It's all happening

I am now used to living in dusty conditions but I am beginning to see the reward to my sacrifices. I came home today to find this;

My kitchen is taking shape (the walls are going up), the patio is being started and the new fence being erected. Woohoo. Another week and the roof will being going up. Only one problem (we can't get an agreement on the wood flooring colours and there will be a war waging soon when it comes to choosing the appliances and we are not even started with the bedroom yet) 😩😩😩😩😩

BLOODY BUILDERS

For the first time in a long time I was so pleased with myself for getting my work done, kids bathed and fed and tucked up in bed. Time for me to shower in record breaking time of 1930hours and looking forward to a longer sleeping time. No chance, I have no water left, kids have used the last of the hot water in the tank.

The boiler is on, the immersion is on but no water, husband is nowhere near home. I wait patiently in my robe for some magic or for husband to come home quickly and sort it out. One hour and fifteen minutes later, he turns up learns of the problems, he has been in the attic, round the house then 25 minutes later realises that the bloody builders had burst the pipes, and instead of notifying us, they just decided to turn the water off and scooted off.

I'm still waiting, patiently but seething at the bloody builders. I wonder what they have to say for themselves tomorrow. This is why my children were so happy to go to bed without the usual protest; the house is cold. I just didn't realise why.


STILL WAITING FOR MY BELOVED SHOWER!

TAKING SHAPE

we are sort of a week behind (kitchen wise) but things are starting to take shape now. I can almost envision where things are going to be and what shape the house is going to be.

This week I had my old kitchen gutted, my husband installed the most practical temporary kitchen ever (and it didn't cost us a penny). I even have my dishwasher running in there. I don't have to bother the kids about laying the table, as everything is in the same place.

We even went to Wren, Wickes and B&Q to look at kitchens but I did not find what I wanted (any suggestions welcome here on where to find cool stuff). I a now surfing the net to find the best assets.

My bedroom is also coming up and the builders are already asking about tiles and what nots for the en-suite.nso instead of taking the children out to play, we are going tile shopping just see if there is anything that will catch my eye. I am happy I did not become a wet sissy and demand on moving out because I would be missing out on the development (I would also be without a husband because there is no way he would have left the site).

The next time my husband says the word "micro-manage", I will scream for he has said it a gazzillion times now (he has decided to trust the builders and plumbers to doing the job without him glued to their back but just there to oversee things). Woppeee, because it means that work can now actually be done without him interfering too much.

Guess what, I am still eating cooked food from scratch, I have deviced even more easy to make dinners to suit my tiny living space and I'm making pastries on my temporary work tops (my husband and his friend had prophesied to us having dinners from packets; over my dead body I say).

So here are snap shots of things are now, they may not make sense but it is a much bigger improvement as I am saying my goodbyes to the old stuff which includes throwing away most of the bric-a-bracs leaving myself with sparce utensils making way for new purchases.

My kitchen

My bedroom (used to be my old kitchen)

Soon to be en-suite (where we have stolen part of the kids' playroom)

My dressing area (ex utility room)

I think my new kitchen is going to be smaller than the old one but my husband and the builders are saying the opposite. 😟

GOODBYE

Today I said goodbye to my kitchen of nine years and Hello to my compact living for maybe 5months. Friday was the worst day as everything began to sink in but since then I have seen the fun side of things and getting no excited again.

I like the idea of cooking, talking to my family and watching TV at the same time, everything is just in the same place. I can't wait for the real works to begin.

This was once my kitchen, just need to move the fridge, sink and dishwasher and I'm all set in my micro kitchen.

New kitchen taking shape, I even managed to make my Sunday roast in here and it's working. 

TEARS SHED

I've been home 2 and a bit hours now and I was greeted by bags of sand, a van full of stuff a messy entrance and 4 men drinking beers and applauding themselves for a job well done. There was no job or anything that looked well-done (to me anyway). I just burst into tears as I walked into the living room and seeing white plastic sheets strewn across the room all the way to the kitchen and my sofa supported haphazardly on one corner of the wall. The back garden although covered in trenches almost looked habitable and less starring as the rest of the living quarters.

