the sanding needs finishing off, but, in principle you could say it's all done bar the shouting LOL!

Woo Hoo!

A Very Busy Day - Gardens, Kitchens and Exhibits

Saturday morning and the sun is shining and its 21 degrees at 10 am!

Out I went to mow the lawn and weed around my lovely planter, that is now filling up and packing out with amazing speed, considering what it looked like just after Paul made it. Check out my other posts under the garden label - you'll be amazed!

Whilst I was outside, catching the much needed sunshine, Paul had decided it was about time he tried to get a bit more of the kitchen done. Yes I know that we started this project in April, but hey! Life happens around us and some things become more important than a perfectly completed kitchen. Paul had to do a few weeks of night shift, we had a lovely two week holiday, and to be honest we were just DIY'd out for a while! LOL.

Once the metal support strap had been fixed to the wall, the 'floating' cabinets were placed into position, along with the chrome support leg, which looks like it's just there to be pretty, but is actually, helping to take the weight of the cabinets, so that when they are full, I don't have to worry about them collapsing!

And..... Hey presto - floating wall units - Isn't my man wonderful!

Although, it looks finished, there is actually still rather a lot to do, grouting of tiles, fixing of under unit lighting, skirting board, architrave, radiator.... the list goes on, but it is really looking great now.

We took a break this afternoon, so that we could attend the Tramways exhibit in Portreath, detailing all of the background history for last weeks celebrations

The organisers had worked really hard on the celebrations and the exhibit and even had a working model of the tramway line showing how it worked up and down the 250 foot incline it was faced with each time it was in use.

There were beautiful photo's of the ships that frequented the harbour, and we were lucky enough to meet Captain Greenslade, a lovely chap, who was so knowledgeable about how life had been in Portreath all those years ago.

He graciously agreed to be photographed with a picture of the ship be captained, the SS Isleman.

Not so Kitchen Warzone....

Jon arrived at 7:45 this morning to start on the firring of the work surfaces and breakfast bar..

I arrived home at 2:15 this afternoon, expecting only one to be fitted, and all three were done.... All cut by hand and not a spot of colour fill used! amazing - he is a seriously talented bloke....

Tomorrow morning, after the jointing glue has hardened, he will arrive to cut in the sink space and the hob space..... and during all of this, Paul is working nights and trying to get some sleep - He managed 3 hours today!

Kitchen Warzone 7

Time for the holes to be moved for the extraction unit to go over what will be my gas hob....

It took quite a while to cut through the outside wall to the other side and quite a lot of energy - hence the naked male torso!

but finally he broke through to daylight, and suddenly it all started to come together....

and... Hey Presto! we had a fully working extractor unit, with under light - marvellous - I can now see the pizza and spicy potato wedges when thet come out of the oven - YUM!

Kitchen and Hols

The kitchen is coming along nicely now, and we have Jon coming in on Tuesday and Wednesday to fit the 3 work surfaces and cut the holes for the sink and gas hob.

Jon is a master carpenter and Paul was really impressed with is work building office space and making doors from scratch, when he did some stuff at the place where he works.

Unfortunately Mark, who we were going to have fit the work tops, is rammed with work and we are at the bottom of his list. His loss is Jon's gain - he's a great chap and we know that his work is good. It's all done by hand (non of there electric gadgets for him) hence the day and a half to do the work - it will be worth it I think though.

In the meantime, we have had an invite from Karen (Paul's sister) from Birmingham to go up and join her for her 40th Birthday. We are actually on holiday for that weekend and shall be up at BAH (Blue Anchor Hideaway) so will do the trip up there just for the day - it's about a 2 and a half /three hour drive, but we have Fred with us and cannot leave him home alone, so we shall return the BAH the same evening.

We will only manage about 2 hours with Karen and Dave, but at least we also get to see Mommy Marg and Keith too.

Fred is a good lad and will sleep the journey, and only demand a short walk on arrival, a little food and water and then he'll be happy to go back to sleep in the car whilst we mingle.

I have sent a quick text to Kel to see if we can see her on our whirlwind visit, and hopefully we will get to meet my Godson to be. Dylan for the first time.

I'm off now to watch Paul contemplate the fitting of the extractor fan over the non existent hob that he began to fit last night. Then, watch out Fred, your are next on my hit list - it's bath and haircut time methinks.....

Kitchen Warzone 6

Sorry - it's been a bit of a mad week here and I've been a little lapse in my updating, however here is what has occurred, kitchen wise, in picture form:

Firstly, Paul fixed the pipes that were all in the wrong place for the dishwasher....

Sharon and Chris lent us their camping stove so that I could do more that microwave food...

The cupboards got placed in the approximate position...

and levelled up....

Doors started to get put on the new units

the extractor hole got cut through the outside wall for the tumble drier extractor

The new work surface got placed onto the newly placed wall in order to set the levels

and Paul hand made a carcass for the freezer and added some back venting to allow the freezer some cooling space

all in all a very busy week for Paul, but he's doing a grand job!

