Duelling Kitchens

It’s been very inefficient flitting between fitting the Oldbrook kitchen and the Neath Hill kitchen as I spend most of my time driving backwards and forwards for tools and bits I have left at the other place. For this reason and the pressure from Claire I concentrated on the Neath Hill one where we are living and it’s now finished. I then could move all my tools and materials to the Oldbrook flat where it wasn’t long before that one was finished too. Notice the similarity? They both have the same floor tiles and stainless steel panels in between the base and wall units. They also both have a stainless steel hood and spot lights fitted around the kick boards. I had this idea a while back as it seemed to me an easy way to hide the wiring and illuminate the floor. We both laughed when I first switched it on to test it; the kitchen floor lit up beautifully along with the rest of the kitchen and house. I could even tell from upstairs when Claire switched them on one morning in broad daylight. Maybe I should have gone for the low voltage or LED ones but then again they were more expensive.

We have slowed down a bit as we are getting to the end of renovation, taking the odd afternoon off here and there. I had the whole day off last Sunday when I took Georgina to Melton Mowbray to see her Grandparents. Mum was out in the garden cutting me some fresh vegetables to take home while Georgina and I watched her. I didn’t exactly take the whole day off as I still managed to get a few hours in between 6am and 10am before leaving. This Saturday we finished at about 1pm, had a steam and shower at David Lloyds then shot off to the Open University Open Day. See Claire with her OU bag and wrist band. They had lovely flowers around and Marque tents everywhere. Claire even showed me Harriet’s desk; no sign of Harriet though.

I think that all the work should be finished at both premises by this Friday, as the plumber is coming in to fit the bath on Thursday so I can finish the tiling off when he has finished. I find it easier to tile the walls before the bath is fitted so it doesn’t get dirty straight away. I just leave the bottom row of tiles to cut once the bath is in. As Claire said, once we are finished, we have visitors staying Friday and Saturday night then we are off to pick up the keys for our villa ready for our two week stay in Turkey starting on 11th July. Can’t wait for that so Claire can relax and unwind while I try and catch up with my neglected OU course. I need to ask my tutor for an extension as my next assignment is due in on 11th July when we leave for our holidays. I have not started work on this at all yet; in fact I haven’t even started to read the text that it is testing on. It would be a shame if I don’t catch up again as I was awarded 93% for the first part of my snail project. Let’s hope I can catch up and get ahead before we get back and I start to look for our next renovation project or even another contract.