Wednesday 30 July 2014

The Remodelling Project – update


Well, Saturday was fun although not particularly successful, mission-wise. We had intended to shop for tonal lift objects for Lesley's new bathroom after visiting the conservatory place. After a drive through the badlands of Medway Industrial Estate we eventually found it only to discover it wasn’t open on the weekend. Why we, as project managers, didn’t check this out first, I am unclear.
Then, by the time we had looked around for something ornamental (a.k.a. tat)  for the bathroom (found three options to be considered, but Lesley wouldn’t countenance the orange china parrot for some reason), we were hungry and tired from the heat, so came home for a late lunch. That was the end of shopping for Saturday – it was too hot to go out again.
Sunday we went out again, this time to Wickes to check out the kitchen. Yes, Lesley still loves the Heritage Bone style she chose last year – glad to see chemo hasn’t affected her brain overly much. We made an appointment with their designer to come to the house on Tuesday. Went to Sainsbury’s somewhere in the south east, but I have no idea where. Shopped for meals for the next few days. I am constantly amazed (don’t know why it still strikes me) by the amount of shelf and freezer space given over to ready-made food. However it does make shopping easier as I can by-pass those aisles (except maybe for where the Gu puddings are located…). Dinners have been planned – goat’s cheese and walnut salad, chicken thighs filled with boursin cheese and wrapped in bacon, burgers, nachos. We had a lovely beef curry at the neighbours’ place Sunday evening and came home well-fed and well-wined ready to fall asleep.
Monday has faded into the recesses of my memory (some kind of shopping – for required bathroom accessories), but I know I made the goat’s cheese, walnut and nectarine salad for dinner – it was very yummy.

Tuesday was rather productive (note British understatement).
First achievement included decisions about the kitchen: The kitchen designer came in the morning and she heard the desires/wants/needs/unwanted and went away to do the drawing up. My hunch is it will end up almost the same as what Lesley had drawn up last year. Well, I hope so as that was efficient and effective use of space, and workable except for the sink being beside the wall with nowhere to put anything waiting to be washed. (Drawn up by a rather young man, so what more could be expected?) Charlotte also took measurements of the under stairs cupboard to see if my plan for fitting a drawer for the vacuum cleaner and a pullout cupboard/drawer could be implemented to make good use of otherwise useless/unusable space. We are meeting Charlotte on Saturday at 11am at the store to look at her drawings plus stoves, microwaves, range hoods etc.

Tonal lift down low in the bathroom
The second achievement was deciding on and purchasing tonally uplifting tat for the bathroom: At the shop called Home, I think, the assistant there arranged the artificial flowers in a vase for Lesley and I don’t think she charged for her time. Score! It looks pretty good, I think, and certainly relieves the beige-ness. I do believe that chickens would look better but, for some reason, Lesley won’t take that advice …

Then it was off to the conservatory people where the third achievement occurred - she has decided on using these guys and has a better idea of what will work, look stylish and be in keeping with her house. We had a good chat with the owner and one other staff member, with the upshot that the owner drove us to his place to view his conservatory so Lesley could see it in the flesh.
She may end up with a straight ended conservatory, but at least she will NOT have a lean to style. (Here's their website  http://www.t2twindows.com/ They seem to be well made, sturdy and attractive.) She will have a proper roof, not glass; and will probably choose between a gable end (either glass above the door or filled in) or Edwardian. The Victorian style, which is my favourite, has standard angles of 135 degrees so their advice is that it isn’t practical for narrow-ish conservatories as it chops too much useable space off. Mmmm, I'm not convinced. Today we are going to buy a couple of spray cans and mark it all out on the ground outside so she can 'see' the size. The guys are coming on Saturday arvo to measure and do some drawings on the fly so she can get more of a picture. All they need is cake and coffee. She will buy cake and I will make pikelets (with jam and cream, methinks) as there is still no stove …
Incinerated buns - I decided discretion was the better part of valour and didn't take a photo while they were under the grill in flames ...
Dinner was burgers with beetroot, fried onions, tomato, lettuce, with some mushrooms and salad on the side. The preparation was not without excitement. I managed to set fire to the buns under the grill when I was preparing salad. I left them out on the front grass, and while I was unsure if Chatham’s birdlife eats charred bread, I notice that this morning it has all gone!

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