Tuesday 8 December 2015

My New Kitchen....almost !!!

The kitchen reno has slowed, through no fault of ours, but it is progressing....
Our builder  and hubby  began the process of lining the  kitchen walls which took a couple of days,
Hubby had  purchased a sheet lifter to aide  in  putting up the ceiling sheets  and it certainly made a huge difference, he and the builder were easily able to do the ceiling by themselves .
Once the ceiling was in  our neighbour, friend, electrician came back and installed all the lighting and power points into the  sheeting and hubby got busy with plastering the joins.
Then the kitchen installation day finally arrived, the  carcasses  were being done in Dubbo( a bit over an hour away, but the doors were a special  style I ordered and  were not made locally so had to order them)
So this is where we are at now,  unfortunately the doors have been delayed  and won't be  here and installed until at least the 17th of December. But it is reasonably functional for the time being.
We have purchased a new gas stove and a new dishwasher, but these also won't be installed until after the tiling is done, but the tiler was due to start yesterday but was a no show due to car issues.
So these are sitting out on the verandah just waiting to be installed.
During the  kitchen progress I have had a few injuries that slowed me down a bit, firstly I dropped the big heavy crow bar that I was levering rocks out of a garden edging with,
It was very swollen and painful.
Then a few days later whilst helping load  demolition rubbish onto the utility, I banged my shin not one but stupidly three (3) times on the tow bar of the ute.
And finally, while heading up to the chook yard to collect eggs one day soon after,  slipped over  in a chook  dust hole and   rolled my ankle badly, not broken just sprained. All my injuries have now healed, although the ankle is a little weak, but I will take care not to injure it again.
We  are finally starting to use  the house like normal, won't be much longer now and  life will return to our usual  routine, which will be lovely.
We have just had all our children and grandchildren home for a few days and   it felt good.
We put up a shade shelter and a paddeling pool and  escaped the heat as best we could. It will be wonderful when we  finally are able to erect a covered area out this side of the house.
We have had a wonderful glut of apricots on our old tree this year, I picked a total of 11 buckets of fruit from it and made up 3 batches of jam as well as 4  canner loads of preserved  apricots for the pantry.
The pantry is a mess, as I have been just shoving things in there whenever I need to clear spaces, but I organized this a bit to put all the apricot preserving away.
The vegie garden is progressing well, hubby has been struggling with the water, spending ages moving hoses and trying to keep it all  growing,
The first planting nearly ready to harvest and process and the second planting close behind.
We also had our first and only cherry off our newly planted trees, hubby very generously gave it to me, it was delicious.

It's been a huge month or so since I last posted, and I must endeavour to update more often, but time just gets away and always something needing to be done, But I promise I will try. :-)  :-)
So, until we meet again further down the track of life,
Take care,
Cheers.
Jane.

15 comments:

  1. Its going to be gorgeous Jane. So much storage, like, really megga.

    Do take care of yourself. I bet you are running around like your head is chopped off and just not taking your time. All that work will still be there tomorrow, i promise, so go slower.

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    1. Thanks Lynda,
      I am really happy with all the storage I planned as I have a huge amount of "stuff" that I am not prepared to part with. We went with nearly all drawers on the bottom benches, so I hope that works out. It will be lovely to unpack and find all my kitchen treasures again. Having the canning pantry off the kitchen will be very convenient also. Thanks for calling by, and I will slow down and take care :-) :-)
      Cheers
      Jane

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  2. Looking good, all ready for Christmas cooking!
    Good to see you back, thought you had decided to give it up.
    The apricots look delicious, so nice to have it all to enjoy for the rest of the year.

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    1. Thanks Margaret,
      No, I am still here, just been a bit swamped with everything, but hopefully am back on track again now and will keep up a bit better.
      The apricots were wonderful, it's an early ripening tree and we rarely ever get fly in it , which is a real bonus.
      Thanks for popping by,
      Take care,
      Cheers,
      Jane.

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  3. your kitchen looks great! so much lighter too
    those apricots looks delicious!
    yes totally agree with Lynda D slow down! i know things get busy but when one rushes that's when accidents DO happen! take your time & enjoy the moments :))
    looks like your farm is coming together nicely, can't wait to see the next bit
    thanx for sharing

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    1. Thanks Selina,
      It will all be worth it in the end. I do so love the new light, fresh air and ventilation and all the soon to be completed storage. I have slowed down, taken a few breaks and am being careful, we think we unbreakable but life soon shows us otherwise.
      Thanks for visiting
      Take care,
      Cheers
      Jane

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  4. Nice to read an update, Jane. Glad to see your kitchen is progressing albeit slowly.

    Hope you and your family have a nice Christmas

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    1. Thank you Nicky,
      It does feel so slow, but people that haven't visited for a while say they see huge changes.
      All the best to you and yours also for the festive season,
      Take care
      Cheers,
      Jane

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  5. The kitchen looks great so far! We are working pretty slowly on our renovation too, seems hard to get tradies and having to order everything takes time too. Gosh those chicken holes are dangerous, we keep filling them in and the chickens dig a new one...

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    1. Thanks Liz,
      We are getting there, and yes the issue of acquiring trades people is a huge issue, we only seem to have senior part time tradies here or else you pay a small fortune to bring them from Dubbo.Good luck with yours.
      Hope you and your man have a wonderful christmas, don't work too hard and take care.
      Cheers,
      Jane.

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  6. The kitchen is looking great! Never mind the doors.... you have a functioning kitchen! That must be heaven on earth now.
    I've never seen a panel lifter but it's a very nifty gadget! I just showed my hubby. (we are constructing our house too).
    No idea what chook yard or chook hole are. Must be an Australian word. But what ever it is, please take care of yourself. Take it easy. These little injuries usually happen when you are tired. I know your injuries are not serious but they look painful and sore and are time wasters.
    Have a fantastic Christmas and I'm looking forward to seeing photos of your celebrations (and hopefully the kitchen doors),
    Lisca

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    1. Hi KLisca,
      I am loving my nearly finished kitchen.
      The "Chook Yard" is the Chicken enclosure or coop, the "Chook Holes" are the depressions the chickens make when they are dust bathing and are really hard to see and easy to roll your ankle in.
      I am being much more careful, as I know I am waery,( I have sleep Apnea and use a CPAP machine at night and I have been getting some high readings which also contributes to my tiredness to a degree.
      We will have a lovely christmas as we are spending it with the kids and the grandkids, so should be fun.
      All the best to you and your family for the festive season and look forward to chatting again,
      Take care
      Cheers
      Jane.

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    2. Sorry, Lisca ( finger slipped) :-) :-)

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  7. I enjoyed looking at those pictures. It is definitely a work in progress. These pictures have inspired me to give it a go. Remodeling a kitchen does take a great deal of time and effort. I'll probably wait until I really have the time to commit to the entire project. Of course, I have to convince the hubby that it is a good idea too.

    Arthur Bryant @ Contractor Express

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    Replies
    1. Hi Arthur,
      Sorry I missed this comment until now, yes it definately has been a major thing for us to take on as we are usually not renovation type of people, but the cost involved in getting a company in outwayed our unwillingness to renovate. We employed two older retired men( the builder was 80 and the tiler was 75)..
      They were brilliant and with my husband doing all the heavy demolition and offsiding with them it worked well. Took a long time but was worth the wait.. Good luck with yours..
      Cheers
      Jane.

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