The kitchen area

Its a long way up

Last week was very quiet with no trades working. Darren, our Will O' the Wisp plumber has returned from his holiday, but has obviously more important/more lucrative things to do as he has lived up to his pseudonym (the virtual plumber), and remained absent. Absent too were Roy's Boys who were unable to finish off our jobs due to the bad weather. Roy 'phoned on Friday to advise that Darren wanted a site meeting on Tuesday next to "agree things", whilst Roy promised his boys would be on site this coming week to lay the remaining kerb stones and pamments in the porch. Yet to be confirmed, and it may turn out to be a rumour, is the news that Darren will start fitting radiators on Wednesday. Hmm..., I wonder what odds for that happening?

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Jan and I have continued painting as can be seen from the photos above. I've bought a ladder that bends into almost any shape you want and that has enabled me to paint much of the lounge ceiling. However, there is still an area, which whilst tantalisingly close, remains just out of reach. I've had to order a scaffold tower from Jewson to enable me to get to that last bit. This arrives tomorrow which will herald the start of a week's leave for me, who, armed with a variety of paint brushes, paint pads, and tissues (I get a runny nose in the cold house) will accelerate the wear in various joints in hands, arms and back as I paint the rest of the walls and ceilings. I reckon that by Friday I will be screaming to go back to work for a rest. We've done quite well so far having applied one coat of white emulsion to the utility room, hall, kitchen, and about 2/3 of the lounge. The shower room ceiling has one coat, as too has the en-suite bathroom.

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We had a call from David Kirkpatrick of Lo-Line interiors on Friday to say that the kitchen design and quotation was ready for us to review, so on Saturday we went off to Biggleswade to see what he had come up with. As we had largely dictated what we wanted there weren't any great surprises, apart from the price. But as the last kitchen we bought was £4,500 (1990) then I guess we shouldn't have been surprised that prices had gone up just a little bit since then. It was good to see a couple of "artists impressions" as well as the plan of the layout as it helps to get a better feel of what's being proposed. With a couple of amendments to the layout, and the substitution of a slightly less sophisticated cooker (we didn't see the need to be able to input a chicken's life history to make sure it cooked properly), we think we will have a workable design. Because of the work load that Lo-Line have already, it can't be installed until May at the earliest, but we've been advised that they wouldn't install until the house had the heating on for a while otherwise nasty things might happen to the kitchen cabinets. Sounds like a job for Darren the plumber...........

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After leaving David Kirkpatrick we went off to the tile emporium (where we found tiles we liked last weekend) as we still needed a tile of a suitable size to contrast with the basic tiles we found last week. What we found though was that the tile manufacturers make tiles of odd sizes to ensure that you can only use the combinations they make and not mix and match with other tiles. It gets very frustrating when you see exactly the colour/style of tile you want, only to find it is incompatible in length, width, or thickness, to other tiles you have chosen. We've now opted for a different tile for the en-suite which can be complemented with a burgundy coloured tile that matches the unit that houses the basin. The other problem we have is finding suitably small tiles for the wet room as the larger ones do not lend themselves to be laid on the slopes that fall to the drain. I'm sure we'll get there.

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And finally, I've found a company who can manufacture an oak staircase at a very modest price - Polish Staircases Limited. A very polite email from Pawel, explains that they will come to site to measure up, send detailed plans to Poland, make the stairs using all the latest computer controlled machinery, then ship the finished product to us and fit it - all for about 1/3 of the price of a UK made staircase. For once I'm all in favour of the EU.

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Must go and wash my hair now - its covered in emulsion!

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Two white haired old gits from Clifton - sorry, one white haired old git (me), and a suave, debonair artist (Jan)