here it is, the moment you’ve been waiting for

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Here is our finished kitchen, well apart from a few little annoying jobs. I am so happy with it. We were worried it would feel too much like a corridor but it’s light and airy and works really well as a space. The only problem we’ve had is the bathroom couldn’t wait it’s turn and has started leaking into the new kitchen ceiling! We have reluctantly re-plumbed, resealed and retiled the bath temporarily until we can afford a new bathroom, it’s still leaking from somewhere though. It’s driving me mad!! Anyway back to our lovely kitchen which I can’t believe is the same size room as before and it feel so much bigger, just goes to show how much difference you can make by changing to layout as opposed to extending. 

new kitchen view of left side

new kitchen view of right side

 

I’m so glad we went for the tallest cupboards, again we were worried about the corridor effect, but the storage space is amazing. We still have some empty shelves as we had to really cut back to make sure everything fit into our last kitchen. The two taller units by the door house the boiler on the right, and then the fridge and freezer on the left. There is also a washing machine and dishwasher hidden away on the right and a handy drawer under the sink for the bins.

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bins under sink

 

My mum kindly made us the blind out of some fabric from Ashley Wilde called Tabitha spring, that I found on ebay much cheaper then buying in store. I have the matching stripe fabric to make a door curtain out of, the track has been up a while and I need to get on with it!! I have based the colours around the blind. We were going to keep the walls white and only put a splash guard behind the cooker but it was all looking a bit plain so I got the tiles from B&Q and love them. They draw your eye out to the sides so make the room seem wider. 

window over sink

 

You can see the leak from the shower in this picture, it breaks my heart after all the blood, sweat and tears we put into building the kitchen. Not long though and we can repaint it and cover the stains. I’m holding off until the bathroom is done as we will only end up repainting again I’m sure.

view of kitchen from garden

 

view of kitchen from from back door

 

One of our big regrets is not spending more on the extractor fan. We actually thought it looked nicer than the more expensive ones, but it sounds like there is a lawnmower in the kitchen. It can be easily changed in the future though. Looks like it needs a clean already from this photo. Might do that today!! We had considered a fitted microwave but in the end it came down to cost, it was more expensive than the oven. When ours dies we will replace it with a stainless steel one but for now it does the trick. The glass cupboards are lit from inside and there is lighting under all the cupboards. It looks great at night and I’m so happy we did this as it makes the whole thing look more expensive. 

 

So there you have it, our very nearly finished kitchen. Now time to get saving and sort that bathroom out before it ruins the kitchen!! 

Blogger gone AWOL

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The following photos might explain my lack of blogging. There are only so many hours in the day and mine have mostly been spent working on project kitchen, in between working to pay towards it, whilst also trying to maintain my social life and relationship!

First some before photos, please note lack of cupboards (do not be fooled by large cupboard on right this housed the boiler), and lack of worktop space. What you cant see is how cold the original tiled floor is as this is straight on top of the earth below. No footings on this part of house. This photo was taken from the original door way in the corner of the room.

kitchen before

kitchen before

The stable door was sweet but dark, cold and impractical.

the old stable door

First job involved moving the door into the kitchen which had been done a few months before when we did the dining room. This was our temporary step, treacherous in slippers following a glass of wine.

temporary kitchen step

Once the kitchen had arrived and the builders were ready to start work on raising and insulating the floor and swapping the back door and window over, Jus and I began packing away what we didn’t need for the few weeks (under the ever watchful eyes of the dogs). The rest had to move into our temporary kitchen/storage room aka the dining room. Always one to love bashing things up Tom got the fun job of breaking the old cabinets up.

