An apology

The eBay lady (see: Woman, you are testing me), tried calling me the day before yesterday.  I’m ashamed to say, I let it go to voicemail without picking up, thinking I’m not going to tell you how to put the kitchen together.  I have neither the knowledge, nor the inclination.  She didn’t leave a voicemail, but then sent a text, which consisted of only one sentence, and no punctuation:

I only have one drawer front

Massive oops!  Incidentally, she doesn’t have one drawer front, she has none at all, so not sure what she was looking at.  I had told Barry that we needed to empty the four drawers, but then we didn’t, and they were abandoned in the living room when the rest of the kitchen was collected.  I mentally slapped my own forehead.  All I could do was apologise profusely, and then text Barry quickly to see when we could take them round, which was Thursday evening.

We set off as soon as I got home from work, eventually found her house, and took the drawers to her door.  She welcomed us in, and then asked us to close the door; she had a few questions for us.  Barry and I exchanged worried glances.  We didn’t really want to shut ourselves in, but had little choice.  We were ushered into her kitchen, where we were set upon by a barrage of questions, including:

  • What’s this bit of wood for? (Erm…)
  • Do you think your kitchen will fit in my kitchen? (Shouldn’t you have measured this before purchasing the kitchen (two weeks ago)?)
  • What’s this bit of wood for? (Ah…)
  • What amp plug does the oven need to be?  Is it 30? (Um, no, 13)
  • I suppose I’ll have to have the worktop cut then. (Not technically a question, but she phrased it in such a way that she seemed to require a response.  Yes was the response).
  • And finally, what’s this bit of wood for? (Arghhh!)

We were gradually edging towards the door, as it appears that she is actually going to attempt to put the kitchen together herself, and we didn’t really want to be party to that party.  We made it out eventually, and returned home for some fun times (sweeping and pipework).

I still feel slightly guilty for hitting “ignore” on my phone when she rang, and I truly am sorry that we forgot to give her the drawers, but I feel that we have been suitably punished.  No more!

Weekend

Phew, we have had a busy weekend of running around! I would say it’s nice to get back to work, but I would really rather be at home, plus Barry’s away in London working all this week. Sad face.

On Saturday, I received a call from my brother, who wanted to talk about work for an hour. Grabbing breakfast in between, we then drove to Next in Bradford to pick up the new living room curtains (very exciting, they look great!), and then on to Wakefield to pick up a coffee machine Barry had proudly won on eBay. It turned out to be an espresso machine and the pot was meant for four cups of espresso, not coffee. Cute, but not what we’re looking for. That will need to be relisted.

We then got home to start listing the old kitchen units, oven and hob on eBay, zapped some leftovers in the microwave for lunch, and got a call from my best friend Charlie, almost on the verge of tears. To set the scene, she, her boyfriend, and baby, were moving on Saturday, and would not accept any offers of help (the baby may have but he can’t talk yet). Anyway, they were moving back to their old house, which they’d been renting out, and it appears the tenants changed the locks. We drove to Otley to pick up the keys from the agency and took them over so they could actually get into the house. Not before a friendly locksmith had charged them £60 callout! We were supposed to go back later for a celebratory curry, but that, unsurprisingly, didn’t happen.

Got back home, I finished listing the stuff on eBay (there’s a big gap between the finishing times!) while Barry got cracking with the kitchen. As he’s away this week, he didn’t want to leave me with a completely non-functioning kitchen, so he was trying to get all the wall units up.

We were supposed to be having takeaway at Charlie’s, and I sadly can’t deal with the unfulfilled promise of curry, so we had takeaway for tea anyway. Couldn’t have cooked, the kitchen looked like a bomb had hit it.

There was less running around on Sunday. Barry got cracking putting up doors on all units, putting the drawers together, the handles on the top units, and the cooker hood. It’s made a huge difference – it almost looks finished now! He only had until 4pm yesterday as he had to set off for London, and there’ll be no progress until next weekend now. I’ll get some photos up tomorrow.