Our New House–Kitchen Unit Woes

The first of two posts today.

We went over again today, and my hubby dropped me off fairly early as he had appointments all day. Andy was there on his own today, mostly working on the utility room, and also in my ARTHaven (see my second post).

The main problem today was that the various odd units we had left over from the main kitchen and original annexe kitchen did not have doors, and also the larger unit for the utility room sink was too big for me to get my wheelchair through into the kitchen (see yesterday’s post). Andy had gone to B&Q for some new units yesterday and they didn’t have this basic stock item in stock, much to his disgust.

Today he discovered that the old units were not a standard size, and may have come from Ikea, which is notorious for being non-standard, so the standard doors would not fit, which means we have to have new units. This is a bore when we’ve got perfectly good recyclable old units but no doors…

He went to B&Q again, after I’d told him we’d called in ourselves on the way home and chosen the doors we wanted, which were a reasonable match with the main kitchen. He came back with one wall unit only, and several doors, and also some shelf brackets for my ARTHaven. He bought the utility room sink yesterday.

After all this messing about, he did manage to fit the first (larger) wall unit above the worktop in the utility room. I forgot to photograph this but will do so on Monday when I go back. It looks very nice indeed, and now I know the basic layout of the utility room and back passageway, I can begin to plan where my various bits and pieces will fit in. Andy is on holiday all next week and part of the following week so work will stop on the utility room until he returns, by which time hopefully B&Q will have sorted themselves out and restocked on this basic item!

Not only is all this very inconvenient, but it has added another £200-odd onto the budget. There have been a lot of extras (only to be expected on any project) – some of our making, some of our making on Andy’s suggestion (he has such good ideas which are hard to resist – once you’ve heard them, you know you couldn’t live with it as it is!!) and some because of unforeseen problems, like the cowboy wiring and plumbing in the annexe. Fortunately the budget has been robust enough to weather most of these storms, but it does look as if we’ll go a bit over in the end, but hopefully not by too much!

At least Andy has been able to recycle a lot of stuff, moving it from one location to another – we’ve had this with doors and sinks, and with the garage too.

Yesterday I promised I’d photograph the garage foundations, now that the concrete has been poured. It looks absolutely vast, but of course it includes some hard standing in front for off-road parking. The beginning of the garage is marked by the two breeze blocks which indicate where the central timber post will go, between the two doors.

Andy is recycling the window he took out of the annexe when he replaced it with the smaller window and door. He is always very careful when removing items because it is quite likely they will come in useful somewhere else.

This window will be at the back of the garage, over my hubby’s workbench (also made from recycled materials – in this case, the green worktops from the original kitchen – he’s welcome to those as I hate them!!). It will overlook the garden and let in lots of light. Being a double glazed UPVC window it will help keep the garage warm – it will be insulated. He has also saved the side door from the original garage, and this will be installed in the new one.

Yesterday Andy pointed out to me where he’d attempted to make a snow angel (concrete angel?!) in the wet concrete, but unfortunately it had dried too much, and all that was revealed was a slightly discoloured weal in the concrete, which I have tried to photograph – with some enhancement of contrast, it’s just visible:

I wish he’d been able to do a decent one! If he had, his hair and clothes would have been covered in concrete, which might not have been such a clever idea!!

Another problem cropped up when Tim the electrician was there the other day, and that is the power supply to the outhouse for the freezer. True to form, this power supply was done cowboy style – quite illegal – and Tim disconnected it forthwith. We now have to have a new power supply (more expense) probably running back from the garage which will have its own supply and board, with special armoured cable for protection from the elements. I asked Andy whether it wouldn’t be better to take the power for the outhouse from the house as it is nearer than the garage, and he’s going to discuss the options with Tim, and find out his reasoning behind his original suggestion. In the meantime, if the garage isn’t finished by the time we move in, Tim has suggested we use a temporary extension lead, running the cable from the outhouse, winding it round the original cable pipe from the house, round the corner of the house and in through the existing tumble drier vent into the utility room where my washing machine will eventually be – he is going to put a double socket in there for the washing machine and we can use that in the short term. Andy also pointed out the power supply for the water feature in our little patio outside the main kitchen window – it will be nice to get that working.

Yesterday I mentioned the very deep threshold on the back door, which makes wheelchair access impossible without assistance.

Over the next few days I’ve got to do some research and see if there are any removable threshold ramps available. A new door with a low threshold would be beyond the reach of our budget, but Andy did suggest we replaced the door panel with one with glass at the top – now the glass panel over the door has been replaced with a solid one to allow the boiler vent to pass through it, the back passageway is now very dark with the door closed – the only light comes through the cat flap! It’s something to think about, anyway.

As far as my own activities today were concerned, I was busy unpacking more kitchen boxes. I have finished cleaning out all the kitchen cupboards now (even the new ones needed cleaning as the dust has got everywhere), and I found Andy’s stepladder so I was able to clean the top cupboard in the fitted cupboards to the right of the oven. There’s a lot more stuff in the cupboards now, which pleases me greatly – the more we can get installed before the move, the better – after we’ve moved there will be more than enough to do and it’s great to be able to get on with some of it in advance.

I also took a few more things into my ARTHaven from the spare bedroom after my hubby came back – he was meeting a friend in the late afternoon who helped him clear away some of the rubbish which has accumulated in the garden. My hubby also had the chance once this was done, to continue working on the fence panels. We are definitely making progress on all fronts!

