9 months ago, we bought our first house. It was a very exciting - if fraught (thanks to the evil vendors) - time. The house itself is a lovely 1930s house with loads of character and space. Foolish, naive creatures that we are, we thought it needed just a bit of refurbishing - paint and the odd tweak here and there. Little did we realise we were going to end up doing an extensive renovation/refurb project which would warrant taking all the rooms back to brick and starting from scratch. It's been exhausting, and there have been many many (many many) unforeseen problems along the way (flooded, frog inhabited back gardens anyone? Broken boiler? gas pipe leaks? underfloor flooding?). We just keep saying to ourselves over and over - "it'll all be worth it in the end". And I'm sure it will. If only I had the energy to get there.
But; to food (or food-adjacent) matters! When we moved into the house, the kitchen looked like this:
Not too bad really - you might even be saying that it looks nice. And yes, it did look nice. Quite serviceable indeed what with the running water and functioning cupboards and stove. So, naturally, we tore the damn thing to pieces.
It now looks like this**:
Oh the bomb-site-like horror of it all. There's rubble and dust and awful awful lead pipes (lead poisoning might yet turn out to be the cause of our insanity - http://www.guardian.co.uk/
We've actually taken out a wall as well as gutting the kitchen. The room will be bigger and lighter and much more useable...and it will be worth it in the end. I should also point out that we aren't completely bat shit crazy - the old kitchen looked nice on the surface, but it was old and ratty and mould-infested and the oven was stupidly small. Plus the adjoining room was one we didn't use but with the redesign, we will. It's all going to be worth it. This is what the finished product will look like (except with different coloured tiles and walls. The wine will definitely be there).
So, while it's currently total chaos, it really will be lovely once it's done. And check out the GORGEOUS oven I've got - I can't wait! Two ovens and a grill plus 6 hobs - I need to start thinking of what to cook once it's all up and running (please feel free to make suggestions!) It's quite a good job we took out a wall, because it turns out it's too big to fit through the doors. I'm still not wholly sure how we are going to get it inside...
Anyway. House renovations have occupied my life for quite a while, but I thought I'd take another stab at this blogging lark, because I'm really rather hoping that - once the kitchen chaos is finished - that 2013 will be the year of my food revival. It's all felt a little perfunctory and survivalist of late, but hopefully a shiny new kitchen, and a shiny new super oven will help inspire me. At the very least dust will no longer be a primary ingredient, so that'll be a vast improvement on the current situation!
**Apologies for the dodgy picture...I can't find the battery for the proper camera so I'm reduced to cellphone shots
But; to food (or food-adjacent) matters! When we moved into the house, the kitchen looked like this:
 |
| Old Kitchen |
It now looks like this**:
 |
| Worse than you could possibly imagine |
We've actually taken out a wall as well as gutting the kitchen. The room will be bigger and lighter and much more useable...and it will be worth it in the end. I should also point out that we aren't completely bat shit crazy - the old kitchen looked nice on the surface, but it was old and ratty and mould-infested and the oven was stupidly small. Plus the adjoining room was one we didn't use but with the redesign, we will. It's all going to be worth it. This is what the finished product will look like (except with different coloured tiles and walls. The wine will definitely be there).
So, while it's currently total chaos, it really will be lovely once it's done. And check out the GORGEOUS oven I've got - I can't wait! Two ovens and a grill plus 6 hobs - I need to start thinking of what to cook once it's all up and running (please feel free to make suggestions!) It's quite a good job we took out a wall, because it turns out it's too big to fit through the doors. I'm still not wholly sure how we are going to get it inside...
Anyway. House renovations have occupied my life for quite a while, but I thought I'd take another stab at this blogging lark, because I'm really rather hoping that - once the kitchen chaos is finished - that 2013 will be the year of my food revival. It's all felt a little perfunctory and survivalist of late, but hopefully a shiny new kitchen, and a shiny new super oven will help inspire me. At the very least dust will no longer be a primary ingredient, so that'll be a vast improvement on the current situation!
**Apologies for the dodgy picture...I can't find the battery for the proper camera so I'm reduced to cellphone shots
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