Jus packing kitchen away

temporary kitchen in dining room

Tom removing old kitchenthe view into the old kitchen mid renovation

Meanwhile the new kitchen kept on arriving and was taking over the whole house. As we had to get some of the kitchen on interest free finance we didn’t dare start any building work until it had arrived. Typically it then arrived really quickly from Ikea and we were tripping over it for weeks before the builders could start!

the new kitchen spread all over house

new kitchen appliances stacked up

Once the builders and plumber were ready the real ripping out could begin. We did this to save paying someone else to do it and we also took it all to the tip ourselves. The first job to do involved moving the boiler, so we could centralise new doorway to enable a galley kitchen with cabinets either side. Not as easy as you would think and we did end up needing to buy a new boiler. Ours was cheap and about 5 years old, but still going strong. We were hoping to just move it onto the adjoining wall it but as it was cheap, no one really stocks it or it’s parts anymore so a new sideways flue plus refitting was almost as expensive in the end as a new one. We decided to bite the bullet and get a new one rather then risk having to fit a new one anyway in 1-2 years. This did delay things slightly though as it meant scraping together more cash that we didn’t have! Fortunately the kitchen came in at a good price due to a 3 for 2 appliance offer on when we bought it.

the new boiler

the new boiler and old window

the new window

The new door couldn’t be ordered until the hole had been made so we did go for about a week with the new back door boarded up and no access to the back garden. Words cannot describe how dusty the rest of the house was at this time but this image may help give you an idea. Whilst we were waiting for the door the electrician then put all the wiring in before the plasterboard went up. 

dusty sofa

the new back door and plastered wallsnew door new window new plaster

The new wiring meant we required a new fuse box as ours was old, so this along with plumbing in the boiler (oh yeah I forgot to mention most of the gas pipe to old boiler was dangerously narrow), meant most of the floorboards were up upstairs. There was no escape from it!! And it did feel like no matter how hard we had budgeted the costs were spiralling, an old house is like a can of worms and once you open it you just can’t ignore it.

looking in from the new back door

So now we had two door ways opposite each other and a blank canvas to build our kitchen in. First we had to paint it. Then build the cupboards. Word of warning do not do this alone, tired, in a dark house as a I did and have a huge fridge freezer cabinet collapse on top of you! 

first coat of paint and dogs banished to garden

I next needed to fit the underfloor heating so we could tile it. First you have to seal the floor, which had insulation under it already, with a reflective latex type paint that comes in the kit. Then you just roll the heating out on top. I had to trust it would work as there was no electricity to this room at this point so no way of testing it before tiling eek! The electrician had put a power point in ready to hook it up once the entire kitchen was in.

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The after photos will be on the next post!

The calm and then the storm

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The almighty job of renovating our kitchen has begun. This is the room we have wanted to do the most, but it’s the most expensive so far so we have had to wait. Here’s how the kitchen was before we started work. This picture makes it look a lot wider then it is! And cleaner! And less shabby!!

The cupboard under the sink housed dog paraphernalia (it’s amazing how much stuff two dogs can collect) and various house cleaning products. Oh and some salad and mixing bowls, and some vases! The corner cupboard to the left was where all our crockery was stored. It was treacherous opening it as most stuff was precariously balanced. If you ever felt like baking all crockery needed to be removed first before you could get anywhere need the baking trays!! It was usually enough to put you off any spontaneous baking. We also kept our pots and pans in here too. The wall cupboard to the right housed our boiler. The wall cupboard on the left housed glasses and food. It was a tight squeeze so we also ended up with a shelving unit from the shed in there too for more food and drink storage.

On the floor there were the original tiles however as the kitchen is in the old extension on the back of the house, it doesn’t have proper foundations and the tiles are pretty much straight on top of the ground. It got very cold in there in the winter, you could feel the cold creeping up your shins. The fact there was no heating didn’t help either! Jus and I would take it in turns to run in there to make a cuppa when we first moved in! We did have lino down when when we rented the house, until my Dad’s dog Mimi came for a holiday. She took it upon herself to remove the lino one day and tear it up into little pieces in her bed. We aren’t sure if Bramble and Holly were also involved but the fact that Mimi collected all the little pieces in her bed didn’t help her defence! We had to buy the house after that!

The original layout of doors and windows in the kitchen meant it was difficult to make good use of the already small space. It measures 2m 90cm by about 2m 20, and has two doors and window. To make better use of the space Jus and I had the doorway into the room moved to the centre of the wall, when we had work done on the dining room. Click here to see that post. 

