Sunday, August 31, 2008

New kitchen – day nine

Day nine. 9.30am. The Housemates decide to have an extra hour in bed so are having breakfast.

10.30am. Housemate Marie is busy tiling while Housemate John is working on the Belfast sink unit.

12pm. Housemate Marie asks if electric sockets are really necessary as she is having real problems tiling round them. Housemate John replies yes.

1.30pm. Housemate John is finishing fastening the Belfast sink unit to the wall. He is a little perplexed as the installation manual appears to have the sink lower down than is required.

Housemate John checked the dimensions of the sink then the dimensions in the manual. It would seem that the manual has printed the dimensions of the sink as 2 ½ inches shorter than it really is . Housemate John expresses exactly what he thinks of the person who wrote the installation manual…

5pm. Housemate John has installed the dishwasher. Housemate Marie gives out a loud cheer…

6.30pm. The Housemate pack up for the night.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

New kitchen – day eight

Day 8. 9.30am. The Housemates are nowhere to be seen. They have left the House to pay the newspapers, get the lottery, buy some sandwiches from the Deli and get some things from the DIY store.

10.30am. The Housemates start work building more base units.

1pm. Housemate John finishes off building the final two base units while Housemate Marie makes a start on the tiling.

Things are not going very well for Housemate Marie. She is making a very slow progress with the tiling due to there being a double electric socket to tile around on the very first row of tiles.

Housemate John was not aware that Housemate Marie knew so many swear words…

2.45pm. Housemate Marie has only managed to put on two rows of tiles. She is not a happy bunny.

4.30pm. Housemate John finishes attaching the base units to the walls. He now makes a start on attaching the workbench upstands.

6.pm. Housemate Marie has now completed eight rows of tiles so she is feeling a little more cheerful. The Housemates decide to call it a night.

Friday, August 29, 2008

New kitchen – day seven

Day 7. 9.30am. Housemate John sets to work on grouting the tiles above the wall units. Housemate Marie can only watch as she’s not good on ladders, and anyway she wouldn’t be able to reach as she’s not very tall…

Housemate Marie was though able to help Housemate John construct the Belfast sink unit. The Housemates have had to redesign the unit as they wanted a Belfast sink but Wicks didn’t do a Belfast sink unit in the range they chose.

1.30pm. Housemate John cleans the tiles as the grout has now dried.

3pm. The Housemates set to work attaching the corner base unit and the pulley-out cabinet base unit together and to the wall.

4pm. Housemate John starts work on the plumbing for the Belfast sink. He makes lots of noise and mess as he has to drill right though the kitchen wall to the yarden.

6.pm. The Housemates call it a night as they have to go shopping for food supplies at Morrisons then get the Chinese take-a-way.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

New kitchen – day six

Day 6. 9.30am. Housemate John starts undercoating the ceiling edging the Housemates put up yesterday, while Housemate Marie heads off to pick up some tiles they had ordered.

Once the undercoat is dry Housemate John puts a coat of paint on the ceiling edge, while Housemate Marie paints the skirting boards.

2pm. Housemate Marie is very excited as the Housemates are ready to start tiling above the wall units and she gets to play with her new toy – an electric tile cutter.

Once the tiling is completed, the Housemates make a start on building the base units.

6.20pm. The Housemates finish for the night and look forward to a pizza and garlic bread.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

New kitchen – day five

Day 5. 9.30am. This morning the Housemates are feeling much better following their yummy morale boosting meal last night. They get to work on the remaining wall units.

2pm. The Housemates finish putting up the last wall unit.

4.pm. After a trip to Wicks for Housemate John (Housemate Marie had to remain in the House as Housemate John was expecting a couple of parcels to be delivered today for the Birthday bunny), the Housemates make a start putting up the ceiling edging.

6.45pm. The Housemates put the last bit of ceiling edging then finish for the night.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

New kitchen – day four

Day 4. 9.30am. The Housemates continue building the wall units.

2pm. The Housemates start putting up the extractor fan.

