Kitchen Refurb

[Wendyf]

We have floor tiles ready to lay Tiz, and that should take us up to the height of the flags through the doorway. The living room, which is through to the right of the chimney, is a newer part of the house with a suspended wooden floor...and there is a concrete slope leading up to it which will need digging out. The kitchen floor is made up of about 6 concreted sections, each with a raised ridge where it meets the next section and each section a different height. Col is mulling the problem over in his mind and will no doubt come up with a solution! The main issue is keeping dogs & cats out of the area long enough for leveling compound to harden.
Maz, having swopped from being a white wine drinker to red wine I'm more than happy to warm my glass gently on the top of the stove. I'd like a shelf, but it would get in the way of Col's head...or so he says. I wouldn't be able to see how dusty it was either, being a small person. We have compromised for now.....

[Stanley]

Issue an Executive Order to Col! Who does he think he is?

[Tizer]

Your house seems to have some characteristics in common with ours, Wendy. Ours is a long house with the lounge in the middle and that's the thoroughfare in our case. Kitchen and dining room at one end of the building and bedrooms at the other. The floors are concrete and there are some different levels - the lounge even has a sloping floor in the middle! It was two rooms with different floor levels, knocked together in the 1980s and the owner didn't want a step or the trouble of changing levels so he made a slope over about 6 foot of floor. We have to avoid putting any furniture there that would make the slope obvious. Old houses, eh!

[Wendyf]

Issue an Executive Order to Col! Who does he think he is?

No job is ever straightforward Tizer, especially when the boss is a perfectionist who has to do everything himself!

[Stanley]

Ah. You have a Cunning Plan?

[Wendyf]

All taping & filling of plasterboard was completed over the weekend. We moved the stove out of the room completely yesterday, I was a bit anxious beforehand but it was no problem at all, much easier than moving something lighter by trying to lift it.
Today Col has been removing the concrete slope up to the living room and using the grinder on the raised ridges....very noisy and dusty work! The good news is that he now thinks he only needs to use leveling compound in two small areas.
Not long now till the new kitchen starts to emerge from the dust...onwards & upwards!
Glad it was a sunny day, we are relying on solar heated water at the moment.

[PanBiker]

Sounds good Wendy, It's great when you get to the stage that you can start to see your ideas coming together. I can see you will be an expert unit constructor shortly.

[Wendyf]

I'm hoping that this is the last room we have to do Ian! I've had 40 years of it and that's enough. Mind you, I really would like a porch/larder built on the north side of the house.......

[Stanley]

And then there is the swimming pool.....

[Wendyf]

A smoother floor. Next job is painting walls & ceiling before the tiles go down.

[PanBiker]

Looking very good Wendy.

[Stanley]

Going to be Ideal Homes standard!

[Wendyf]

Quality work Stanley but nothing expensive or posh! We don't don't want to turn this place into something that only wealthy townies could afford. There aren't many farmhouses left around here that aren't magnificent palaces. Stoneybank Farm on Bleara Road, (called Cocket for 400 years or more) has just gone back on the market for around £675,000 with marble bathrooms, manicured lawns, electronic gates and enough outside lighting to keep the whole of Harden illuminated all night. Humph!

[Stanley]

I agree Wendy..... I can remember the 1950s when all those farms could be bought for £50 an acre, buildings included.

[Wendyf]

We have a floor!

[PanBiker]

Looking very good Wendy.

[chinatyke]

Wow, what a difference. Well done. Looks so much bigger.

[Stanley]

Col is pretty good. I like the colour...... Pity to clutter it up by putting furniture in!

[Wendyf]

Work has shifted to the workshop where Col has been fabricating a new register plate to go above the stove which will house an extractor unit. There has been a lot of welding and spray painting going on followed by a lot of cursing & swearing as he realized he hadn't taken into account the extra thickness of the rather chunky hand made tiles I have (stupidly!!) chosen to go around the stove.
My lovely tiles will no doubt cause a lot more stress & cursing as they aren't exactly regular in shape & size...he has been muttering under his breath since I brought them home.
There are some changes to the central heating planned before the stove is functional again. The hot water from the boiler in the stove mixes with the water from the back boiler in the woodburner in the living room through a Dunsley Neutraliser, which allows us to run the heating from either source or both at the same time. Because we have two hot water cylinders (one needed at each end of a long narrow house) there is a complex system of valves & pumps which Col thinks he can simplify.

[Wendyf]

[LizG]

Looks great. Really taking shape now.

[Wendyf]

I'm starting to get excited....a few more months to go!!

The extra few millimetres for the register plate plus tiles has been found by replacing plasterboard at the back of the chimney breast with a cement board which is slightly thinner.



Time to put the new chimney liner in.



It took quite a bit of straightening out. Col gave it a temporary nose cone so it would go up the chimney more easily.



He dropped some rope down the chimney with a weight on the end (made the other day with left over floor leveling compound, a yoghurt pot and a loop of strong wire )
My task was to swop the weight for the liner and guide it from below as it went up the chimney. Job done!

[Stanley]

Good progress Wendy. Impressive all round!

[Wendyf]

We managed to ease the Stanley stove back into position this afternoon...a slow task requiring rollers, levers, wedges and a lot of patience! It's slightly to the right of it's finished position so Col has room to make the pipe connections.
Love my tiles!!

[Stanley]

I don't envy Col the job of getting at those connections! Keep well away from the job unless invited....