The plumber has been

Ellie hasn't liked these tiles for years now so this was an enjoyable task. We had to remove more cupboards to give the plumber room to cut a hole in the floor.

The plumber came in in the morning and by mid afternoon we had holes in the concrete slab and no kitchen sink. The laundry tub is going to get a fair bit of use for a while now. Those 70's curtains are back in vogue again (well, they're good drop sheets anyway).

We can now start to get a feel for our new open kitchen. This was the only major job needed to allow the new layout. Shortening the windows will be the next tricky bit.

The cupboards have to go

 This is no way to treat a kitchen bench top. Still, the plumber was coming to give a quote and he needed to see what was under these cupboards. I don't really work as fast as that blurred saw would have you believe and I wasn't going to cut a dirty surface either, so the Jif was brought in.

 The plumber made no comment about these pipes which have always made these cupboards a bit tricky to use. Perhaps they're normal but I don't think so. And look at that shelf !

That's a start at least. We want to keep the kitchen functional for as long as possible but after next week the sink will be gone and we will get a feel for the new open layout. All the vinyl tiles have now been lifted, up to the edge of the sink unit.

Giving support where it's needed

 The brick lintels with flat bar support had sagged over the years with cracks appearing in the brickwork. The decision was made to replace the lintels with hardwood beams made from wood re-cycled from our old pool deck. The first job was removing the fan hood. Opened up the kitchen no end.

This is the first window to have it's bricks removed. It was a bit nerve wracking bashing at the bricks while the rafters were propped up but it all went well. Ellie seemed quite happy to work under an unstable roof.










  And before we knew it, the new beams were up. The timber sanded up well but that effect is lost when the paint goes on. Still, it has to fit with the final overall effect so paint it is.

The old front door

This used to be our front door when the house was only half it's current size. It was always going to go as part of the renovation but then Tony asked about the adjoining wall. This led to the decision to remove it too. So that process was begun but was then left to do the lintels over the kitchen windows.

And now for the kitchen

Having finished in the hallway it was time to start in the kitchen. I was just using up some left over render here. The curtains and window sills were removed after this before getting stuck in properly.

This shows the contrast between before and after.

A view of the kitchen prior to any work being done. This is looking from the two windows in the first photo.

A bagged wall

This is the wall after bagging. Apart from looking like it's covered in a smear of cement it may not look any different to before. Originally, all the mortar joints were raked out and as the bricks were very irregular it gave a very rustic look to the wall. Trouble was, it was a great dust catcher so now we have a wall with a relatively smooth surface as the joints have been filled flush.

Starting the job at last

This is a record of a long awaited project, seemingly many years in the making. The final impetus to get going was a special offer at Ikea so we now have a spare bedroom full of flat pack furniture and a lot of work ahead of us.

The first job was bagging the walls so we thought we would start in the hallway and get some practise in before touching the kitchen. This photo shows the wall as it has been for thirty years.