Andy and I sat up at the top of the garden under the apple tree to eat our lunch, and shared 8 or 9 raspberries from the raspberry canes that are growing up there! There are loads more to come. I adore raspberries and I’m so glad we’ve got some growing in our own garden.

Our New House–Completion of the Kitchen

The first of two posts for today.

The kitchen in our new house is complete! I am absolutely delighted with my beautiful new kitchen and can’t wait to move in and start using it properly. Today I spent quite a long time cleaning out some of the cupboards and installing things in them which my hubby brought over – only the tip of the iceberg so far, but I’m hoping to get most of it in before the move. When we moved to our present house, it was horrendous for the first few days because the kitchen was filled with boxes, and I couldn’t find the things I needed, so I thought I would try and get ahead of things with this current move.

Before showing you the most recent kitchen photos, laid out on the worktop was a series of screws which just had to be photographed – Andy told me they were the concrete screws for fixing the handrail by the steps from the annexe door to the patio.

They were all rainbow-coloured and so pretty with their double-helix threads – one thick, one thin. We creative folks spend a fortune on alcohol inks etc. to get this sort of effect! I have no idea how this is done; it may be the result of some sort of hardening process. Shame they are going to be buried forever in concrete. They should be made into jewellery!

In this photo you can see close-up what the worktop is like – almost white, with a beautiful texture and marbled effect. With the light oak effect of the units, it gives the kitchen a beautiful light and airy feel, and very different from what was there before.

My beautiful hob and extractor hood in their full glory, with installation complete at last. Of course, there’s a layer of dust on everything, but hopefully over the coming weeks we’ll gradually get on top of that.

The hood lights are lovely and bright – two halogens shining down on the hob, with easy-access push-button switches for the lights, and three-speed fan which is a true extractor, taking the cooking fumes through an external vent to the outside, unlike the one that was there before, which merely circulated the air through a paper filter. I am particularly impressed with my hood in that the metal grille that covers the vent on the underside is easily removed by sliding a catch. It can then be washed and replaced easily. These things can get pretty manky after a while.

The hob has no control knobs but is entirely “touch screen.” This should make it much easier to clean. The switch on the right is the main isolator for the hob, with a single socket – not sure what that will be used for as the space to the right of the hob is extremely limited. The oven switch is located in the cupboard above the oven.

The full height units. I am so glad I opted for the peninsula unit in the end, rather than wall units along the wall the other side of the door. This arrangement makes for a lovely compact working area, and provides me with extra storage space, with carousels in the corner unit. As you can see, I have two double power points along the wall, and the two switches on the right control the fridge freezer and the strip light installed under the wall units. I shall keep my Kenwood Chef, toaster and other kitchen appliances on this worktop.

My hubby has started taking boxes full of kitchen stuff over, and today I cleaned out the original fitted cupboards to the right of the oven – all but the very top one which I couldn’t reach without a better stepladder. I have started putting my tins and jars in, so that they are readily accessible. The middle shelf has got a mixture of things just stuffed in for now – these will eventually find their way into the utility room and other cupboards.

The “Le Mans” carousels in operation. They are called this because they resemble the famous racetrack! I love the way they emerge from the cupboard (top one) and then in a beautiful sinewy motion, come right out (bottom one). As you can see, I’ve started putting my baking things – mixing bowls, measuring jugs etc. – in here.

Starting to fill the cupboards in the peninsula unit. These particular items filled a whole banana box and I am amazed that they occupy such a small space! I am thinking of getting some of those wire spacers for kitchen cupboards so I can store more stuff on top in each shelf.

Even the new units required cleaning before putting anything in – the dust is everywhere! I am trying to wipe everything down with a damp cloth to prevent it dispersing into the air again, but I think it will be a while before we’re dust free. The Venetian blind in the kitchen is filthy and will take a lot of work to get it clean.

Here is a glimpse of our airing-cupboard-to-be. Paul has constructed the dividing panel. It stops short just to the right of the doorway, and half way across the space, leaving the rest of the space for the annexe. He is going to install some slatted shelves on both sides of the divide. I had a long discussion with Andy about the provision of an area for hanging – I have invited him to come to our present house to see what we’ve got here, which I was not able to explain in a way that he grasped it!!

The doorway is going to be covered by a bi-fold door which will save space.

As you can see in this next photo, of the new work from the other side, it stops short of the ceiling. The long pendant light has now been removed and replaced with a ceiling mounted one. At the further end, against the back wall, there is a cut away portion to allow for the long heater to project the full width of the space, thus heating both airing cupboards. The switch and timer are just inside the door on our side. Once we get the solar panels installed, the timer will enable the heater to be on only during the daytime.

The shelves on the right in the annexe airing cupboard will remain, and the rest of the space can be used for storage. As far as I remember, there will not be a door closing off the airing cupboard area at the end, but there is now a door closing the whole thing off from the annexe sitting room – a redundant door from our game of musical doors around the house!

