So in October last year we started our renovations. we had to rip out the awful wardrobes, so we could rearrange our bedroom, to enable us to knock a door through into our back room, which would allow us to could close up the door to the living room and make it bigger. This enabled us to then knock down the wall between our kitchen into our hall and change the layout of the kitchen. Phew….

The above pictures are the view I have had of our kitchen from the living room. It has all evolved over the year, as we saved our money and paid for it as we went. No debt, no loans, just paid for it in stages. Did it all ourselves, well RD did most of the donkey work, during our holidays. I was the lackey.

We had disasters along the way, obstacles to overcome, not least RD almost becoming septic, after falling through the work surface.

Then we had the plumber who took a deposit from us, telling us he would be back the next day, and never came back leaving us with no sink or tap. I am never one to give up, and Life stepped in to show us the way. I rang round plumbers first thing the next day and a fabulous plumber saved our lives. He was with us within an hour and charged us a quarter of what the other one was going to charge. So we were no worse off really. He will now be fitting our bathroom next year.

The tail end to that debacle was the cheeky plumber then rang us three days later to say he could come and do the work the next day. He really thought I was going to be sitting here waiting for him to call with no tap and no sink! As is often the case in my life, he had seriously underestimated me.

Then we had the ‘Two Charlatans’ they turned up to give us a quote to fit the kitchen, they said it would take two of them three days. Told us to change our wooden veneer worktop because it wouldn’t work in our kitchen, and were shocked we had a kitchen from Ikea. Seriously.

It took RD three days with me as his lackey, we fitted the veneer worktop. It looks fab. They never came back to us, I think they may have realised we would have told them to ‘shove it.’

All of it reminded me of France. We are polite people, we are friendly and because of that people think we will be ‘soft touches.’ But you see we learned our lessons in France well. We are still polite, but we take absolutely no shit, and will happily tell people that in no uncertain terms.

We have had to rethink our ideas in many ways: smaller fridge, smaller microwave, smaller bread bin. Small wall cupboards. But I have learned, and it has all come together.

But despite all of this is now my view from my living room.

It is not finished, RD will be putting the electrics in next year, fitting my lights, using my vintage French lampshades. But, as we have all this year, we will add things as we go, as we can afford it. In the meantime I love it. RD has done such a good job, he should believe in himself more.

My life is now so much easier. I had my dishwasher in my garage for three years, now it’s working away in the corner of the kitchen. What do I love most, I don’t know. My lovely sink, with the spray tap I have wanted for years.

Or my glass hob, so easy to clean. Although I could get OCD over polishing the top of it.

Or is it my fabulous cooker hood, that lights up in three different colours.

We like our walls to show the life they’ve lived. It goes with our penchant for vintage, and eclectic mix. We have mixed in some industrial shelving. The electrical wires will be carried in pipework when they are fitted.

It’s starting to really become our home, with our beautiful things that we’ve collected over the years, starting to go up.

I am blessed.

Rosie

Oh and just one other thing, look at our renovated pantry cupboard.