Tag: kitchen

Kitchen excitement

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Well, the new flooring arrives tomorrow, and I’m very excited!  We are also going to Nando’s tomorrow, so Barry’s very excited!  This is our kitchen floor as is – a bit industrial for my taste.

We’ve got the table and chairs I wanted from Argos; they’re winging their little way to us now (well, in the next 35 days).  There’s a bit of a story behind this.

My mum came round for tea the other night and I had a fantastic menu planned: to start, grilled flat mushrooms filled with dolcelatte, with a balsamic glaze and small side salad.  For the main event, a lamb tagine with La Kama spices, honey and fresh ginger, with a variety of fresh vegetables and a side of spiced couscous.  For dessert, buns fresh from the oven, baked by my own fair hand.

Mum was supposed to arrive after 7pm, when she’d had her hair done and driven over to Bradford.  In the meantime, I was going to get my skates on after work – jump on the bus, nip to Morrisons, dash round the shop and get home.  Unpack the shopping, stick the tagine in, get changed, clean the bathroom, and start preparing the starter and dessert.

Instead, this is what happened: Mum text me at 4.30pm with the following:

Hi love i am in asda bradford do u need owt ? Hair cancelled x x

My heart rate immediately tripled and my work colleagues had to tell me to calm down.  I replied:

Oh bugger, I’ve got to go to morrisons to get some shopping because I thought I had time!xx

I will get it here darl if u would like me to x x

My colleague Michelle T told me to just tell her what I wanted from the shop (thereby skipping the trip to Morrisons myself).  I text the list back:

Would you please get: big flat mushrooms, dolcelatte, bag of baby spinach, lamb, courgettes, 1% (or semi skimmed) milk and a cauliflower?  Oh, and a bottle of asti.xx

This is when it started falling apart, because the shop didn’t have everything I needed for my careful plans.  She thought dolcelatte was a type of mushroom, and picked up cauliflower and broccoli pieces because they didn’t have a whole one.  Trying to direct your mother to a very specific blue-veined cheese in a shop you don’t frequent, while trying to get home in time to beat her (be quicker than her, not hit her) is quite difficult to do.

In the end, she suggested that we just get a curry.  We both agreed that a curry was, indeed, the best course of action, would be cheaper, and that she definitely still needed to bring two bottles of Asti back with her.  I beat her back to mine, did a rush cleaning job, got changed and spoke to my brother before she got back to my house with the vino.  Phew!

Anyway, she had been trying to buy us a kitchen table for three-and-a-half years as a housewarming gift, but we’d never had the space before.  She’s taken pity on us, and is finally buying us the table and chairs.  I realise now that this has nothing to do with the meal story, but I’ve kept it in anyway as an idea of what my life is actually like.  I live on a knife edge.  Hurray for future breakfasts in the kitchen!

Slowly but surely

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We had a busy weekend planned, so didn’t get much house stuff done. On the plus side, we got to play with Finley (Charlie and Jaime’s super-cute and ridiculously clever baby), saw The Hunger Games (the book’s better; knocked half a point off for shaky cam; 3/5), and had a delicious Sunday dinner at Charlie and Jaime’s. We even ate outside in the sunshine! Fly count: 1. It has been decreed, Barry can no longer use the fly excuse not to eat outside.

Anyway, between all that, Barry did a bit of painting. Not art. He painted the alcove (again, please watch In Bruges to find this funny!) and the windowsill is all glossy as well. A photo didn’t really do it justice, so I’ve scrapped the one just of the windowsill. Still got sanding and painting to do, but we are steadily getting there.



Very excited about the flooring coming on Saturday. We got it from a sale at www.infloor.co.uk, which was by far the cheapest we’ve seen it. No idea how long it’ll take to put in though.

As an aside, we also saw The Cabin In The Woods last night. Also 3/5. Would have given it more apart from the gaping plot holes, although it was funny and shocking at the same time.

Lottery

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Do you ever think of the things you would change (house-wise) if you won the lottery? I do!