When my hubby called in yesterday, he was concerned that the unit Andy was installing in the utility room would not allow sufficient space for me to get my wheelchair through into the kitchen. Today we brought my newer wheelchair over so we could test it – it is slightly wider than the old one which now lives in the new house. The gap was too small, by about only half an inch! The unit Andy has used is one left over when the old kitchen was taken out, and he is now going to have to get a narrower one, which is a nuisance – we can’t just shove it over towards the left, or there won’t be enough room for the washing machine.

Bringing the wheelchair in was very useful because it threw up another problem. While the ramps that Andy and Chris made for me work perfectly, there is a rather high threshold in the doorway itself. I can manage to do a wheelie to get in, but the anti-tip bars on the back of the wheelchair catch on the threshold as the drive wheels bump down off the threshold, and on the way out, I managed to get the front castors over by doing a wheelie, but was totally unable, even with the power-assisted wheels, to get enough impetus to get the drive wheels over the threshold at all, and Andy had to shove me! I can’t depend on him being there all the time to fulfil this useful function, of course, so we’ve got to think of some sort of temporary ramp that can be stored just outside the back door to enable me to get in and out when I’m using the wheelchair.

Andy took some time out late morning to go to B&Q to get a new base unit for the utility room, the new sink and some doors, and came back muttering, “I hate B&Q!” I said, “I know you do… what’s brought it on this time?” He said they only had one wall unit in stock, and no base units at all! This is supposed to be a stock item, and he should have been able just to pop in and buy what he wanted. He couldn’t be bothered to stay and queue for hours to order what he wanted, and is going back when he returns from his holiday, when they should be back in stock.

In the photo of our airing cupboard, above, you can see two small units on the floor on the right. These are actually wall units from the old kitchen, less deep than conventional floor units, and Andy is going to mount these on plinths to give us a bit of extra storage space in the back passageway. He has enough worktop the same as that in the annexe kitchen for all of this, and needs to get some new doors for the sink unit, these two shallow units, and a further unit which is going on the wall to the left of the washing machine. Space is at a premium in this area of the house and we need as much storage space as possible. The annexe is actually better off for storage per square foot of floor space than this part of the main house, it seems!

In the photo above, you can see the offending wide base unit. A smaller one will bring the projecting right-hand side further from the doorway and give enough space to pass through. The corner of the worktop will be trimmed back from the edge of the unit to meet the doorframe.

Armed with a small strip of the light oak effect from the main kitchen, my hubby and I called in at B&Q on our way home, to check out Andy’s suggestion of their maple effect unit doors. It seems he may have missed the beech ones, which are actually a much better colour match with the units in the main kitchen – we are trying to get them more or less the same, as the utility room is visible from the kitchen. We did cost up the option of having further matching Howden’s units in the utility room but the cost was prohibitive, and an unnecessary expense. I also chose some handles similar to those in the main kitchen and noted down the stock numbers of these items so that Andy can get them on his trade account next time he is there.

Since I was last over, Paul (not there today) has resumed work on the bathroom, and has started laying the plywood flooring which will support the floor tiles.

Andy informed me today that there is a problem with the wet room. If I am to have a true wet room, the floor in that area (beyond the arch and to the right) will have to be lowered in order for the water from the shower to drain away, and in this particular case, it would involve removing the tops of the joists, which Andy is extremely reluctant to do, as it would weaken the floor. He suggested getting a large shower tray like the one Paul has installed in the annexe bathroom, which will more or less fill the space, coming practically into contact with the base of the loo. The remaining floor around the loo will be tiled as planned. In the absence of a shower screen or curtain, this will be virtually the equivalent of a wet room anyway, so I have agreed. It will make no difference as far as room for the shower stool is concerned, and there is only a small lip to step over, which is not a problem for me.

My hubby was over at the house with me today, and was extremely busy all day. He’s been continuing to work on the garden fencing. He has finished painting the front door (pillarbox red!!) and was working on repainting the wrought iron gates in front and to the side of the house. The other day he cleaned the whole of the front with a hose and a brush, and painted the tops of the gate posts, and suddenly the whole place is looking a lot cleaner and smarter, brighter and less down-at-heel and unloved in appearance. Once we get our tubs of flowers in the front, it’s going to look absolutely gorgeous!

Across the road on the other side from my hubby, you can see Katie, our Kangoo, complete with her butterfly stickers!!

Also outside, they poured the concrete for the garage foundations yesterday and the area is amazing! It looks massive! I went up to look when we first arrived and I didn’t take my camera with me, and later I forgot to photograph it, I’m afraid, but I’m back again tomorrow and will try and remember to do it then. Propped against the garden fence was the old window from the annexe, which Andy is going to recycle in the garage – double-glazed UPVC, and quite large, so it will let in lots of light over my hubby’s workbench which is being created with old worktops from the original kitchen. The old garage is now the hardcore for the foundation of the new, so nothing is going to waste!

My final picture for today shows the completed steps outside the annexe external door. Andy removed the wooden shuttering while we were there; the steps were made yesterday morning and are not fully dry yet, but will be fine in another 24 hours, when he can install the metal hand rail that he has had made for the purpose.

The annexe kitchen isn’t quite complete – on Monday the last bit of plaster was still not dry enough for Paul to complete the tiling, but this should be done on his return tomorrow. When he’s finished in there, I can get it cleaned up and start moving Mum’s stuff in. She’s got boxes and boxes of kitchen stuff and there may not be room for it all, so some tough decisions may need to be made when she arrives! (We’ve set the date with my sister this evening for her arrival, which will be Saturday 28th September, which will give us just under a fortnight to recover ourselves after our own move on Monday 16th.