We have now gone from the picture above to this…

and then from that to this…

We removed the kitchen and the plumber has replaced and moved the boiler. Our original plan had been to simply move the original boiler as it worked fine, however finding a new flue for our cheap boiler was proving expensive. The boiler was about 5-6 years old already so would possibly have needed replacing in the next couple of years. It worked OK, but at the moment we have an electric shower, which will be going. Running a bath off it had never been great so running a shower off it as we plan to would have been difficult. So we reluctantly had to pay out for a new boiler much sooner then expected, and this added a significant amount to our kitchen budget. However it is done now, and there was always the potential that moving the old boiler may have damaged it anyway. The pipes running to and from the boiler have also been moved to allow for the building work we are currently having done.

Today the builders and Tom have raised the floor so it is suspended and insulated and therefore hopefully much warmer. They have also bricked up the old back door and put a window in, and removed all the old plaster off the walls. Tomorrow they will be knocking the wall out under the old window, and turning it into a door. The brickwork is also being changed so the back door is opposite the entrance into the ktiichen to allow 60cm of kitchen cabinets either side. Hopefully turning our postage stamp kitchen into a much more user friendly galley kitchen! Hooray!

Meanwhile the rest of our house looks like this…

We didn’t dare start the work without knowing we were able to buy the kitchen on interest free finance first from Ikea, and then it was delivered far quicker then we imagined. So that is in the dining room, along with all our food, crockery and other kitchen things, plus the builder’s tools and materials, and all the stuff that was already in the dining room. Lets hope we aren’t living like this for too long. And yes that last picture is the silhouette of Toms keys marked out by the dust that escaped through the dust sheets and into our living room. It is everywhere!!

it’s time to start growing again

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Thats right I am a bad blogger. I haven’t blogged for so long. I have no real excuse other then day to day life getting in the way recently. We have ordered our kitchen from Ikea and it has arrived a bit sooner then expected, as work hasn’t yet started on the kitchen. So our living room now looks like an Ikea warehouse. The joys of renovating, you finish one room only to fill it with the junk from the next room you are doing! Work on the bedroom has stopped until the next batch of annual leave. It’s frustrating that it’s not finished but so much better then it was.

With the arrival of some sunshine I have begun to get all excited about getting out in our little walled garden again, and have spent any sunny day I’m not working up at the garden centre. 

First job was the herb wall. Last year you might have read about the decking tile turned vertical wall planter I created. This year I have been lazy and not grown any herbs (except basil) from seed, but I did go out at the first sign of sun and buy some herbs from the garden centre. This spot gets quite a bit of sun so it’s the perfect place for them. A trip to ikea for some more hanging plastic pots and my herb garden is well on it’s way. Still to buy/grow/plant are basil, thyme and mint, but so far I have got coriander, parsley, chives and oregano. I have planted some basil seeds but they have probably found it too chilly to poke their little leaves out of the soil yet.

I will be back soon with further updates, my month off blogging has been good and I’m ready to start typing again! Tom and I are off to Devon next week to see his parents, fingers crossed for good weather! 

decisions, decisions

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I have failed at keeping to my resolution of regular blogging! The front bedroom is coming along slowly, in between work and yet more doggy illness! The receptionist at the vets knows us too well! She even recognises my voice on the phone. Not a good sign. Holly has had a fever and been quite unwell, and despite various tests and overnight stays at the vets we still don’t know why. Fortunately after about 10 days she started to get better and is now getting back to her usual crazy self. It was very worrying though. Luckily whatever it was didn’t seem to affect Bramble, although she wasn’t impressed that Holly was fed special smelly canned vet food and she wasn’t! Anyway back to the bedroom…

Tom and I made Holly a little nest on our bed while we put coving up, painted the ceiling (white) and painted the walls (also white). I can’t enough of the Dulux Trade super matt white paint, it makes the walls look so flat, even though it’s an old house and the walls are very bumpy! It is looking very bright and fresh in there but could do with some finishing touches to make it cosier. The things we still need to do are get the gas pipe that is sticking out of the floor and running along the wall buried, remove the two random fuse boxes on the wall and in the cupboard, move the radiator, move a plug socket, make a headboard out of old pallets (if I ever get round to it), wallpaper the chimney breast, finish sanding and painting the skirting boards, make curtains, and carpet it, phew. I am still keen on the grey and white theme, possibly with touches of yellow if it’s looking too cold or boring.

