Slowly evolving kitchen...

There is one thing I can assure you about when it comes to renovating old property; it takes at least ten times longer, and costs ten times more, than any careful planning and budgeting can predict.

The intolerably filthy kitchen still survives in many nooks and crannies, but it'll be starting to worry now, as it notes the steady tide of a new floor... and there's more imminent action on the walls and ceiling. 

The salesman at Leroy Merlin told us that there was no need for underlay with this type of laminate flooring, even on concrete, but he was wrong. We started laying it, and found that when we walked on it, despite fastidious cleaning beforehand, there was a crispy sort of crackle emanating. Not nice. We bought some basic thermal underlay at Mr Bricolage. The difference is astounding! The floor now feels cosy and comfortable underfoot. Kevin carried out the golf ball bounce experiment to show me how my dropped plates stood a better chance of survival now that we had used underlay. On the un-underlay-ed surface, the ball bounced up to a height of about four feet, creating a nasty clacking, cracking sound. With underlay in place, the ball bounced only a few inches, creating a warm, feathery thud. Astounding, indeed!

I'm just too excited about our sink unit! We couldn't find any units that we loved- they were all rather same-y. I began to hanker after a bold mix of ancient and modern and toyed with the idea of placing the modern sink and tap into the top of an old sideboard. While visiting friends, and being shown around a little cottage (under renovation), adjoining their main house, I suddenly came face to face with the 'sideboard' I'd been dreaming of. It was a decoratively carved dresser; I rudely expressed my desire for it! I know, I'm shameless. But it turned out that the dresser was just hanging around there, unloved and a bit awkward, and it belonged not to the cottage owners, but to the lovelies, Em and Pete, who willingly gave it to us! It features carved dogs' heads! Look!

We're separating the sideboard bit and the plate rack bit, but the plate rack bit will be screwed to the wall, higher up, to allow space for the big modern curvy tap and a tiled splash-back. I'll let you see how it turns out soon. The final article will be gloriously chalk-painted. Don't worry... it'll be okay.

And now to the bees. There are some little bees who dedicate their day to buzzing around on the pitted surface of our drive. It's the patch that stays wettish due to the drain from the caravan sink. It's just washing-up water, but the bees appear to love it. There are, invariably, between twenty and thirty bees busying away at any one time. Polly enjoys lying down next to them to doze, adding to the zeds.