lifes-a-bitch

In celebration of the start of my favourite season I give you this

Just over two weeks ago I told you all that demolition was about to begin in order to prepare for my new kitchen (and bathroom and toilet). Well demolition is now complete, so I thought I'd bore you all with the details and pictures!

CLICK ON ANY PICTURE TO ENLARGE

First the ceiling was removed, and the girder which had been resting on part of what had once been the outside wall (which had been boxed in with pine cladding) was supported by props so that the old wall and the chimney which vented the central heating flue could be knocked down.

You can see here the central heating pipes which had been boxed in with pine cladding, and the round hole where the flue routed into the chimney.

The soil pipe, which routed from the upstairs loo, down what used to be the outside wall of the kitchen was also hidden inside a fake cupboard before, and you can see the back of the chimney in the corner.

Now the wall and chimney has gone completely, and the kitchen already looks so much bigger and brighter

Two new girders have been put in and the old one has been removed. The new girders are still supported by props, as the supporting padstones have not yet been put in.

Meanwhile - There's an interesting little view of the bathroom ceiling and wall now visible from the kitchen, as they've started work on re-routing pipework

This is what the bathroom and loo looked like before it had to be removed so the soil pipe could be routed under the bath and down the side of the house.

The bathroom wasn't actually too bad before the bath got ripped out, but I thought we might as well have a new bath and sink while we were at it, rather than put the old bath back in.

We need to be a bit careful when we're walking around upstairs!

And someone's run off with the loo, but the new bath is in place.

Nothing left at this end, and wires dangling everywhere, but the battens are in place to attach the new ceiling to.

The floor's all been ripped up, and all that's left is the sink, and the new central heating boiler in the right hand corner.

At least the view from the kitchen window still looks nice!

I'm just off to have a nervous breakdown now - I think I've earned it

There always seemed to be so many other things I had to do first! But it's wild and windy out there, so I stayed in all weekend frantically catching up with everything, and at last I have!!

So here you are folks - a trip round my spring garden.........

Click on any pic to enlarge

We start with my beautiful Broom

Then a Camelia coming into bloom

Some Alpine Phlox and Forget-me-nots by the pond

A view down along the border

Some White Bluebells

Bluebells and Honesty

A shot showing the pond and some of the tubs I planted up

And lastly a part of the border on the other side

That's all for now folks - hope you enjoyed

I came across this definition in a book

The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical
But the good ones I've seen
So seldom are clean
And the clean ones so seldom are comical

Yes folks, the new kitchen (my consolation prize) is actually going to happen - starting tomorrow. First they are going to have to demolish the old one BIG TIME!

A few weeks ago the builders came and knocked some holes in the ceiling to expose the steel beam, and then an engineer came and had a good look and took some photos inside the holes to see if it was possible to do what we wanted to do.

CLICK ON ANY PIC TO MAKE BIGGER

You see the kitchen was extended by the previous owners, but when they did so they left behind part of what was once the outside wall and chimney and also the soil pipes from the upstairs loo! They boxed it in with some pine boarding, so it wasn't obvious, but that meant that the kitchen was left with this great chunk jutting out in the middle.

Well, we thought it would be SO much better if we could get rid of the extra bit of wall and chimney and have the soil pipe re-routed. Anyway the engineer OK'd it to go ahead, so tomorrow it all begins. First the upstairs loo has to come out and a new one put back in, so the soil pipe can be re-routed under the bath in the next room, (which means the bath has to come out as well of course) and then down outside the side wall.

So it seemed to us that rather than having the old bath put back again when they'd sorted out the new pipe layout, we might as well have a nice new one, and of course a new matching washbasin. OMG! In for a penny in for a pound!

Once they've sorted that little lot out they have to take down the ceiling in the kitchen, and put new steel girders in, so they can knock out the wall and chimney (the chimney is only being used as a flue for the central heating unit, and that's being replaced with a much smaller one that vents straight through the side wall)

Its going to take weeks till everything's finished, and it will be chaos!
I'm just SOOOO excited though

Here's a few more pics of how the kitchen looks now.

Morrisons have had to withdraw all these children's spelling blocks from the market because they say things like "U" is for Umberlla and "Y" is for Yatch