As money is tight we went for the Ikea Aspelund wardrobe and set of 3 drawers. The drawers were on offer for only £59 and they are quite sturdy. They are a pale grey colour but the handles aren’t the greatest so I am planning on changing those. The matching wardrobe is the perfect size for one of the alcoves, and was also reasonably priced at £139 but that is not sturdy at all, no matter how much we tighten the screws it still wobbles about. However it will do for now as we have much more important things to shell out for like the kitchen. It’s a shame because I like the simplicity of the wardrobe and the colour. It is really heavy as well so has been a nightmare to move whilst painting the room. I am on the search for some vintage suitcases to pile on top. More pictures of the room coming soon when I have got round to doing the skirting boards!

Until then we have a decision to make. Many of my friends know that once upon a time I worked for Laura Ashley in a few of their homeware stores. Admittedly when I started at the age of 16 I wasn’t overly impressed with their chintzy fabric and flowery wallpaper, but over the years I grew to be a huge fan of the brand. I also love black and white photographs so was considering wallpapering the chimney breast in the Laura Ashley Pimlico wallpaper, a selection of photographs from old fashion shoots.

After painting the room all white I have been enjoying the feeling of calm in there so have started doubting my choice. I have always loved the josette wallpaper, especially in the dove grey colour. It has a lovely matt finish and the pattern is a chalky white colour.

Click on either image to go to the Laura Ashley website. Tom prefers the Pimlico, but I am leaning towards the Josette. What do you think?

so much to do and so little time left to blog

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Work as always has continued on our little cottage. My blogging has been sporadic due to my dislike of blogging about half finished projects, however this is a house of many big projects and I have decided to start breaking them down so my blogging is a little more regular!

We are still finishing off the endless snagging jobs in our living room and dining room. The skirting boards however are down and the floor is looking great. More on that in another post! We seem to be able to rip out a fireplace in half a day, but touching up the odd mark, or painting the last coat on the skirting boards seems to take us forever!!

Tom and I have spent the last week lying in bed looking at this for a ceiling.

Which is definitely better then this!

Artex and polystyrene tiles all on one ceiling. Aren’t we lucky?!

We started out with these great homemade built in wardrobes below, great for storage but falling apart and a bit too big for my liking. One of the previous owners had got a little carried away!

When we ripped them out we discovered wood chip covered walls hidden behind. A number of wires (one of them was live, just hanging there, I found out the hard way) and the gas pipe. We had opened a right old can of worms. Not to mention the polystyrene tiles that had been left on the ceiling inside the wardrobe. So after a day clearing our sinuses and pores steaming off the wood chip we arranged for the ceiling to be skimmed over. Plastering is not a DIY job I take on myself. Having tried it in the past, it’s better left to the professionals! The ceiling also required some sort of bonding agent first to get the plaster to stick.

Today we spent the day painting our new smooth and finally dry ceiling. More photos and an update coming soon. Holly spent the day at the vets with a very high temperature. She hasn’t been well for the past week and we were also at the vets over the weekend. So unfortunately this meant we missed the WIlmslow Artisan market this month. We were gutted but our little Holly dog needed us much more. They aren’t sure what the problem is and antibiotics don’t seem to be helping. We are back there in the morning for further tests, my poor girl. Fingers crossed her temperature comes down overnight.  I’ll keep you posted on her progress  as well as the decorating!

another great Wilmslow artisan market

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Last month it was blowing a gail, and this morning it was raining cats and dogs. But that didn’t stop the fantastic Wilmslow artisan market taking place. I blogged about the last one as a bit of a trial. Jus, Tom and I are big believers in keeping it local, and after we got such a good response following the last post, I thought I’d make writing posts about local events  a regular thing. Where better to start then another post on the latest Wilmslow artisan market. Here’s what we came home with this month.

Fortunately the rain soon cleared and the sun even came out briefly. Tom and I set a budget but did go over this time, thank goodness there is a cash point at both ends of the hight street, as there was so much lovely stuff on offer. Here are some pictures, iPhone pics only so sorry about the quality, it was raining too much when we left to risk taking the proper camera.