Win over a certain amount, and obviously you could move (which we would – why would you live in a semi-detached house?), but if you won a less life-changing amount, you could still make some dramatic changes. I like the thought of not having to wait to decorate rooms. We could have our bedroom painted at the same time as decking is being put into the garden. Built in wardrobes? Not a problem. Dressing table? I’ll take two.

Having said all that, as long as we’re in this house, the kitchen will always be the kitchen Barry put in with his own bare hands. We’ve agonised over flooring, and waited until payday to buy the next lot of paint. I’m not trying to say I would’t appreciate the money (I definitely would), but there’s pride to be had in working for it too.

Tables and chairs

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I’m looking at tables and chairs for the kitchen.  We’ve talked about having stools and having the extra bit of wood as a breakfast bar, but I’m anti-stools in principle.  I don’t enjoy balancing as I eat.  The extra bit of wood has to wait until we get the flooring in anyway, as we need to fix the pipe (that’s just arrived) to the floor to hold it up.

I’ve got my beady eye on these white chairs and matching table from Argos, but Barry prefers the purple, which I don’t think matches.  I also like these ones, which are on offer at the moment, but we’ve just bought the flooring, so I think they’ll have to wait a while.  You can have a look at them with the other stuff on my Pinterest kitchen pinboard.

I am looking forward to having breakfast in our shiny kitchen!

As a side note, you may notice that I’ve added a bunch of buttons on the right to make it easier for people to find and follow me.  Most of them were copied from Karen’s blog (thank you!).

As yet another side note,  I’ve committed us to the raspberry paint I mentioned before on our bedroom wall, although at the moment, it does like someone was shot and killed against it, and then the killer tried to clean it.  It’ll be better when the whole thing’s pink.

Something for the weekend

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Along with going to see The Hunger Games on Saturday and Sunday dinner on Sunday (both with our best buds Charlie and Jaime, hi guys!), we’ve got a few kitchen tasks for this weekend…

  • Paint the alcove. If you aren’t thinking quotes from In Bruges right now, I pity you.  This is the alcove (right).  Or do you say nooks and crannies?
  • Sand and paint the ceiling.
  • Cut the peninsula to the right size. Barry’s just bought a shiny new circular saw and is itching to try it out, despite the fact we can’t put it up until the flooring’s in.
  • List the radiator and butcher’s block trolley on eBay.  Because we all know how much I love my customers.
  • Order flooring. We’ve made the following mathematical calculation:

a + b = c

Where a = concrete flooring, b = £100 off online sale and c = credit card.

Barry put one of those pop up plugs into the worktop yesterday. Scary drilling a huge hole into our shiny new worktop, but it looks fine! A post for the peninsula is on its way. eBay is good for so many things!

We also bought one of those paint pads with the tiny wheel a few weeks ago. They’re supposed to create a straight line at the edges when you’re

painting, but Barry’s had another crack at the black paint and it doesn’t seem to have made a blind bit of difference.

Barry put the shiny new curtains up yesterday too.  They’re a lot thinner than our last ones, but they’re pretty!  I could always line them if it’s a problem.

Almost there

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Barry’s been a busy boy (say that five times quickly after a few drinks). He’s made the box to cover the fuse box. Twice. I didn’t like the purple on white action, so he had to make another door in white.

He’s also been sawing away at the cornices and pelmets, so they’re done, and we’ve made the interesting discovery that Tipp-Ex ® is nigh on exactly the same white as our wall units. Good to know.

This means that the units are done!  The peninsula can’t be made until we’ve got the flooring in, so that’s it for now.

We’ve been comparing the flooring samples to the units; it’s definitely got to be white. For the quantity we’re wanting for the kitchen and living room, it’s of no benefit to us to get two rooms’ worth together, so we may split it into separate lots so we can at least have one room sorted. It will definitely be the kitchen first due to the concrete flooring!

We’ve also put the dining room table back up because it doesn’t look like flooring in there will be changed very soon and we’re both tired of eating off our knees in front of the TV.