Our New House–Back in the Kitchen and More in the Annexe

This is the first of three posts for today. A very busy day today with my hospital appointment (see post 3) followed by a visit to the carpet shop to choose Mum’s sitting room carpet, only to find that Tuesday is the one day of the week that they are closed… duh. Then off to the house mid-morning, to find Andy and Paul taking a tea break in between being hard at work, in the absence of Chris who apparently has a structural crisis at home.

Andy says he would love to take 3 months off so he can catch up with all his jobs at home! I said I would sack him as soon as he’d finished our work. His face lit up.

They’ve been going great guns in the annexe. Mum’s bathroom is finished now, except for the vinyl flooring that we’ve got to order. Here is her beautiful shower cubicle with its fold-down seat and grab rail.

When we were clearing Mum’s house, she said she wanted to keep her bathroom cabinet, and I brought it home rather than putting it in storage, as it was a bit tatty, so I painted it white and freshened it up. Paul has fixed it up, and all I have to do is put the glass shelves and the mirrored doors in. You can see the second grab rail that Paul has put up, beside the loo, to help her step into the shower cubicle.

There was a bathroom cabinet already in the house and this has gone back over the basin.

The plastering around the new window and door has now been primed, ready for painting.  The other day my hubby took a piece of wallpaper from this room and colour-matched it with the correct emulsion paint, and this will eventually be done, along with the rest of the painting and touching up.

In the annexe kitchen, the wall units are now up. I hadn’t noticed before but they have bevelled glass in them. The sink is not yet installed, but resting in place under the window.

Paul has done some plastering around the power points in readiness for the tiles to go up, and has done the same on the opposite wall. You can see the power for the cooker and fridge.

When they took out these units from the main kitchen, I was so glad when they said that there wasn’t sufficient undamaged green worktop to be used, and we’d have to have new worktops. I hated that green, and it did absolutely nothing for the wooden cabinets but made them look dark and unattractive. Here is a sample of the worktop that Andy has chosen for us – it’s got a semi-matt, slightly textured surface and a nice marble effect which goes very well with the tiles he’s got for the splashbacks in the both kitchens and utility room. (The colour looks a bit funny in this photo – it’s actually more yellowy-brown.)

Here is Paul plastering around the power points in the main kitchen. It’s all starting to look neat now.

Here is where he has plastered on the other side of the room. You can see the pipe for the extractor (which is drooping in a very depressed looking fashion on the outside wall!), and also its power supply just beneath.

Tim has now put the cover on the central light, and installed the two halogen spots over the sink.

Paul then started to work on the sink plumbing. I am very happy about that, because it means that in a couple of days we will have hot and cold running water, and I can at last get to grips with the “builders’ mugs” which haven’t been washed up since I last had access to a sink!! In this picture, Paul has turned off the mains and is draining the pipes under the sink. You can see the famous gallows brackets supporting the unit,  and the skirting board propped in place. You can just see the underside of the sink from this angle – it is a shallow sink, and even though the board along the front below the worktop is not that deep, unless you stoop down, you simply can’t see it! It’s amazing.

Here is Paul working on the kitchen plumbing. To the right of the bucket you can see my wonderful new boiling water tap that I managed to find on Ebay. A real touch of luxury in my beautiful new kitchen!!

There has been quite a lot of discussion about what to do about the pipes and cables under the sink. Normally these are concealed by the cabinets, but in this case, because there are no cabinets to enable me to get my knees underneath, it was a bit of a problem.

When the kitchen was being installed, Andy was not pleased that the panel they had supplied to go along the outside of the peninsula had the grain running horizontally, which really didn’t look right, as everywhere else it was running vertically on the base units, and he had to make up three separate panels from left-over pieces, all with the grain running vertically, to make it look right. Trevor from Howden’s said he’d never had anyone complain about that before! Another example of Andy’s “exacting standards” perhaps? Anyway, this horizontal-grained panel was redundant, and they thought it would end up getting dumped, until Paul had a brainwave this afternoon, that it could be used to conceal the pipes under the sink! The grain runs horizontally along the board in front of the sink, so it looks fine. By the end of the day, he had cut the slots and holes in it for the various pipes etc.

The green striped box on top contains the tap for the sink – a beautiful pull-out monobloc.

Finally, outside, my ramp is now complete. They have made the two “wings” at the sides to allow easy access from either side, and the original ramp from the back step leads to the bottom step of the steps going up the side of the garden.

Here it is from the side. With all the stuff in the way, I wasn’t able to give it a trial run – I shall have to be very careful not to get carried away and career at top speed into Mum’s patio and give her the shock of her life (possibly doing a backflip on the way?)

That was all the work that the team did, apart from what Andy did in my ARTHaven (see post No. 2). I wasn’t idle today, either, but managed to clear ALL the boxes from the entrance lobby. I cleaned out the understairs cupboard and started to put stuff in there. My hubby provided me with some small white bookshelves to put things on, and I’ve measured up to see if any of our other redundant ones from our present house will also fit in.

I wanted to clear the entrance lobby because when Mum’s furniture arrives out of storage on 23rd August, among her stuff is a large pine dresser which is going in the entrance lobby. She hasn’t got room for it, and I said I would love it to keep our china in, because we will no longer have a dining room and are having to get rid of our beautiful dining room suite, unfortunately.