The Cheshire Cheese Company Stall – the first stall we visited and after tasting most of the samples on offer we couldn’t leave without buying 3 blocks of their lovely cheese. One of them is curry flavoured and it is to die for, the moment the lovely bloke on the stall said it was good on cheese on toast he had me sold. I love cheese on toast! We also bought the sweet caramelised onion and rioja flavour (so yummy) and their best selling Black Bob extra mature. 

The Lonely Scone stall – I treated myself to an earl grey scone that I enjoyed as soon as I got home with a nice cup of tea. It was so tasty and only 70p. I hope they are there next time as I will be stocking up, they had so many interesting varieties of scone, even ones for doggies called sconios!

Tom and I racking our brains to remember the name of this bakers stall, we need to start taking notes! We bought a loaf of their 12 cereal bread and it’s lovely, I’m munching some now as I type one handed!! If you know who they are please let us know in the comments. 

One of the wonderful organisers of the artisan market Denise has since let me know that the bakers is called French Corner. As always click on the pink link to go to their Facebook page. Thanks Denise.

It took every last bit of willpower I had to resist buying one of these tarts from Cheshire Tarts. I could so easily have finished off an entire egg custard. Tom and I are trying to have a healthy month and we were already feeling guilty about our cheese purchase and the sticky toffee pudding (our joint favourite) we had fallen prey to from ‘Jo’s Cheshire kitchen’ (sorry I couldn’t find a website for them). We can’t resists samples and her sticky toffee pudding tasted divine, that’s the diet blown then! I have twice resisted the temptation of the Cheshire Tarts so I’m going to have to give them a go next time, in the name of research of course!

After the success of the chorizo we bought last time from Levanter fine foods, we had to go back and stock up. This time we tried their spicy fire chorizo. The sample we tried had a great kick to it. I’m looking forward to cooking with it. 

Jus and I shared a tasty cracked black pepper savoury egg this evening from the Staffordshire Savoury Eggs Stall (sorry I couldn’t find a specific website for them). They had loads of different flavours, and it was worlds apart from the sad little scotch eggs you get in the supermarket. Next time I’m going to try the duck egg one!

How amazing do these cupcakes look? I didn’t note the name of the seller as I couldn’t stay near them too long, the diet had already taken a few setbacks today, so I took this photo quickly and then ran away before I bought that malteser one!

I ran past this tempting stall too! I can’t resist sweets. 

I did stop to buy two of the ‘big breakfast’ mushrooms from the Derbyshire Mushroom Company though. They’re huge! I’m looking forward to having them grilled and topped with creamy cheesy spinach. Yum! We also bought some tasty cauliflower, potato and lancashire cheese soup and some cucumber and dill sauce for salmon from Scallion Soup and Sauce. I love cauliflower cheese so after trying a sample of the cauliflower soup I had to have some, so good! That’ll be nice after a long cold dog walk.

A visit to the Wilmslow Artisan Market wouldn’t have been complete without a visit to Lorraine at the Georges Biscuits stall. Bramble and Holly would have been very disappointed if we had returned empty handed. Especially as Aunty Jus had just taken them on a long walk round Tatton Park. This time we got them turkey dinner, chicken crunchies and beef bone biscuits to try. We were also given a peanut butter dodger to sample too. As expected they went down a treat, especially the peanut butter dodger!

 

My favourite purchase of the day though, and the one that definitely won’t sabotage my diet plans, is these beautiful earrings from the lovely Victoria Wild‘s stall. She makes the most beautiful jewellery out of glass venetian beads. I fell in love with them at the last market. They are so beautiful and unique. So I treated myself to these earrings, they even come with a little stand so you don’t have to hide them away in a drawer when you’re not wearing them. I’m just hoping the matching necklace is still there next time! 

If you live nearby and you haven’t yet been the Wilmslow Artisan Market is well worth a visit. If you have been then please have a read of this article and fill in the short survey from the organisers to let them know what you think. A couple of local businesses have had a moan that it’s not good for business. Well here’s my message to those businesses – before I went to the Wilmslow artisan market I had forgotten about Wilmslow as a potential shopping destination. This great market has given me a reason to go there again, and reminded me of some of the great high street shops on offer there. Surely it can only be good for business!! Please complete the survey if you have been and lets help this great market continue.