The workmen took one look at me and started biding their farewells to my husband who at this time was oblivious to my emotions. I was shocked that he was letting them go without making any attempt whatsoever to tidy up so I decided to ask about the mess. My husband looked at me proudly and sent the men off and in one breadth telling that they will clean up tomorrow when they finish working. The response made tears well up inside me and my voice became so squeaky like a mouse 'I want the mess cleaned up now and the plastic covers gone, with the sofa tucked in the "summer house like we agreed" I walked away after these shamefully squeecked out words with tears rolling down. My husband quickly agreed and started cleaning and hoovering the house. Normally this would make me feel bad but 'not this time'.

I cannot give you pictures of the house because I was too upset and shocked to even think about anything else other self-evicting myself and the kids and lodging somewhere till the mess was gone. Tomorrow is the last day I cook in my kitchen (my kitchen is moving into my living room), I am to have temporary pipes and plumbing to give me a compact living space as I am calling it. How long I am going to survive this and hang on to the building site? We shall see as time goes.

I may come here often than I intended just to offload my emotions as I feel there is going to be more tears of stress and frustrations where these came from. So to stop myself making a punch bag out of someone I need to put myself together and compose my thoughts and actions.

Front garden (first 2 pics)

Back garden

Work under way

Ok, so we seem to have gone past yesterday's hiccups. I woke this morning to the sound of drilling in the backyard and as I walked down the stairs my floor was covered in white plastic from the hallway all the way to my back door. Work seems to be under way for real. As I was leaving the house with the kids, a big truck arrived with the steels to commence the foundation.

I will not bore you everyday with the tedious progressions but will come here her express my excitement, vent my anger or frustrations now and again. This is what my front garden looked like this morning.

Full skip already, will be changed tomorrow 

Steels arrived, I have lost the front and back garden now. 

SEE YOU FRIDAY WITH MORE NEWS 😘😘

Running late and mistakes on day one on the job

Ok, so I woke up early to get the kids ready so we can leave the house as soon as the builders come. It's now 1005hoursnand still no builders. I don't know how my husban is so cool about it, telling me 'it's ok they will be there later'. I want the, here now, I need to see something being done, I need to know that my kitchen is under way.

Am I being being impatient? I think not.

Ok, maybe I was being impatient, the guys did come but later than promised "we had to deal with a flooding problem at one of the nurseries we working with". This was the explanation given and all unwanted to say was "pleas stop the B.S., it's day one and already we are having snags.

Manager leaves his labourer tondo the digging and poor guy digs out the trench nicely but guess what? He didn't need to do that so he was made tomfillmup part of it and dig out elsewhere AGAIN. I had done the decent thing of taking the kids out for the day to give the men room to work without having to worry about the children, came back at 1615hours, and there were no builders to be found.

I can confirm with you now that there won't be any inspection tomorrow it's now been pushed to Friday. Good Start Already hey? There is always tomorrow.

Wrong dig

Top part of trench is required the rest is a waste of time and labour

The hole that should have been.

Building begins

This time last year we were house hunting, I was so determined to move into a bigger house is a quiet village somewhere in Kent. I found a house I fell in love with but ,y husband was struck with the 'post code' fever. He did not feel safe to move out of Chislehurst and refused to fall for the house in leafy Bexley village stating that he did not like the road which led into the cul de sac.

We then chose to extend our family house to meet our growing children's needs with me demanding a completely new kitchen and being allowed to choose everything from layout and design to what goes in it. Request accepted, planning permission granted I am a happy girl indeed. Oh, I have also started making a girl's small requests with my tiny head resting on my shoulder. You see if we are building a kitchen outside, creating another bedroom downstairs putting an extra WC and still maintaining the playroom, we 'might as well change the stair case, make the landing bigger and re-jig the living room because it makes the house more beautiful and I promise I shall not ask for a bigger house (for now). GRANTED. HERE IS THE PLAN, WORK BEGINS TUESDAY THE SEVENTH OF APRIL (if the builders turn up). I am both excited and apprehensive of living on the building site, I refuse moving out while the work is going on because I want to witness every single step of it.

My house today

Proposed plan