My hubby was also very busy today, continuing to work on the garden fencing, and he also started painting the tops of the little walls in front of the house. The whole of the front looks a bit sad and tatty, but a lot of the problem is that it’s just dirty, and once we can get a hose onto the front of the house and clean up the masonry and the grubby white UPVC window frames, it will look a lot nicer. A longer-term plan for me is to get to grips with the dull brown letter box and front door step and polish them to their original bright brass finish. I love these brass fittings that one used to see so often in town houses. We have lots of original features and it will be nice to show them off.

We had fun and games all day today! The team were on fine form. It started as soon as we arrived, because I was all in purple today, and was using my purple crutches. They were sitting in Mum’s patio having their mid-morning tea break when we arrived, and Andy said “Oh! You’re all purple! You almost match the scaffolding!” I laughed and pointed out my own purple scaffolding (crutches). He said if I didn’t watch out, when Mr. Chapple eventually did turn up to remove his scaffolding, he might inadvertently toss me in the back of his truck along with the rest of it.

The scaffolding is becoming a bit of a sore point, actually, because it’s distinctly in the way now. The work on the roof is finished and they are keen for the scaffolding to be removed so that they can make Mum’s back step, for starters. It took ages to come in the beginning, and now we can’t get rid of it!! We sat over lunch together and came up with all sorts of suggestions to get Mr. Chapple to come and get it. Andy threatened to cut off one of the legs if he didn’t come for it tomorrow. We then said we should make a feature of it, and use the best quality materials (my hubby suggested hardboard – nothing but the best lol!) to board it in and make an extension for Mum. I said we could convert it into a conservatory for her. We decided we should definitely grow some plants up it. Then we thought we’d either sell it to a rival contractor and make pots of money, or set up in business as scaffolders in competition with Chapple’s and make pots of money. Not…

When I went up to see what Andy was doing with my ARTHaven shelves, he was complaining that he needed time off to do his own house, and I suggested that we clone him, like I tried to do with his partner Wonderwoman (my home help) because all my online friends wanted her to work for them, too. He thought this would be a good idea, and then I remembered… “No, on second thoughts, Andy, one of you on the roads is more than enough!!” Wonderwoman tells me that every time they go out in the car together she says “Stop the car! I’m getting out!” and if she’s driving, he gets so mad at her for going so slowly that he grabs the wheel, works the indicators, etc. etc. and complains that she drives like a granny. “That’s because I AM a granny!” she says.

Trevor from Howden’s arrived, and as he went upstairs to see Andy, Paul called out, “You’d better knock… I’m not sure if he’s…” (I think he was going to say “working on long shelves just inside the door”) but Trevor said, “Is he in the nude or something?” I think he already thought it was a madhouse… I am convinced it is.

I went into the kitchen to find Andy and Paul kneeling on the floor, poring over a scrap of cardboard and making intricate drawings on it while discussing how to fix something. I assumed this was to do with my panel under the sink, but Andy looked up and said, “Ooops. You caught us moonlighting! We’re trying to work out how to support Paul’s new decking!” I said, “Moonlighting while on OUR job?? I shall sack the lot of you!” at which Andy beamed and he replied, “Yaaayyyy!”

Our New House–Visible Work Again

Today at our new house, there was visible evidence of work progressing. Much of the earlier work was hidden away, only evidenced by lots of banging and other activity, but now the surface stuff is being done.

On arrival, we found that Paul had tiled around the annexe bathroom, ready for the shower to be installed. On the left you can see the pipes projecting, ready to attach to the new shower. Paul is going to install the shower slightly lower on the wall than usual, so that Mum can reach it easily from a seated position.

This work had been done yesterday, and the tile adhesive was now dry enough for Paul to begin grouting.

On the left, the white thing is the end of the towel rail, and immediately to the right of that, you can see the plumbing for the basin which had been taken out for the tiling to be done. This has now gone back in (forgot to photograph that!), slightly to the left of its original position to allow more room for the shower tray. The shower tray is looking very smart and clean now its vivid blue film has been removed, and with its shiny new chrome waste! Paul is going to install a fold-down shower stool and two stainless steel grab rails for Mum. The shower tray is the length of the original bath which was removed, which will give ample room for Mum and a carer should she need one in the future.

Mum’s old white bathroom cabinet, which I brought home from her old house and painted so it’s now nice and clean and white, is going on the wall to the right of the door, over the radiator, and the wooden cabinet which came with the house is going back over the basin, so she’ll have plenty of storage, and mirrors too – there’s a large square mirror over the loo as well.

Unfortunately the colour is a bit odd in these photos because the light wasn’t that good. The tiles are exactly the same as the ones that are going in the en-suite bathroom upstairs, and they do not have this slightly green cast!

Yesterday, Tim the electrician sorted out the weird cowboy wiring in the annexe bathroom. The light is now on a separate switch from the bedroom, and the extractor fan has been replaced. This now comes on when you turn on the bathroom light, which is as it should be. The switch is on the bedroom wall just outside the bathroom, and beside it is an isolator switch for the extractor fan, but we’re not going to tell Mum what that’s for if she asks – knowing her propensity for turning absolutely everything off, she’ll turn it off to save electricity and the bathroom will get all steamed up and damp! We will just tell her “Don’t touch that switch.”

