A place for everything

It may not last but at the moment I'm trying to have a place for everything. Here's the new cupboard in the kitchen which houses tea and coffee stuff.

Teapot collection is in here as well as milk jugs, packs of tea and jars of coffee. Previously we had stainless steel shelves.

There's a place for all the plates on the shelves under the cupboards ...

and places for other items on the shelf or on hooks. Only the kettle is on the work surface at this end of the kitchen.

Other utensils are still hung on the rail above the cooker. The bright green thingamajig holds recycling paper and cans. 

In the family room there is a place for my glasses for watching the TV ...

and a basket on the table for things that go out to the garage.

The chairs hold blankets at the moment but they are not a permanent fixture. Can you see the place for the cat?

She loves her heated cat bed. Soon be turning chilly.

xx

"Well at least I assume you can get into your bed?!"

So commented Jill from Land of the Big Sky.

"Just," says me.

xx

Sharing

I'm still sharing the kitchen with the decorating stuff and will be for some time yet. The dining room has been painted but that is now housing the furniture from the family room. The family room has been painted but that is now having the floor varnished. It's taken a week already of sanding, sanding again and sanding again. Only today did we get the first coat of varnish on.

Kitchen is still in action but not yet completely ready.There's decorating and floor paraphernalia on the floor and work surfaces.

Here I am trying to make a cake amidst it all. The grapes are from the greenhouse. Still wading my way through them.

I have a new kitchen cupboard which has replaced some shelves, which is now home to tea and coffee.

It's replaced the shelves on the left of the picture below. The other shelves have come down as well as the plant which had grown itself onto the ceiling and around the cooker. All the kitchen pans etc have been washed and are stored upstairs for the moment until the time comes to 'dress' up the kitchen.

There is still more to do but the family room must be completed first. After that the dining room will then house the lounge furniture. It's all go here! DH has promised himself a week off soon.

xx

Wrong place

There's plenty of items in the wrong place in this house at the moment due to decorating most of the rooms downstairs. These vases are from different areas in the house. Normally they would blend in with different rooms. Here they look like an odd bunch - art deco, 30s, country and wierd.

The flower is dying in the vase in the fireplace - no time to clear it away yet. Various objects abandoned on the floor.

The light shades from the back room are hopefully safe on the chair in the lounge. An odd lamp is dumped on the floor.

The dining room side board is in the lounge along with crisps from the kitchen and placemats from the dining room. The throw is over the sideboard to stop the cat from scratching its surface.

Tea things roam around the kitchen as we are awaiting a wall cupboard to arrive.

Dining chairs are stacked on the dining table and kitchen and office chairs keep them company. The watering cans have a roll in sealing the parquet floor. The floor is in the process of being sanded and most surfaces have a layer of sawdust on them.

The bathroom cupboard contents are on the floor in a bedroom (the bathroom will be decorated at some stage).

Sideboard contents are scattered about the floor.

Dresser, kitchen and dining room contents are on the landing.

Dresser and the contents of the other sideboard are in another bedroom. The other sideboard is in the process of being waxed.

Can I find anything? Well I've just about got the hang of where everything is living at the moment and I've managed to bulk bake some rhubarb crumble and a loaf today along with a roast beef dinner and a bit of weeding in the garden. DH is still sanding the parquet floor!

xx 

Eating the garden

There are some bunches of grapes ready to eat now and I eat a bunch for afters at dinnertime. With over 60 bunches of grapes to go at I should have plenty of puds for a couple of months.

Today we had garden lasagne which contained courgette, tomatoes, broad beans, borlotti beans and runner beans from the garden. I should have put in a bit of spinach too but forgot. Rhubarb crumble tomorrow. 

xx

Knee jerk reaction

Apart from making meals and nipping out for some milk, I have just spent today cleaning white paint spots off millions of black floor tiles in the kitchen using a Brillo pad and hot soapy water. As well as that I have cleaned behind (yuck) and under (yuck) the oven which was rolled out of its position for the 'grand clean'. The hob has been dismantled and cleaned to within an inch of its life. I'm a dab hand with cleaning with a toothbrush in all those hard to get corners. 

I am never, ever going to use the deep fat fryer again, nor the oven or the hob. I will not make the bread on the work surface next to the oven so that flour can cascade between the small gap between the two. In fact it might be better if I never ever make bread again or even cook in the kitchen at all then no pans will boil over, no fat will spatter and no crumbs will lodge in crannies and cracks. The cat will have to go as cat hairs stick to fans at the back of ovens. Maybe we should live off takeaways - no that will involve washing up and staining the sink. Perhaps we'll never eat again - that would sort out the problem. Oh, and we should not walk on the kitchen floor lest we leave marks and dirt.

Well that's sorted then. :)

Maybe not - the parquet floor is being sanded tomorrow and guess what that means? Small particles will descend from the heavens on to every available surface.

At least I've got very clean nails and hands.

xx

Decorating chores

1. Take all the stuff that is not in a cupboard or in a drawer out of the room. (There's a lot of stuff.)

There's definitely a lot of stuff - oh and also the electric fire from the dining room which is ready to be cleaned. Ah yes ...

2. Clean all the stuff that is not in a cupboard or in a drawer. 

3. Take off the shelves, dismantle them and wire wool them to clean thoroughly.

4. Clean the tops of the cupboards, cooker hood, windows and anything that has been exposed to steam, grease and kitchen grime. 

5. Take off the kick boards and clean them. 

6. Clean underneath all the units. 

7. Rescue the spider that came scuttling out.

Cover the units ready for painting.

This is the third room to be painted - only the lounge and the downstairs loo to go. (Then the upstairs.) It's rather exciting trying to prepare meals at the moment as everything is scattered around the house.

xx

The Cat and the Rat - Part 3

Mum took her hook and hooked away joining all those squares to create a re-incarnated blanket for the Cat. Alas, poor Ratty did not live long enough to see the transformed holy mess. The blanket is as good as new and should last another few years.

Cat will have another blanket to snooze on ...

... and Mum will turn her attention on the bits left over.

Who knows - there may be another creation in the making.

xx

Cat and the Rat - Part 1

Cat and the Rat - Part 2