Tag: decorating

The joiner cometh

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I have absolutely no news today, but I’m hoping to have updated photos tomorrow.  For today, the joiner cometh!

I’m so happy at the thought of having a functioning sink (never mind somewhere to chop those pesky veggies) that I’m hoping it will put me in a good mood all day.  It is still, however, a working day, so we shall see.

Jobs for the joiner

  • Cut worktop (four bits)
  • Cut out hole for sink (hopefully leaving us with a chopping board from the negative space)
  • Cut the upstand to match the worktop
  • Make a cupboard from the boiler from the random bits the B&Q designer cleverly ordered (note: adverb used with irony)
  • Cut the plinth for all of the kitchen.

While he’s cracking on, Barry can sort out the waterworks underneath the sink so we can use it straight away.  I daren’t ask him to take photos of the process, so I’ll just have to see the transformation when I get home!

Woman, you are testing me

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I’m beginning to think that the woman who bought our kitchen from eBay is some kind of online Jeremy Beadle.  The latest update is that her computer has crashed, her husband is ill, and her landlord is in hospital with pneumonia, so she can’t pick up the kitchen yet.  I haven’t made any of that up.  I couldn’t.

I’ve been asked previously if we can deliver (no), and she’s made me tell her three times that it’s evenings or weekends only, which makes me look like I’m being really awkward.  She also text me today to ask if I can print the photos from eBay.  I said no initially, but Barry’s said I am now just being awkward, so I’ve done it.

I asked her if it was still Wednesday that she’s picking it up, and she said hopefully.  I’m this close (my forefinger and thumb are being held about a millimetre apart) to reporting it to eBay and relisting it.

Get a handle on it

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Not much to report from yesterday – Barry sanded some stuff around the radiator. The most obvious change is that there are now handles on all of the unit doors.

The joiner came round – he’s going to come on Wednesday and Thursday to do the worktop, upstand and sort the boiler cupboard. Can’t wait to have a sink in! The kitchen will be almost complete this week, very exciting. Then we can focus on the floor!

Saturday: progress made

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I was banished from the kitchen yesterday so Barry could do some work with his earphones in and I wouldn’t get in the way.  I felt like a bit of a spare part, but I sneaked in every now and again to take some photos and then run away.

The oven is steadily making its way to the middle of the space.  Barry’s also put it up on blocks so that it’ll be the same height as the work surface will be when that goes on.

We’re hoping to affix the plinth in some way along the bottom of the oven – we don’t want to be able to see this!

In other news, Barry’s swapped the broken radiator for the new one,

which hopefully won’t leak, and gone over the black paint that was already on that wall, as well as painting behind the radiator.

Hopefully, today we’ll get some more handles on the bottom units, although I’ve woken up early and it’s a lovely day, so we might actually need to go and get some Vitamin D.

The joiner also comes today, so we should finally have a date and proper price for sorting the worktop out.  Sink, ahoy!

Now I know where/when home is

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I had a few responses, on here, in person, and on facebook, to the Home is where…? post.

Barry, for one, would like to clarify that when he says he is going home to Northern Ireland, he means the country, but when he’s coming back here, home means our house specifically.

My friend Bryonie, who recently moved to Australia, said she’s not sure where home is now.  But she also introduced me to an expression I hadn’t heard before: you can be homesick for a time, not a place.  I kind of like this because it’s true, but it’s also sad because it’s not something you can ever get back.  Perhaps the fact that I’d like to return to Howden, where my heart is, is just me longing for my childhood.

Ready for the weekend

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I’m so ready for this weekend. We’re not doing anything special, it’s just two days of being at home.

The plan for this weekend’s DIY is for Barry to sort out the gas and electricity points for the oven, and build up the legs of the oven so it meets the same point as the worktop. The joiner is coming on Sunday to tell us how much he thinks cutting the worktop will be, and Barry might ask about a couple of other things, like making the boiler cupboard.

On the eBay front, our kitchen hasn’t been collected yet. Despite the listing clearly stating collection only, she asked if we could deliver. No. There’s a 3m worktop in there! She got a bit huffy and said she’d have to book a man with a van. Go do that then. I contacted the woman again to see when this may be (a, we need the space, and b, we need the money); it will be either this weekend or next Wednesday. Helpful.

Home is where…?

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According to the adage, home is where the heart is. But can your heart be in more than one place at once?

I was born in Aldershot, but only have hazy memories of the place. After moving around the area for a few years (my parents had various pubs), we moved to Howden for good when I was five. Howden’s a village in East Yorkshire where my mum grew up and my maternal grandparents still live. Although we moved to the neighbouring town of Goole on my tenth birthday, my heart stayed in Howden, and it’s always where I tell people I’m originally from.

Barry’s from Northern Ireland, and if we’re going back there, he says he’s going home (but then he also says we’re going home on the way back!).

Does it have something to do with the house in which you grew up? I was studying abroad when my parents sold the house in Goole, and felt untethered since then really: it’s no longer my home. I suppose when you have children, you truly make a home of your own and hope that they always regard it as such.

Now we live in a village in the suburbs of Bradford, but if we’re abroad we say “near Leeds”. Naughty, I know, but we’re between the two cities so I think we get away with it. I took this photo of Bradford city hall last week, and it actually looks great.

But is it where my heart is? I can’t imagine growing old here. If work wasn’t an issue (i.e., if we won the lottery), I’d move straight back to East Yorkshire – Howden if possible! Barry can come too, if he wants.

Decorator’s block

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Although this sounds like some kind of tool (let’s face it, it could be), by decorator’s block I mean the point at which you’ve had enough.

Barry’s been at it for over a month now, between the living room and the kitchen, and it looks like he’s close to having enough. It’s hard when you’re busy with a full-time job, to then come home and spend evenings and weekends doing DIY or decorating.

We’re so near the home straight now for the kitchen, we just need the joiner booking to give us a target for the few things that need doing before then.

Dressing up redux

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On the ongoing dressing table front, I’ve had a brainwave. I was firstly thinking that the black units we have in the lounge could go into our bedroom. We are already thinking of having black skirting boards, so it would pick up that theme.

I only have an old photo to hand, but what’s pictured is two units next to each other (with one stood up on its end). If you look at the unit under the TV, I was wondering if we could remove the four squares in the centre of the block of eight and make it into a dressing table with two holes at either side, holding up the top. I could then get drawers or cupboards for those – we’d need to get rid of the red drawers though, they wouldn’t go.

That would save us having to buy a dressing table, and I would have space to put all my stuff!

Black as night

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I’m off work today to wait in for a B&Q delivery (allegedly this should be the last).

This weekend, we took a deep breath and did it – we’ve painted most of the west wall in the kitchen black!  We decided against painting it with chalkboard paint, although looking at it, it’s probably the same stuff anyway.  Still need to do the edges but the majority’s done.

Barry’s also put the splashback under the cooker hood and built the unit that goes on the other side.

We also visited my ex-uncle this weekend with his broken and new sanders.  He was lovely about it and said we shouldn’t have, and there was much merriment about lending us tools that were on their way out!

Barry’s got lots of fiddly things to do now in the kitchen, like fixing the electric plug and gas hose behind the oven, starting to build a cupboard for the boiler, and then putting handles on all of the purple doors and drawers.  He’s going to ring the joiner this week as well; I cannot wait for the sink to be sorted!