Paul has now plastered around the new window and door in the annexe sitting room. This is the first example I’ve seen of his plastering skills, and Andy was not exaggerating when he told me what a wonderful plasterer Paul is. If you look very carefully, you can see my hubby through the window, mowing the lawn. I had to chase him away soon after this or he’d have found stuff to do all day, and he was supposed to be on the archaeological dig today – I told him the garden would always be here, but the archaeologists wouldn’t!

Andy tells us that we’ve got to get a carpet for that room. I was hoping to leave the bare floorboards as they are rather nice, and would look lovely with Mum’s rugs, but he says that they are not tongue-and-groove, and there is a void underneath, and it will be very cold if the floor is not covered. (I said also that without some sort of covering, there was a risk of watermelon trees bursting through the floorboards in a year or two, where Andy dropped all his seeds down the other day!!) With an underlay as well, it will be fine. We are opting for a neutral, oatmeal coloured carpet, hard-wearing and without too obvious a pile, so that her rugs will not creep. We need to get a vinyl covering for the annexe bathroom floor, too, and we will do that at the same time, immediately after the work is finished, and before we get Mum’s furniture out of storage.

In the annexe kitchen when I was last there, the units were in – I thought permanently, but apparently they were only placed there temporarily to get the final layout and to cut the backs to fit flush against the wall. Today they were all out again, and the wall where all the pipes are has been covered with plasterboard.

Andy said it was great that there was a void behind the boiler (which has been installed on the board which is in place of the door which was removed) – there are so many pipes there, and they are all concealed.

On arrival today, I was delighted to see Jamie back again! He had to make some minor adjustments to the pipework in the annexe kitchen, which you can see him doing in this next photo.

If you look carefully at what he is doing, he is using his famous level to get the new pipe absolutely straight! I told him how I love to see this being done, and how glad I am that I have got lots of photos of his beautiful work because it’s all being covered up, never to be seen again, in all probability!!

The next photo shows the units back in. The narrow upright piece will separate the cooker from the fridge, both of which are free-standing and will come from our house here.

Here Andy has placed the sink under the window just to show how it will be. He’s taken it out again for the time being.

Seeing everything going in like this, it’s hard to remember what it was like before, with that awful sink in the corner… The units are from the original man kitchen and are darker wood than I like, and the original worktop was a ghastly dark green marble effect which simply didn’t go with the cabinets. Even though it’s adding to the cost, I am quite glad that there isn’t enough of that remaining undamaged after removing from the main kitchen, and Andy has to get new worktops. He is choosing something a lot lighter, probably a pale marble or sandstone look, to go with the marble-style tiles we’re having as splashbacks in both kitchens. The whole thing is going to look much lighter and far less oppressive, and with all the light coming through the window, it’s going to be a lovely little kitchen for Mum. She will have plenty of storage space, particularly with the wall units which are yet to be installed, and being such a small space, she will be able to access everything without having to walk miles.

When the plumbing was being done, I asked for plumbing for a washing machine to be installed, and this is behind the units on the left. If in future a tenant wants their own machine, all they will need to do is replace the double unit with a smaller one and slot the machine in under the worktop. On the other side, on the wall that backs onto the boiler in our utility room, Jamie has installed a gas pipe behind where my present electric cooker will go, just in case someone else prefers gas to electricity for cooking. I think these future-proofing ideas are extremely good – a bit of extra expense now while everything’s exposed, and a huge expense later if kitchen units had to be removed etc. to install them. I like this sort of forward planning and attention to detail.

The sinks have been like musical chairs on this project – we’ve got a brand new one in the main kitchen, which replaced the original one there, which was supposed to be going in the annexe kitchen, but it doesn’t fit. It is now going up in my ARTHaven with its original base unit. Andy had brought a second hand sink from his store which was originally going in my ARTHaven, but which fits nicely in the annexe so it’s going there! The one for my ARTHaven has pretty horrible taps so I’ve got to order new ones – I may go for another one with a hose like the one in the main kitchen as I think this could prove very useful, even if more expensive. Fortunately that sink is reversible right-to-left, so I can have the drainer on the right, under the small microwave, in my ARTHaven. This particular sink is a 2.5 sink, too, which will give me extra scope with my work.

The other main job that Jamie did today was to fill the central heating system again after it had been drained in order to fit the boiler – he went round bleeding all the radiators, and you could hear the water moving in the pipes as he worked. Then he turned the central heating on!! It seemed so funny on a hot summer day but he had to check that all was working OK. He then gave me a lesson on how the boiler controls work, and gave me the instruction manual. The controls are quite easy to understand and pleasant to use – the whole thing is beautifully designed, with a manual dial style timer rather than the electronic one we have in our present house which is a pain – my hubby still doesn’t know how to use it!! The controls are all on the front of the new boiler and it will be easy-peasy to set the temperature of the heating according to the climate, and alter the clock too. Being a modern combi boiler, it heats only the water you use, so we’ve got no tank to take up space! Jamie took the cover off to show me the inside, and I was amazed how compact it all was, and how easy to access to servicing.