You know the drill, photos below!

Neighbourhood watch

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Despite living in this house for three-and-a-half years, we don’t really know our neighbours.

On one side, we have Family A; the ones who let their dog poo freely.  I’ve mentioned this before.  We know the couple’s names, but they had a baby a couple of years ago and I’ve forgotten his name.  I know the name of the dog, who is the fluffiest Alsation you ever will see.

On the other side, we have Family B: a lovely couple who I think we’d get on with well if we saw a bit more of each other.  I once sat next to the lady on the bus home and we had a lovely conversation.  Barry’s spoken to the man’s dad quite a few times, so we know more about him than anyone that actually lives in the house.  Her mum has been round a few times to borrow a corkscrew!  They also have a dog, but it’s a bit crazy and won’t stop barking when it sees anyone other than the owners.  Although I see myself as a dog person, this makes me jump and scares me.  On our way home from a night out, a very drunk Barry stopped to pet the dog and (in his best doggy voice), said, “Hello, doggy!  Why are you out on your own?  Where’s your owner?”.  The owner was at the other end of the lead Barry had failed to spot, so I just dragged him away, apologising.  The neighbour seemed bemused, but it may be why we haven’t seen much of them.

Both sides have been round and looked at the kitchen.  The dad of the man from Family A actually knocked on our door to have a nosey (which is fine because we’re show-offs), and then happened to be outside the day after the worktop was put in, so we asked if they wanted to see it.  Family A guy said they were thinking of doing something similar, so there may be a spate of home improvements down our street shortly.

Family B nipped round when B&Q delivered some of our stuff to their house, and made polite noises about it looking nice, but haven’t been round since.

I’m thinking a housewarming may bring us all together.  I’m calling it a housewarming, because we never had one, and now we’ve definitely got something to be proud of (or will, when the floor’s done!).  After all, we all know that’s when good neighbours become good friends…

Bits and bobs

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Did a few bits and bobs yesterday.  Barry put the new lights up while I cleaned the kitchen windows and then he sealed the boxed off boiler pipes with silicone and the cooker hood with liquid metal.  We also remeasured the kitchen and the living room and looked at flooring again – if we get the one we want, with cheap underlay, it looks like it will be about £750, so Barry’s investigating cheaper options!

In the meantime, I’m sewing material into some boot top covers – we’ve got fancy dress next month for Barry’s birthday, and I’m going to be (wait for it) Supergirl.  Can’t wait!

A retraction

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Following yesterday’s post, in which I explained how I was sorry for not picking up the phone to the eBay woman, I would now like to take that back.

Exhibit A is the texted conversation from yesterday morning:

The kitchen is incompatible with the plumbing, so I need to sell it.  could you offer it to the next highest bidder for me please.  many thanks

I’m sorry, but you will have to relist it.  I can’t see the next highest bidder now it’s been sold, and it was possibly different bidders for all 3 items.  Sorry unable to help.

OK.  I might just change tops and sink, so not a total disaster.

I really didn’t want to get involved in either the fact that plumbing matches the kitchen, not the other way around, or selling the kitchen to another person who could turn out to be just the same, and still be embroiled in this madness.  I’m emailing her the photos of the kitchen so she can relist it (when her computer’s back up and running), but that is it!  My part is done!

We were at a 105th birthday party yesterday (happy birthday Jaye and Carole!), so didn’t get much done, but we did nip to B&Q in the morning to buy some lights and get the right cooker hood filters (thanks once again to Jason K, who was brilliant.  Bet he loved seeing us again!).  We decided on some lights from B&Q, like the other ones I wanted, but in a circle instead of on a rod, and £10 cheaper.  They have disappeared from B&Q’s website though, we’ve got a habit of choosing lights that are about to be discontinued!

Barry’s also bought a coffee machine that lights up, very exciting!  And he oiled the main bit of the worktop so it’s really glossy and smells nice!  We also took the protective plastic off the stainless steel splashback, which is always very satisfying.

An apology

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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!