Morning on the tiles

 We went over to the tile company and really liked it.  I have to say, Boris (I'm perfectly sure there is no connection with the dreaded Boris) is no salesman.  He suggested I wait until the kitchen is fitted before I choose the tiles, he didn't take my name, he said I'd be welcome to have samples but didn't take the opportunity to draw me in by offering me any - but never mind.  He also said that they could do the shade I wanted, that it would only take 3-4 weeks, that they'd be hand-painted and made on the premises - and the tiles are beautiful.  

I looked up my to-do list from several weeks ago.  Most things on it are done and I've written a new one, typed on the computer this time, so I don't have to find the notebook and update it.  Wink and I have set timings for some items.  So I've got plans for this Thursday and a list of things that have to be ready for next Thursday.  And, if I hope to get to Scotland in August, everything else has to be done too.

Later, we went through our mutual diary - we each have a diary and there's also a joint one.  It was good to sort everything out, until I got into September and then I felt overwhelmed.  So we had a nice G&T and then I went and cooked trout for dinner.

When I went outside this morning, first thing, it felt quite autumnal.  But another heatwave is hinted at.  The seasons are all awry.  That is, we hardly have them any more.

Z and Wink get our timings wrong

We're planning a couple of days in London, but we've made a mistake.  We intended to go to a play on a Friday evening, a matinée on Saturday afternoon and then come home - also a couple of exhibitions on the Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.  Efficient and perfect, hey?  Except, having booked the trains, the hotel and the Saturday, we then discovered that we were a week out for the other show.  The Saturday is the last day for one, but the other doesn't open for another week.  D'oh, darlings.

All the rest works, so we will choose something else for Friday night.  But we can't see how it was that neither of us noticed.

Tomorrow, we will go and look at tiles.  I feel overstretched and harassed, but I can't let the pace slip.  

Z's kitchen countdown - 2

 I've emailed the chap at the kitchen company, who's back from holiday now, to clarify a few things, he's phoned back and I'll go in when he's got answers - I've assured him that I'm not anxious, just making sure that there are no issues later.  I've also phoned about getting the flooring fitted, which will be a fortnight after the kitchen units are started, but I am not sure if there might be a clash there, so I'll find out next week.  

I'm looking online at taps, which is fairly boring, might go over to the next town where there's a supplier of that sort of thing.

Yesterday, the lovely family who live in Glasgow called in for lunch - parents, two boys and the youngest child, their five year old daughter.  All delightful people and the children are so naturally polite and helpful.  You can never pick anything up without one of them offering to carry it.  They've very kindly invited me to stay when I go to Scotland - I'm happy to stay in a hotel, but they're so hospitable that they may insist.  I really hope I might manage to fit it in with everything else, but it's going to be a squeeze.

Fiona also recommended a tile company and I looked them up.  The tiles are lovely, but they're 150+ miles from here.  I'd really need to visit.  That's possible in a day, but it prompted me to look up a local firm and they look promising too.  So Wink and I will visit there on Monday and, if we don't like their offerings and there doesn't seem to be somewhere else nearby, then it's off to Wiltshire for a day trip.

I really want to get to Scotland next month.  That won't happen unless I focus on it and on everything else I need to do before I go.  It'll be a push.  But I'm good with a deadline.  I'm going to crack on with the work and believe I can do it.  Next week has some capacity, the week after doesn't.  From then on, I'm pretty busy up to the blog party.  So next week it is.  Apart from Tuesday and Friday.

Z's kitchen - Two month countdown - 1

 Tomorrow is always a flexible word.  I still haven't uploaded pictures.

However, I have got a date to install the new kitchen, so that's good.  It'll be started on 1st September.

I've texted the decorator/carpenter to ask him to sort out the doorway any time in the 2nd half of August.  I've also gently asked when he's starting the work on the outside of the house (not right now, it's far too hot).  I've also texted the joiner about the window - not heard back from either of them yet, but it's a working day and that's fine.

I've agreed with the water softener people about the approximate date for fitting that, I've said provisionally 3rd week in September.  The fitter can do the rest of the plumbing.  I have yet to choose a new tap, but I'm going to look for one with an extra pipe for the filtered water, rather than have a separate tank for drinking water.  I don't expect this to be a problem.

I've given no thought to the colour of the walls and I'm not worrying about the tiles yet.

I need to contact the flooring people to tell them when they can come and do that job.

I have bought a new upright freezer, which has to live in the porch for the next three months.  I'm turning out the smaller chest freezer into it, then I'll defrost the latter, then sort out what's in the bigger chest freezer and defrost that, ready to be moved into the workshop (If I can't do without it yet) or disposed of.  

