Renovation and Restoration

Pre-loved but unloved

Following a brief discussion about Preseli bluestone and Stonehenge, Tom comes up with a cunning plan to shift our brand new beech worktop from the carport to the utility room. The worktop weighs nearly as much as me, but with the use of three kitchen chairs the two of us manage to slide it along and make stately progress towards the front door with only a minimum of raised voices. There is a slight hiccup when we reach the front steps and the lovingly polished worktop takes a gentle tumble into a flowerbed, but all the effort is worth it for the moment of triumph when we finally see it in place.

The utility room’s the one space we left after our frenzy of renovation when we moved here four years ago. It sort of worked, so we lived with it, but now it’s finished I can’t believe what a difference it makes; suddenly the house no longer stops at the kitchen door but feels bigger and with a better flow. And although we gutted the room, thanks to a bit of forward planning, nearly two weeks of hard work and some careful recycling the only real expense was the beech worktop…. Just as well it had a soft landing when we dropped it then!

The Belfast sink; before and after

Floor replaced, new shelves installed

That worktop!

N.B. Tom says these photos show who did all the work... I guess all the paintwork happened by magic then, eh?

I also take a bit of a tumble during the renovations; in the middle of the night , I turn my head and the whole room lurches. Hoping it will be better in the morning, I keep very still and try to sleep, but getting up the next day sets my world spinning and I find myself sitting on the bathroom floor shouting for Tom to come and help me up. And when my sinuses feel as if they’re about to explode too, I give up and go to the GP who diagnoses a sinus infection and sends me home with strong drugs which will hopefully restore me to rude health so I can look forward to getting back to normal…