Kitchen obliteration

Work on the kitchen has started. I am writing this absolutely covered in dust and in need of a cuppa!

When I moved in the kitchen resembled a somewhat battered early 90's fitted kitchen. From the outside, although not to my taste, it didn't look so bad. However on closer inspection there was a lot of damp and mould, The fixtures and fittings where blown or rusty, and at least one of the power sockets was live, as discovered by Dave plugging in the toaster! This we discovered was due to water running down the walls when it rained.

The two main rooms in a house that have the highest footfall and utility tend to be the bathroom & kitchen, so naturally these are my priorities. With the bathroom done, it is now time to address the kitchen. I packed up everything that was in the kitchen stored loads of it away, warning the kids that this was going to be chaos for quite some time. Then made a little makeshift kitchen in what had been the dining room. Ikea trolleys and butchers blocks come in to their own at times like this! We defrosted the freezer too before moving it over, that was a joy, I am stingy at the best of times, but finding things with a use by year of 2008 suprised even me. Dave was pleased that I threw loads out, my friend Mark who was also over, vowed never to eat in my house again...he will!

We decided the first job would be to take what was left of the ceiling down, then simply demolish the rest, floor, cupboards and strip the walls right back to stone. So, that's where we started. My builder (and old school) friend Dean, came over with tools and a decent wheelbarrow. He and Dave covered the doorways with clothes pegged tarpaulin, donned masks and then went through the kitchen ripping down anything they could, including the old lath and plaster ceiling. I drilled up the rest of the floor tiles, and between numerous tea breaks we chipped the plaster off the walls. The pipework and electrics are now accessible also, so we can tidy these up and drop wires down to wherever we want sockets. It was a long day, starting at 8.45 am until around 7.30 pm. By the end of the day the room was a shell and we were all knackered. This is a major renovation project so I'm expecting it to take some time, but praying not as long as the bathroom took.

There is a thin veil of dust over everything in the house. I like to think it makes all my vintage finds look ethereal. I also have a monumental rubble pile outside now, so suppose when the weather is a bit better I'll need to order a couple of skips.

Destroying stuff is fun, living with it afterwards sucks!