In regard to the study, that will be knocked into from the kitchen, most of the books and bookcases have been removed.  This Thursday, Wince and I will move Tim's big tv and hifi equipment upstairs.  I have also decided that, instead of it being a part-time study, I'm moving all that stuff upstairs onto the landing.  Once the new (present) study floor is laid, the bookcase on the landing will come down into that room, to house cookery books and it'll be replaced by my desk and the stationery cupboard.  On the landing, I also have the cupboard where I keep bedlinen and I'm thinking where I could rehouse the linen, so that I'll have room for papers there.  Bobby the leopard also needs to find a new home, which may be in my bedroom or else in my dressing room, as it might spook guests in a spare bedroom.

I have started to move a lot of kitchen stuff into the further dining room.  It's all going to be quite a challenge for a while, but no matter.

I don't know what to call the ex-to-be-study.  Morning room or breakfast room both sound wildly pretentious, but that's effectively what it'll be.  Kitchen annexe?  3rd dining room?  Probably, I'll just call the entire space the kitchen.  Once all is sorted out, the new upright freezer will live there, I'll have a smaller  dining table and chairs and maybe an armchair or two.  I'm also toying with having the fridge in there, which I think would be quite convenient and keep the kitchen uncluttered (I will have plenty of stuff in there, I like having ingredients to hand in jars).

I have to move a lot of papers and general stuff from the study, I've been dumping stuff there as it's chaotic anyway.  Then I have to sort them out.

My tidying up deadline is the week before the blog party.  Then I'll have to shift the final stuff from the kitchen.

I sleep really well nowadays, better than I have for years.  It's surprising.  What is even more surprising is that I've turned from an owl to a lark.  This is a lot less welcome.  I miss late nights and I hate getting up early.  I don't mind waking up early but, if I get up then, I'm ready for a nap by 11am and that's just silly, especially as I don't have afternoon naps normally.  

Z really doesn't like Blogger, but sorting out the old one is still beyond me

 When I try to do anything on Blogger, I'm reminded of why I abandoned it.  I haven't got the photos of the digital version of the kitchen on the computer, so I wanted to upload them from my phone, but I've been going to and fro for some time without success.  I'm too tired now,

If you've been here, you'll know that my kitchen is quite dark.  Two small windows either side of the Aga, a slightly bigger one behind the sink and a hatchway through to the study opposite the sink,There are doorways to the passage, the dining room, the broom cupboard, the back stairs and the lobby to the larder, back door and laundry room leading to the annexe.  At least the doorways are all at one end.  Then there is a big old central beam across the room and beams down the length of the room.  With no explanation, Russell refused to let me have any light above the Aga and there are fluorescent light strips hidden behind the beams near each side of the room.  A few years ago, I had spotlights put above the Aga, so I can finally see what I'm cooking (Russell had many good qualities, but few people could have remained married to him).  We have fairly light oak units and a boring laminate wood effect floor (all we could afford at the time) and quite a dark floral wallpaper - I couldn't do anything about the darkness, so I emphasised it.

Now, I'm going completely the other way.  It's all about light and openness.  I'll sort out photos tomorrow.  I'm having the units from Magnet and I'm having Corian worktops and sink, with light oak-esque vinyl tiles on the floor, which will be carried through to the study, to which I'm opening up the hatchway to a doorway again - it used to be the back door and we half-filled it in because I needed cupboard space.  

Descriptions and pictures tomorrow, I'm too tired to see, let alone think.  I'm going to take out my contact lens and go straight to bed.  Indeed, the lens has gone in the bin because it's nearly a new month and I won't need to put one in for the next couple of days.

Good news is that the fitter is coming round tomorrow afternoon to size up the job and I hope he'll give me a date soon for the kitchen to be done.  As long as it's not during the blog party, it's fine.  Actually, I don't care.  Whatever he suggests.  I'll always have the Aga.

Which reminds me, I've bought new Aga saucepans.  Z doesn't do extravagance by halves. 

Z's wall of books is dead. Long live Z's wall of books.

 I seem to have bought another piece of Lowestoft china, but I part swapped it for two others that aren't Lowestoft.  Lucky I'm not normally extravagant in other ways, notwithstanding the expensive kitchen etc.

Today, Wince and I manoeuvred the bookcases up to Ronan's bedroom, where they take up most of a wall, and it's a big room.  They look great.  A wall of books is a wonderful thing.  I haven't yet started putting the books on the shelves, that's for another day.

I ordered a freezer.  A big upright one - at present, I have two chest freezers, plus a freezer compartment, not a tiny one, on top of one of the fridges.  The thing is, I want to come down to one chest and one upright, but when one has been moved, you have to leave it to settle before plugging it in.  So what is one to do with the contents of the old freezer in the meantime?  I can tell you, darlings.  You have three for a while.  What I have to guard against is having three forever.  I'm a bit anxious about that - mission creep and all that.

The plan is that I have the new freezer put into the big porch (this is an actual room, the corresponding room above used to be a double bedroom, though now it has a lot of wardrobes and a big bookcase in it).  I put in everything I can from the smaller chest freezer, then move that sideways, as soon as I can, then empty the bigger chest freezer, then move that beside the smaller one.  Once it's settled, put back what wouldn't fit in the other two (having kept them with ice blocks in coolboxes) and work on running down what's in them all.  Once I have done all that and have a spare freezer, I'll order a new fridge and pay to have whatever I don't need taken away.  