The kick boards and handles have been fitted where possible

rear view of freezer with lovely little vent!

Well that's all folks - more to come as it occurs - meanwhile I've placed a call in to Mark to see when the work surfaces can be fitted for us.

Kitchen Warzone 5

Hurrah!

Paul is a complete DIY GOD - I kid you not!

I went out to work this morning and when I got home at 2.30 this afternoon, he had moved all of the pipework that had made him so grumpy before.

He is a marvel - an no girls you cannot have him - HE's MINE!!!

So now, it's all systems go and with any luck we can actually finish the next wall of kitchen units.

Enough is enough...

At about 10pm last night, after all the plumbing was completed and we had tidied up all the rubbish, I pushed the dishwasher back into position ready for Paul to start the next unit today.

HORROR of horrors - major major problem. The plumbing for the cold and hot water pipes, fell to high for the back of the dishwasher and it could therefore not sit flush with the wall, therefore allowing for the door space in front to fit flush under the work surface when it comes!

Paul said a few choice words, Fred wondered what the heck was going on, all he wanted was his evening walk, which was an hour late, and I looked on in panic, wondering how to calm poor Paul down from his apoplectic rage!

and so, as I have already said, enough is enough . I banned Paul from doing any work at all on the kitchen today, and we would have some us time. (after all this is the last couple of days of our holiday).

We had a lazy morning watching a DVD that I had bought in the week (In her Shoes), which even Paul enjoyed, and then had a drive into Truro for a mooch around the shops.

I spent a fortune in M&S on new lingerie, and then we went to our favourite little bistro, The Lounge, at the back of Truro Catherdal, for lunch.

It was a lovely relaxing day, however, Paul could not shut him mind off from the task yet to come in the kitchen - a complete plumbing overhaul, dropping the pipes about 14 inches to sit below the pipe line on the dishwasher.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day, and we can start all over again!

Kitchen Warzone 4

So now that we know how everything is to be placed, it means that Paul needed to do some plumbing work to make everything fit.

Whilst he was doing this, I was painting the walls that I was able to get to, in the new soft olive colour that we had chosen. Now anyone that knows me even slightly, will be aware that I do not do green in houses! I was all greened out during my childhood and it put me off for life, or so I thought.


The funny thing is, that the whole time that this vision was forming in my head, the walls were always going to be green, all be it very pale and soft, but never-the-less green..... Go Figure!!!

Kitchen Warzone 3

Not so much a warzone now I'm glad to say.

The white goods arrived at lunchtime, just after the electrician had finished putting in our extra sockets.

Paul finished fixing the back wall of units to the wall, and then we had a break whilst Sally-Ann and Mike came over for a cuppa and a check up on how it's going.

I think Paul is a lot calmer now that Mike has talked his words of wisdom, and suddenly it starts to come together.

We unpacked the fridge and freezer from their boxes and placed everything where it will ultimately end up, just top get an idea of how it will all go.

The relief is tangible as we can see that my original master plan that worked so well in my head all those months ago (and years if I'm honest, since we moved in) will actually work how I imagined.

Phew - not much more now, and as we have a fixed wall in place I can used an old bit of work surface to produce our delightful microwave meals on, although, as you can see I have now progressed to being able to use my oven again - Woo Hoo!

Kitchen Warzone 2

With units still in the living room, they were bound to get filled with all sorts of rubbish under the circumstances, but who knew that Fred would add himself to the list of items in the cupboard! Can you see him???

Today, after finally doing the last bit of sanding of some new bits of plaster, I was able to do the very last bit of painting in the base colour of white. Then Paul started to place the units into their rightful positions....

They then all needed a little cutting about to fit around the gas pipes....

but Fred was not daunted - he found the new living accommodation for his beloved 800mm unit! He soon jumped out when he saw that I'd spotted him!

Holiday?

Our holiday started on Friday..... Somehow we have not managed to organise ourselves well enough to actually go away to our van in Somerset (Blue Anchor or BAH).

The kitchen, which we ordered 2 days before Paul was put onto short time, was delivered, and we are now in a situation where we can start to fit it.

And so, instead of heading off up the motorway on Friday afternoon, we started to pull out the old kitchen units.

For those of you that read regularly, you will already be aware that the wall cupboards and tiles came off last week (along with a trip to the hospital for Paul). Paul's stitches are now out, the electrician is booked for next Thursday the 21st and the integrated freezer and integrated fridge are due to delivered by Argos on the 21st also...... It's all systems go, so we may as well stay here and see it through.

Paul is laying the last bit of flooring today, he got a good start on it late yesterday, and then we shall sand and paint the walls before placing the units in a test before the fixing can begin.

Onwards and upwards....


I don't think Colin and Justin are very impressed by my decorating of the lounge at the moment!