It is a gas boiler and will need servicing every year. Jamie is very happy to do this for us – he knows the system because he put it in, and his charges are also very reasonable, and he’s fully qualified. Best of all, he’s a known quantity, selected by Andy, so we know we can rely on him.

Andy has done some research on water filters and has decided on the best one for us – it’s quite large, and the filter cartridge will only need changing once a year. A larger outlay to start with (which will include fitting) but it comes with one cartridge installed, and once we know what to order, we should be able to get replacements online. It will add about £25 to our annual water bill, but we will have the peace of mind that any danger from the remaining lead pipe from the main in the street at the front to the stopcock in the loo at the back will be dealt with, and also make the house more saleable in future. Also, the water will taste much better! Our original plan was to install it on the pipe rising from the main stopcock in the downstairs loo, but I mentioned to Andy that it would be good if it could filter the annexe kitchen water too, and after some discussion between him and Jamie, they decided to put it in the small loft space above the utility room – you can climb in there but it’s considerably less convenient than on a pipe in the loo! It will be better there because it’s quite large, and it will filter both kitchen supplies. Also, we have agreed that every September when Jamie comes to service the boiler, he will also change the filter, so it will never get forgotten, and he’ll be there on the spot, and will make sure everything is done correctly so there are no leaks. A very satisfactory arrangement.

During the morning, the two wardrobes we’d ordered for Mum arrived, and the two men who brought them assembled them for us, all bar the mirrored doors which you can see propped against the sitting room wall to the right. We chose these particular wardrobes because they combine shelf space and hanging space, which will be the most useful for her, and also because of the mirrors.

They are being stored temporarily n the main sitting room until work on the annexe is finished, when they will be transferred to Mum’s bedroom. We had to buy them because she had fitted ones in her old house.

The man who brought them works part-time as a wardrobe fitter for the shop where we bought them. His main business is a carpet shop further into the centre of Torquay, and he and his assistant do fitting too. We are going to visit him soon and choose the carpet and vinyl for the annexe, and they will fit them at the same time as returning to move the wardrobes and hang their doors for us. All very convenient.

Finally, outside, Andy has finished the central part of my new ramp, which leads from the back door step (you can see the tiles at the bottom of the picture, in shadow) right up to the bottom of the garden steps.

Already it’s much easier to get to those, even for the able-bodied! Tomorrow Chris will be back, and he will make the two side ramps. Andy and I discussed how far from the wall they should be, and they are going to begin where the tiled step ends, which will look neat, and also allow space between them and the wall to get a broom in to sweep up any debris which may collect in the space. They can’t go right up against the wall because of drainage pipes coming through the wall. I love the slightly striated texture Andy has created in the concrete ramp, which will make it have more grip.

We had some fun today! It was gone 1 p.m. (time for lunch) and Andy ticked Paul off and said he would sack him (again!!) – this time the sacking offence was not to have put the kettle on for 1 p.m. We had lunch in Mum’s patio outside the new door, and there’s a bush in the upper garden that side, which casts a lovely amount of shade, making it a very pleasant place indeed to sit. Once it’s all how we want it for Mum, with pots of flowers and her bird feeders etc., I think she will love it. After lunch Paul was going down to the corner shop for a choccie bar and I sent him off with some cash to get ice creams for us all – lovely on a hot day!

We admired Andy’s knee pads, but agreed they weren’t a patch on Chris’s. Andy said you had to have Chris’s rotund shape to give the proper impression, but I thought it was a lot to do with the shorts!! I was a bit worried about Chris today because he wasn’t there, and I was sure he’d been sacked. When I last saw him I asked if he’d be there and he said he didn’t know; it all depended whether Andy sacked him or not. I asked how many times he’d been sacked that week, and he said four times!! They all call each other boss, which really amuses me, and I think it’s so that they can all sack each other with impunity. Poor Andy still hasn’t been sacked and he wants to be so he can have some time to do work on his own house!

He was moaning about the general inefficiency of B&Q and how he hated dealing with them, and when something needed getting from there, he deftly delegated the job to Paul, who he said was far too lazy anyway! Lol! They all work extremely hard, actually! Poor old Paul. Still, I suppose it’s one of the perks of being project manager, that you get to delegate all the rubbish jobs to the others!

Our New House–More in the Annexe

Work is forging ahead on the annexe at our new house. The team are anticipating being finished in time for our original date for moving Mum’s stuff in – 23rd August. Once this is done I can spend time sorting it and getting things put away and organised for her ahead of our main move, while the team continue to work on the rest of the house.

This being the case, they are concentrating on the annexe for now. Paul has now moved the radiator from its original position under the window in the sitting room – it obviously couldn’t stay there with the new door, so it’s now on the end wall between the two fitted cupboards.

You’d never guess it had ever been where it was, except for a couple of small round holes where the pipes came through the floor, but as I said to Andy, you could always put those down to mice.

Here is Paul using a very noisy power tool to cut through some of the floorboards in the annexe sitting room.

He needed to do this to run new drainage pipes underneath from the bathroom. More evidence of cowboy work, I’m afraid – he discovered that the waste from the bath had a dip in it, and it was full of stagnant water! The annexe conversion was definitely an El Cheapo job, and Andy said he’d definitely seen better, although he’s also seen a lot worse.

Paul continuing to work on the annexe plumbing. There are now quite a lot of holes in the floorboards so one had to pick one’s way carefully to avoid falling through!