I'm also getting a new water softener organised.  

What I haven't mentioned, because I promised to be upbeat last time, was the awful thing that happened a few days ago.  I was working in the house and heard a bit of squawking, though nothing much, but three bantams didn't come home.  And they haven't ever since.  I'm pretty sure that a vixen was teaching her cubs to hunt, because one fox couldn't have grabbed three agile chickens so quickly - it really didn't sound a panicked cry, I thought it was a minor squabble.  They were Millie, because she loved mealworms, Mary, because she was an only chick, of Polly Garter, who loved her very much and fed her so much that she became the biggest bantam, and Plank, the white one who foolishly slept out for several nights, a few years ago and was thick as.  I don't name all the chickens, but these three were pets and I'm desperately upset.  One loses a chicken every so often, but three in daylight - early afternoon - in one fell swoop, as Shakespeare put it, is rough.  I haven't risked letting the rest of them out since and they're not happy with me.

I'm also pretty agitated about the Pam and Peter situation, but I'll leave that for another time.  Today, I'll finish with positives.  The porch where the new freezer will go has been cleared, Kenny's shed has been tidied up and I've room to store things there, the bookcase, as I said, is in place and I can fill it gradually, I've returned my library books on time and I cooked a really nice cauliflower cheese for dinner.  I can also tell you - from last night - that a strawberry Zaiquiri (named after Zac, the lovely new husband of Miriam) made with fresh strawberries is totally divine.

Miriam's mother discovered a love for strawberry daiquiris in Mexico but, after a few days, she asked if she'd got it wrong, as she'd been asking for Zaiquiris. I said, technically yes but it was brilliant and that was their official name from then on, and told everyone in our What'sApp group.  It has completely taken off.

Zoë is busy and purposeful (yeah, right)

 I promised to be upbeat.  So a progress report.  

Of arrangements for the kitchen, I've got the units, work surfaces, floor, window, door and fitter sorted out and am waiting for the fitter to get in touch to tell me when the job can be done, which will inform the ordering of everything else - deposits have been paid.  Weeza thinks I should have tiles behind the Aga, which is fair enough, but I haven't found anything suitable yet.  I haven't given any thought to the colour of the walls.  I've ordered a new, big upright freezer, which is arriving on Saturday.  The reason I'm getting it now is that I need to empty the big chest freezer in order to move it.  Ultimately, I'd like to just have my slightly smaller chest freezer and the upright, but I'll have to juggle between the three for a while first.  I'll get a new tall fridge after the kitchen is installed, to replace the two I have now.  The new freezer will go in the porch to start with, but the tortoise run will have to be moved first, the tots being outside all the time for the next few months.

I moved the lovely oak dresser into the dining room some weeks ago and I've put mostly blue and white china on it - some Lowestoft, also old Delft tiles and some other random china, I don't want it to look too tidy, of course.

A great many books have been moved upstairs, to a room with a very good floor (you know how heavy books are) and the bookcases had to be cut in half to get them into the room - that will be done on Thursday, when Wince is here.  He'll put them together and then the books will go back.  I've set aside a few hundred to dispose of, so far.  

Wink is away for a week and I'm being very busy in her absence.  I'm emptying the kitchen cupboards and taking a lot of things out of the larder, which I use for storage rather than for food.  I'm putting pots and casseroles and plates and so on into the big dining room - unfortunately, I wanted a tablecloth today out of the chest that a lot of heavy stuff is on, so that ain't happening.  I'll just have to wash a tablecloth, dry it and put it back on the table.

I have a lot of papers to sort out.  That's a job for tomorrow.  The start of it, anyway.  There will be a lot I can get rid of and the rest will be properly filed - I always used to keep up with that, but it slipped a while ago and, once that happens, it's very hard to get back under control.

I've got a very big wine rack, a metre wide and I know where it will go in the end but, so far, I'm not sure where it'll be in the meantime.  I want to declutter the kitchen completely in the next few weeks, though it'll make the rest of the house crowded.  I also need to empty the study, so it can't go in there.  

Within the next few weeks, I should hear from the listed building people about my application to alter the drawing room fireplace.  They may need the chap from the council to come round - I don't mind what they tell me to do, as long as I'm allowed to do it.  I really don't want to have to reinstate the bricks that will have to come out to get the old fireplace and chimney liner in, but surely they'll prefer me to have a stove than an open fire.  It's going to make a huge difference to the warmth of the house in winter and be easier and safer - much as I love an open fire - and less polluting too.  I don't have central heating and it really isn't feasible to put it in.

The house will be at sixes and sevens for the blog party, but it really doesn't matter.  It's the company that counts.  And the food.