Life with 3 Kitchens!

Should I have needed to market Vivod at the beginning of August the Estate Agent listing would have read something like:

"Mid terraced property comprising 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, attic room, lovely front garden, 1 small kitchen (lacking plumbing), 1 IKEA warehouse, 1 large utility room with plumbing for washer and hose connection (needs some work) and 1 building site"

And yet we really were still living there, somehow, even though it was also my very busiest time at work too, thank heavens for wine.

You could argue that I actually had 3 kitchens at that point:

The one at the front:

The one at the back:

And the one in the middle:

Luckily by this point the plasterers had been in, and having not been able to locate a tiler, I had purchased a decent tile cutter and laid the damn slate myself.

Life without a kitchen

(Originally written around mid August.)

The building work was fascinating to watch while everything was outside my home but around the beginning of July things got more complicated when they knocked through. It was around this time that I dreaded my phone ringing when I was at work (in case something had gone wrong) and dreaded going home whilst being excited at the same time.

So when I went to work one day leaving my house like this...

And then came home to find this....

Followed one day later by this...

And by the 26th July this is all that remained...

Our kitchen sink!

Things took some getting used to. We did still have a kitchen though, but it was just in the front room instead...obviously! I knew that living without a kitchen would be tricky but it's not until you actually experience something that you really understand the reality.

Adjusting to life without a dishwasher or even a kitchen sink with running hot water was challenging. There was ranting and heated conversations with the nest in relation to washing up and not taking the **** I can assure you! But I am pleased to say that we survived and to be honest, I think we coped better than most would have done. When my eldest uttered 'I think I might go Vegan' one day I did, after counting to 10, manage to stay calm and respond with 'It would be better if you waited until September when we have a kitchen...'. To her credit she accepted this.

More Building

(Originally written on 8th July)

This one is mostly pictures, in short it went up...and up...and up!

Our Building Site

Originally written on 28th May 2016.

Yes, its been a while, don't all my 'recent' posts begin like that? Let's not dwell. 

Obviously lots of changes have happened in a year but I wanted to blog about the extension as I've been photographing it daily. Extension? Long story but I decided, almost on a spur of the moment (well its a bit more complicated than that but I'll explain later), to have the 'Sunroom' knocked down and replaced by extending the kitchen. I think that decision was around February. Since then I have found a recommended builder, who sent me an architect, and we've been through the planning stages, obtained building regs. approval and the work started a couple of weeks ago.

So let's have a reminder of the beautiful 'Sunroom', as named by Oliver the Estate Agent in 2010, which stuck, although I still think he was pushing the boundaries of trading standards with this one. How it remained standing for a further 5 years after we moved in is somewhat a mystery too, I swear that some of the wood is held together only by paint.

Day one: 

Child #1 looking confused, I tried to let her figure out what was different for herself.

Day two:

The view from the back door

 We are trying not to lose the cat in the project...

The visit from the Building Inspector was somewhat amusing. Picture the scene: My eldest was at home revising for AS Level exams (yes, she moved back home for good last August and returned to college, I did say there had been changes), dressed in tracksuit bottoms, ugg boot style slippers, and not even a brush through her hair, the inspector knocks. She answers and he introduces himself while handing her his business card which clearly displays his credentials and membership of RICS. He explains why he's there so she says...

"Well, my mum's not here but if you know what you're doing you can go through" 

(bearing in mind we are just talking about a hole in our back garden here!)

I clarified that that was the exact phrase she used, later when she relayed this incident, and said that in future she might want to go with "I'm sure you know what you need to do so I'll show you through". To which she replied, with a shrug, "same difference". Not really. We did wonder briefly if we would get home to find the builders had been told to dig another couple of feet down! Clearly the man had a sense of humour though as all was good and appeared to continue ok.

Day 3:

No further progress yet but thanks to the weather we do now have a moat, let the battle begin! 

Day four:

A cement moat.

Landscaping at its best.

Lesson from the builders in how to hide a cement mixer with a Christmas tree and wheely bin lid...

can you see it?! ;-)

Day 5:

They got better at the hiding thing...can you see it now? 

Day 6...promising

Beeston Castle

(Originally written around July 2015 but never posted.)

You see now that I am a very grown up and responsible member of English Heritage my poor son will get dragged to all sorts of interesting (or not, in some cases!) places. The nearest decent place (i.e. not some piece of stone or square of grass listed in the book but an actual place you can spend time in), in England, to us would be Beeston Castle, so that's where we started.

It was a nice day, a little windy but nice and warm. We didn't realise the extent of the hilly walk up to the castle until we got there but it was enjoyable on the way.

The above photo was taken just after it dawned on me that I should appreciate my days out with my youngest more as they would shortly come to end no doubt (noting that Child #1 and 2 were not with us). So I mentioned this to Child #3 at the time...

"Who's going to come out with me on days like this when you get big?"

"What? When?!"

"When you get bigger and would rather be doing something else?, who will come with me?"

"I will still come out with you mum, of course I will!"

"Ah, that's good, I was just thinking and getting a little sad, I'm glad you think you will though"

"Wait...do you mean next year or when I'm like 14 or something"

"Well more like 14, I think"

"Oh...right...well I don't know then because I won't be here, you're right! I thought you meant next year!"

Kids!!

A Cave!

And places to hide

Its only a little castle but the surrounding woodland is nice, and the views from the top are pretty cool.

And....

There's a well! 

I think this was his favourite part, and we managed to find some stones to throw down it too. After this we headed off to the local Ice Cream Farm, just around the corner, where we ate huge ice creams. He had Raspberry Pavlova and Sticky Toffee flavours, and I had Lemon Meringue and Rhubarb Crumble!