Step aside Jamie Oliver! WE'RE COOKING!

Yes. At last! While there is still a few little bits & pieces to finish off (including the floor!), we have a new kitchen! The tiler, electrician & plumber all did their relevant stuff it has all come together just in last few days & it's all done. And it feels surreal...

Actually, after all this time (3 months!) of cooking in a microwave & eating out it's hard to believe it IS really OUR kitchen! The new 90cm cooker is incredible and after years being stored in our shed, we even have a dishwasher (!). So many bits.... the rangehood, the granite, the vegie sprayer, the self closing drawers ~ it's all perfect. We love it!

Gotta go... I've got some recipe book reading to catch up on!

The new kitchen is getting SO close!!

Well, the granite is IN! FINALLY! Woo hoo! Yep, it dried out over the weekend and the installers came back as promised on Monday morning (they were even early!) and after a few hours of cutting, grinding, gluing & polishing it's in. VERY nice. VERY happy with it... and not a petro-chemical in sight!

Next? The tiler came today & prepped for the tiles; the plumber is in Wednesday (I hope!) to hook up the gas for the cook tops as well as the taps & dishwasher... that just leaves the electrician... it's SO close I can almost smell it.

It's been so long, I hope I can still remember HOW to cook!

Well, technically speaking, we now have our granite benchtops, HOWEVER!!

Well, the granite people finally called to say the bench tops were ready (woo hoo!) and that they would "be there at 8:00am on Friday to fit them". I was SO trying not to get too excited & had my fingers crossed that they would look fantastic - despite the fact that the tiler, electrician & plumber all still have to come back after the bench tops go in... BUT

They turned up, in the pouring rain, dead on time (woo hoo again! NOW I let myself get a bit excited!) but the granite was all soaking wet.... which, (as I know now!) meant that it couldn't be installed!! You could see that the underside of the granite was soaked & apparently they can't put in place wet as it the water then soaks in to the cupboards & would ruin them. Argh!!

"Where can we stack 'em so they can dry out?" they quoth - so now they're stacked up on my front verandah (?!) drying out... the plan being the'yll be back on Monday.

Yes, I know, I know "why didn't they put a tarp over them?!" etc etc, but what can you do?! Oh well, I guess another few days wont make difference....

Getting there... slowly!

Lucky for me Anke is patient! The new cupboards have finally gone in so we're now we just have to wait another 2 or 3 weeks for the bench-tops to be cut. THEN of course we have to get the tiler, plumber & electrican the plumber back to finish of their bit... so hopefully by Christmas?!

Oh dear.... I suppose we'll get there - and it's gunna be awesome!

Getting there... slowly!

I can't believe it's finally happening! You can really "see" it now. And the new cooker & dish-washer that have been sitting in the shed for 2 years are finally about to see the light of day! After the dining room wall came out, we've had the plasterers in demolishing another wall & ripping out the old bulkhead hiding the box gutter & then replastering the whole back area so that we now have a much larger L shaped kitchen... bloody messy as you can see but we're really pleased with it.

We're dying to cook some "proper food" again but in the meantime it's really coming together &, because you see right through to the back yard from the lounge room, the house is looking so much bigger.

This week: the hole in the floor was repaired with some 2nd hand jarrah floor boards I got from a slavage yard, the concrete guy is coming in to fill the holes in the floor & strip the old tiles... & the cabinet maker is doing his final measure up so, cross your fingers, it's getting closer!

The Wall has come down!

No turning back now! For the 2nd time in her life, the wall is coming down! Though admittedly, this time it's not quite as momentous as the last time... which was the Berlin Wall & happened while Anke was in prison... for trying to escape over it. (True!). And boy, what a difference! Any doubt that it was "the right thing to do" went as soon as we saw it... even though the plasterer still has to come & finish it off it looks great (?!).

Apart from cutting into a water pipe hidden in the wall (on his very first cut!), the guys who took it out did an awesome job (so far anyway) but, my God, what a mess! And I sure wasn't expecting the big "sand-pit" in the middle of the dining room where they also removed an old hearth, but it certainly looks totally different now.

I'm not as organised as I should be ("really?!" I can hear Anke saying?!) especially we've decided that now would also be the best time to have the cupboards replaced in the passage... & that will have to be done before the kitchen guy can finish measuring up so now I'm in a mad rush to find a carpenter/plasterer/cabinet maker to come in do that before the cupboads can go in... oh well. Fortunately, Anke is very patient (so far!). ;-)

Check out these 2 "before & afters" where you can see we also decided to have the arch bewteen the lounge & dining squared off as well.

Plastic box city!

We're getting ready for the big kitchen 'reno' (finally!) & Anke was able to satisfy her "box fetish" (as she calls it!). She went to Bunnings & came home with hundreds of plastic crates to stack all our food & pots etc etc in (OK, OK, it was really 8 boxes... & then it wasn't enough & we had to go back & get more!). Anyway, fortunately she is a terrific organiser ("of course... she is German!" as our good friend Christiane said!) & in no time we had everything boxed up & had the the back TV room set up as a temporary kitchen.

My son Tim came over & helped us rip out some of the old cupboards & then we're ready for the wall between the dining & lounge room to come out on Thursday! Scary stuff...