mums kitchen - part two

Thursday and friday last week I was down at mums again sorting out the second instalment of her new kitchen.

Plan A for this week was to put together the cabinet to house the oven so mum could start cooking again. She has been using an electric frypan for the time being.

Only thing was, when we rang to make sure we could pick up the oven tower that we were waiting on, it hadnt even been ordered. Plan B, find one somewhere and go pick it up. While there we could get the rest of the bench top and get cutting out the hole for the cooktop. Well that wasnt meant to be either as they didnt have the same colour as the other Bunnings store. .

I didnt have a plan C. All I was able to achieve thursday, was to cut the hole for the sink ready for my son in law to plumb in, and a bit of problem solving. On the friday we did get our hands on the illusive oven tower, yay, but when I got half way through the instructions, I read it was a two man job to erect the entire upper part. The housings for the microwave and the top cabinet were too heavy to hold in place while screwing in. So after a bit of cupboard emptying I gave up doing any more woodwork and came home to sort myself out for sundays market.

It threatened to be a not so nice day (drizzling) but that didnt last very long, only while setting up really, then ended up sunny around midday. Ill be back later today to show how the stall looked this time around. I took our coffee table again! I need to get something that is a bit lighter to transport, methinks.

mums kitchen, day one

 Im one of those people who, if they organise something, it will never ever go to plan. Ive tried to change this in many forms over the years but I give up. These days im just letting things fall where they land. I can say honestly that I like this about myself, and on the hop problem solving comes easily now that ive given in.

This is the corner we had aimed to tackle, possibly deleting the stove

if my son in law could be there on the day, which he was.

The plan

1. pick up oven, leave in back of van in case we needed measurements

2. drive to Bunnings to purchase flat packs in easy seperate modules

3. head home before lunch, build flat packs

4. place oven in oven tower ready for electrician

5. kick back with a cider in the evening

Number one went okay.

We got to Bunnings to find out we needed to special order the oven tower so had to rethink what we could possibly achieve without having it as our starting point.

At this stage we thought we were just going to do the corner so it wouldnt interrupt life too much. The oven

door glass had collapsed so it had to go, forcing us to start the kitchen in the first place. We were just about to do the bathroom, actually.

The other half of the kitchen was staying until later in the month.

Mum would still be able to do dishes and have running water.

The fun began as soon as we picked the oven up. I, of course, took photos of the day seeing as this is the first new kitchen mum has had in fifty years. Oh, I had half attempted the one at the old house but never finished.

I got stuck for quite some time waiting for a guy called Bruce in the plumbing aisle, long enough to think of getting the camera out. These guys were such good company while I tried to figure out what a female compression elbow was? I purchased the wrong one so next time im buying one of each and returning the ones that dont get used.

After much pricing of the individual carcasses, we bought a flat pack on sale for $749 (doors and handles included), saving what would have cost $700 (not including doors), plus a corner unit at $210 and a bench top at the last minute for $99. All up we were at Bunnings for over three hours even though I thought I knew exactly what we wanted. 

I think these boxes are meant for tray tops or utes. They do not slide sideways very well.

 Mum had done a supermarket run by now, and was holding a bag of chocolate and drinks. She had disappeared right when we needed to pay for it all so it took a few minutes longer again. We had a good laugh about this later. 

 I got involved at this point.

These guys were good natured about a woman directing.

When we got home it was all systems go so I dont have many shots of that in between stage. Riley rocked up soon after us and because of the extra modules in the flat pack, we took out the sink because there was no room to store the cupboards once they are made up anyway. Something I hadnt counted on. 

It was easier and faster to take the plasterboard off the wall than remove the tiles but this makes

 way for that spice cupboard mum always wanted.

I really enjoyed the instantaniousness of putting the pieces together. Not my usual choice but super easy.

Mum might be doing dishes in a bucket or the laundry sink for a couple of weeks but by now she was getting excited about the room taking a new shape.

Even with all the stuffing around it got to this stage. I made up some drawers to fill the hole in the evening, not bad considering I was plodding along taking my time so as not to make mistakes.

 

I went to bed thinking that we were going to achieve even more the next day but unknown to me the Mr had

other plans and booked a cabin to go away for the weekend. For the love of all bad timing!

The light through mums very expensive ugly blinds was really pretty at days end but im left

wondering is my neck really this thick?



cupboard

That cupboard I painted white came in handy.

Its now home to all of those electrical gadgets that I use every once in a while.

Im so glad I bothered as it came up nicer that I thought.

Painting inside things is a bit of a nightmare.

my place and yours, kitchen love

The theme for this weeks my place and yours is kitchen love chosen by Tracey and Nic. Im playing along but im not quite ready for a full length of the kitchen as one end still has unpacked boxes.

I dont like yellow at all so im calling the colour of my benchtops 'pale pumpkin'.

 It happens to be one of my favourite foods.

 Dishes have had to be done and I do really love the smallish humble sink that urges you onward to perform the thrice daily ritual.
I love having a window to look out from.

I dont really 'love' this whole kitchen yet, but the knife rack is wonderful. We had one at our old place in the country and have missed it. The spot to put all my spices is very deep and I hope to add a few more bottles that I have had hidden away in a cupboard.

This is a nice place next to the stove in one of those old fireplace surrounds and our dairy baskets fit perfectly under the bench.

 Better get back to unpacking some more boxes methinks.

I wonder what the theme will be next week?

more white in the country

Originally the stairs were at the other end of the room and their was a wall across,

 dividing the entry from the actual kitchen.  A close friend flew down from nsw to show us how to weld and helped us do the staircase. We had to fire up the forge that we had never used and it was the best fun Ive had bashing the steel into a beautiful artisan style curve. (see before shot below)

These arches were not original we built in the pantry cupboards and put in a narrow window seat.

Below shows before the window seat and the window frame still unpainted as we considered keeping the black for dynamics.

The cupboard in the island was an old buffet we picked up at a country auction for $275

and we built the whole island from scratch around it. The view in from the lounge decided the central placement to the doorway, in order to hide any kitchenalia.

While we had no lighting during the renovation we cooked by lamps plugged in to sockets,

the nice ambience of which I missed when we finally put the lights in about 8 months later.

This is the before shot and its the only one I can find, sorry im standing in the way. We didnt take many shots of the room when it was dark and ugly, you see. Plus we were too busy ripping it apart to bother with a camera.

I glad my son took this one.

Its the before I had drunk my Guiness shot...

 before I had probably taken my end of day shower and washed my hair after renovating ....

before I had considered doing a blog and that this would be used as a photo too

Im pretty certain the pink number im wearing is my pyjama top donned at the beginning of the day!

things that make me happy

watching my newly engaged son with his fiancee...

they talk every moment of the day

fixing random rock walls...

 even if its in a car park in northern Ireland and ill possibly never see it again

having only my dog for company....

hes very quiet

watching my son skate...

even if he does get disappointed for not landing it

having a nice tidy kitchen to stare at...

 for longer than half an hour

jumping in the pool with my kids to take strange underwater photos ....

even when we laugh til we swallow water

(gratuitous)

knowing Ive been to Paris...

while wearing a vintage fur coat my husband found for me while I was asleep

standing immersed in ancient gravity defying architecture...

even though I was soaked through from a freak Barcelona downpour

this man eating...

hes a real foodie and he loves to cook for me

seeing a rainbow appear when we had just celebrated our 25th anniversary of the day we met

having a son who loves to dance...

and looks pretty damn good in a suit I might add

knowing that out of all of the photos....

 my son chose to put this one of us on his facebook profile picture

ps. let me know if youd like to see more from the bottom of the pool.

We have about 100