3.15pm. Housemate John notices that the wall units haven’t ended where they should. He does some measuring and they are out by 10mm. He can’t figure out why then it suddenly hits him. The corner unit has to be moved out from the wall by 10mm.

All the wall units that they have put up have to be moved 10mm. We apologise for the use of bad language from Housemate John.

4.45pm. The Housemates have successfully moved the wall units by 10mm. Housemate Marie then says she thinks that the extractor fan isn’t in the right position. Housemate John checked the fitting instructions and confirms to Housemate Marie that it is indeed in the right position.

Housemate Marie still isn’t convinced and get out the plans drawn up by Wicks. Housemate Marie shows the plans to Housemate John and it show a different fitting position to that on the instructions.

The Housemates have a discussion and decide to follow the original plans so the extractor fan is removed and repositioned.

5.54pm. The Housemates are a little deflated with their progress on day four so decided to go out for a morale boosting meal.

Monday, August 25, 2008

New kitchen – day three

Day three. 9.30am. Housemate John is still stiff and a little painful this morning. The medicinal last night helped so did a rub on his aching back with deep heat just before the Housemates retired for the evening.

Housemate John set to work seeing to some plumbing while Housemate Marie did some more filling of holes. Housemate Marie lost her temper when the bits she was trying to fill the holes with kept falling out. As it is before the nine o’clock watershed we do apologise for the use of bad language.

2pm. The Housemates make a start putting up the wall units.

6.10pm. The Housemates down tools and finish for the night having successfully put up four wall units.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

New kitchen - day two

Day 2 9.30am. The Housemates are feeling a little stiff and painful. Housemate John tries to jolly up Housemate Marie by getting her to chant ‘dishwasher, dishwasher’ over and over again.

Housemate John finishes off removing the tiles that Housemate Marie couldn’t reach yesterday.

Housemate Marie starts filling in holes in the walls that the tiles have made when they were removed, while Housemate John starts removing the cladding from the wall.

2pm. Housemate John makes lots of noise and mess with his wizbang drill. Housemate Marie is surplus to requirements but keeps Housemate John company in the kitchen.

6pm. The Housemates pack up for the night. Housemate John is very stiff and aching so Housemate Marie recommends that this evening he has a drop or two of medicinal.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

New kitchen – day one

In a Geordie male voice “Welcome to a brand new series of the BOFOF household… …fits a new kitchen.

It’s day one 9.30am and the Housemates get to work dismantling the old kitchen. The old freezer has been put in the yarden and the dresser dragged into the hall way.
The Housemates then rip up the old carpet.

10am. The Housemates have already made a start removing the cupboard doors and units. The workbenches are removed and Housemate Marie tries her hand for the very first time at sawing wood – or rather workbench.

After lunch Housemate John sets to work removing the kitchen radiator. Housemate Marie, with her hammer and chisel, starts removing the tiles.

Housemate John, having removed the radiator, then sees to the pluming for the new kitchen towel rail. Housemate Marie is still plodding on removing the tiles.

6pm. Housemate John has fitted the towel rail and is now switching the water back on. Housemate Marie checks for any water leaks.

6.20pm. The Housemates down their tools and look forward to a well earned bottle of wine later in the evening.”

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

T-10 days….

…. till we start ripping out the old kitchen and installing the new one. We’ve done some workings out and we think it should take us about seven days to do it.

Last Tuesday we took delivery of the kitchen units and the dishwasher, and today the new fridge and freezer arrived. As you can see our dining room has become temporary storage…



This morning I picked up the new tiles. Thankfully the new shed has come in useful so they’re living there for the time being.

As we’ll be without the AGA during the installation we have to make do with the microwave and the slow cooker so I’ve started batch cooking some meals ready to pop in the microwave.

It’s going to get a little crowded in the dining room, as it also has to be our kitchen for the duration…


Marie

Monday, August 04, 2008

Finished

I’ve finished my first novel ! ! ! It’s been a long time in the writing but the first draft is finally done.

I’m going to give myself a break then I’ll start work on draft number two.

It would be wonderful to eventually have it published but I’m under no illusions. There are more unpublished writers than there are out-of-work actors…

Marie