Festina lente

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Every now and then, over the last however-long-it-is that I’ve been doing these blogs, you get a blow-by-blow account of Work In The Kitchen. And you have no idea how often we work in the kitchen and don’t blog about it. You must think we’re the laziest and most incompetent pair ever, because not once have we suggested that we’re almost done.

Well, this is why…..

On Monday, we had our plan for the week. (a) Put up a steel grid for hanging pans and tools from, as in our Harrogate house. (b) Test and then buy suitable wall coverings to disguise the astonishing lino covering the bottom half of one wall. (c) Apply paint to several remaining walls.

Here we are, late Wednesday, and we’ve only just finished (a). In Harrogate, Malcolm popped the grid up in a couple of hours before morning coffee, and it was easy once he’d located the joists. Here? No chance. We spent several hours joist-hunting, working from below, in the kitchen, and trying unsuccessfully to get at them from our bedroom above. Finally, Malcolm discovered that the nearest equivalent of joists were unsteady lines of crumbling brick: with the intervening spaces being (admittedly thick) lath and plaster.

Back to the drawing board, and a plan, eventually, to make use of the beam in the kitchen. Then the beam let us down. It turned out to be faced on all sides with the inevitable French clay hollow building blocks, lath, plaster. Who knew whether it was like that all the way through? By now, it’s the end of Tuesday. No painting done on account of brick and plaster dust everywhere.

Mal resisted counting sheep in the small hours in favour of parading ever more fantastic schemes through his fevered mind. What he came up with was good, involving dexion, yards of chain, and a good deal of swearing when screws and bolts declined to purchase properly. It turns out that the beam IS wood at its core…when you eventually get there.

It’s done now though, and the job’s a good ‘un (thank you Malcolm - I’d have given up long ago). But that’s more than half a week gone by, with only a hanging grid to show for it. Don’t you DARE not admire it if you come to stay.

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Photos

The rack...erected and functioning.
Behind, a functioning kitchen begins to take shape