We all had lunch in there, and Andy had more food than usual because he visited his mum in London over the weekend, and she always sends him home with food parcels of home cooked Greek food! She lives alone but always has a fridge that is absolutely stuffed, and nobody who visits is ever allowed to leave hungry! He shared it around, and we had a taste of delicious little cakes like miniature Swiss rolls flavoured with spices and rose water and nuts, and some extraordinary pretzel-like dried bread absolutely covered with sesame seeds and flavoured with something delicious I couldn’t identify. Afterwards he shared watermelon with us which I adore – but you need a hose down after eating it! Andy tipped all his seeds down into a hole in the floor, and I asked him what Mum would think a few years hence, when a watermelon tree forces its way up through her floorboards!!

Andy went out to get the tiles for the annexe bathroom from B&Q. He’s pretty fed up with B&Q, because he called for them on Friday, and they said he couldn’t have them because they were high up, and they couldn’t work the fork lift while there were customers in the shop, but they’d get them down after hours, and could he collect them the next day. Next day was, of course, Saturday, so he went today, and they hadn’t got them down. They said the same thing, and he got annoyed and said this had happened with the previous lot of tiles, and he couldn’t keep leaving the job only to be messed around by them, and he wasn’t leaving without them today. Suddenly they were able to use the fork lift after all! Amazing what a bit of persuasion can do! All they need to do is cordon off the aisle while they use the fork lift – it only takes a few minutes and we are sure that most customers wouldn’t object. It’s a stupid system. I asked Andy why he didn’t phone before he went, but he said that was no good – when he’s phoned before and they’ve said “Oh yes, we’ve got plenty of those,” he’s gone over, only to find that they haven’t got any after all… Grrrr! Not exactly helpful, are they.

Here are the tiles in the annexe bedroom, waiting for Paul to install them.

They are exactly the same as the ones we chose for the en-suite bathroom upstairs.

Also in the annexe bedroom was this collection of pipe bits – I love the squiggliness of them and said they should be exhibited in the Tate Modern.

When he got back from B&Q, Andy began work installing the units in the annexe kitchen. These are recycled from the main kitchen. I am quite glad that Andy says there isn’t enough undamaged worktop and he’ll have to get new worktops – I don’t like the worktop that was in the original kitchen, and in a small kitchen it would be much too dark anyway, so he’s going to choose something lighter. The splashback tiles will be the same as in the main kitchen.

In this photo, Andy, has fitted the original skirting board back behind the pipework – it’s a bit tatty but it will all be concealed behind the units.

Here is Andy, trimming off the backs of the units so they will fit against the wall.

While he was doing this, it was very noisy, because Paul was also cutting the floorboards in the annexe sitting room! They both had ear protectors on.

Here Andy is checking the fit of the unit against the wall.

More units going in.

I think this is all the base units in now. My fridge and cooker will go in over on the right hand side. There will also be some wall units.

Even though Mum isn’t having a washing machine – she left hers at their old house, and I have agreed to do all our laundry – I thought it would be a good idea to have plumbing for a washing machine for the future. All that will be required is for one unit to be removed and a machine slotted in under the worktop.

Going out the back, I found Chris sorting through all the rubbish that had been dumped in the outhouse. This outhouse will eventually house the new chest freezer that we’ll be sharing with Mum. Some of the rubbish will be taken away, and some of the larger pieces stacked against the wall on the right my hubby will have for garage shelving. In the black bin are a lot of broken tiles from the bathroom and kitchen, which Chris will use…

…for hardcore!

I was really thrilled to see that Chris had started work on my ramp! I wasn’t expecting this to happen till much later. The hardcore is made up of the old tiles, and also the bricks from the redundant chimney that was taken down from the lean-to roof. You can see that the hardcore stops short of the wooden shuttering – this is so that the concrete will completely enclose it in a shell, providing nice strong sides for the ramp.

Here is Chris mixing the concrete for the ramp. He is using a coarse aggregate with stones of mixed size, to create a nice chunky concrete to lay over the hardcore.

Chris continuing to concrete the ramp.

It will go straight from the back step to the bottom step of the garden steps, and on either side there will be a ramp going down. This will mean that I can easily get my wheelchair from the front of the house, down the path on the right, and straight in, and also across the main ramp along to Mum’s patio on the left, and there will be nothing for anyone to trip over. The ramp on the right side will pass under the big step into the freezer outhouse, making access into there quite easy.

Andy on the ramp-age! Here he is starting to level the concrete on the ramp.

Finally, Andy smoothing the concrete. I was amazed at how smooth he got it, considering how many rough stones were in it!

Unfortunately Andy poured cold water on Chris’s idea for my ramp. He suggested getting rid of all the steps up to the upper garden and extending the ramp to the top, and creating a dip at the bottom. I would launch myself from the top and come careering down, the front of the wheelchair hitting the threshold of the back door and catapulting me headlong into the back passageway. He suggested putting some protection on the boiler to prevent it getting broken (after all, it’s a really posh new one, and Jamie spent a lot of time and effort installing it) and finally putting a piece of foam on the airing cupboard door where I would come to a halt. Andy did suggest velcro might be better, and my hubby would have to prise me off it each day when he got back from work. Ultimately, though, he wouldn’t do it because he said it would cost too much. Ah well.