In the words of The Bangles “It's Just Another Manic Monday”. No time to enjoy the benefits of retirement, no time to sit and watch the villagers go off to work, no time to walk up for the paper in my slippers. It’s K day: Kitchen day. The kitchen fitters arrive to day to put in our new kitchen. (I suppose you’d expect that of kitchen fitters!)


So on the scales of our major extension and refurbishment to our old cottage we can probably say that we are getting there or as a rather better orator than me said in November 1942:

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning"

That’s a little how it feels. The builders arrived in mid-September last year and for the next four months the cottage was a building site, living at home was very difficult. At various times we had roofs missing, openings knocked through, external walls boarded up with plywood, a JCB digging drainage trenches in the back garden. Living at home was a nightmare, at least for one of us. I of course was still at work at that time and living away from home in hotels from Monday to Friday.


Whilst you may think I got the better end of the deal, it wasn’t all easy. Each evening I had to ring home to Christine and get the latest news on what had happened that day and listen to the problems of living without water, electricity and worst of all - the mess. I had to say the right things and commiserate and sound sympathetic when my real problem was ‘I am going to have steak or fish for my dinner tonight’. I had to decide between Becks or wine or whether to just have both, life was not always easy, but I coped.


So by the end of this week, the mess should be out of the way and we then need to start decorating all the other rooms in the house. A tall order but at least all rooms will be functional and we can relax and spend the summer with Alex, Dave and Joe and Amber the grandkids who arrive Tuesday next week.


We have spent the weekend getting the kitchen ready for the men. We have emptied everything into the dinning room (more about that later), so the men can get straight on as soon as they arrive. There are of course things that I do not understand, but then again as regular readers know there are many things about Christine that I never understand. During the weekend, we washed the kitchen floor and this morning we have cleaned the worktops, as soon as the men arrive these worktops will be in the skip, but we don’t want the men to get their hands dirty.
At least when the neighbours put their rubbish in our skip they will see our clean worktops in there.


But even more strange is the cooker, we are giving this to Helen, a good friend and believe this or not Mr Muscles cleaner has been seen in action for the first time in living memory. Helen has already said that she is getting it delivered to her dads so he can clean it before it goes to her house. When I mention this to Christine she says she can’t send it to Helen’s dad in the state it is. "But he's going to clean it!" I say. It goes over her head and she continues with the Mr Muscles. I wonder if we should wash the inside of the cupboards before the men throw them in the skip. I don't mention this just in case!


This goes along with vacuuming the carpet on Thursday last week before the carpet cleaners arrived. Their first job is to vacuum the carpet!



But as I said earlier we are getting there and every room that is completed looks excellent after Christine has finished with her dressings and final touches. I think Alex and the family are in for a pleasant surprise when they arrive.