3.05.2022 Playing at kitchen design.

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 Tuesday 3rd 44F, overcast start clearing to brightness. Breezy. Up at 6am. The "experts" agree on 7 hours of sleep being optimum for old farts like me.

 No walk so far. I was expecting another workman but they haven't turned up. 

 My next project/creative therapy is a complete redesign of the layout of the kitchen worktop. I shan't bore you with [all] the details. New, 3.63m long worktop. Laminate for practicality and cleanliness. Oak, wood grain is easy on the eye, low reflection and matches the existing one. Scrap the existing wooden worktop, the cooker, both inset sinks and the old extractor hood.

 I have ordered a new, ceramic hob to go in the middle of the new and longer worktop. By sheer coincidence the new board will extend exactly over the old cooker area. So I will gain a useful working surface beyond the sink. Yet to examine making shelving arrangement under that surface. Pans?

 A new and MUCH QUIETER extractor system will be going up through the ceiling above the new hob. The old one was like a jet engine and UNUSABLE! I have ordered a new, stainless steel sink with built in draining board. [No fuss practicality!] 

 Now I just have to rearrange the mixer tap, plumbing and drainage. Job done. 😏😊 

 I have just checked the temperatures. Outside in shade 60F. Indoors upstairs 72F. Downstairs kitchen 64F on the sunny side of the house. Greenhouse [sensor in shade] pro-quality shade netting over roof area only, 103F! With the hedge all but gone I now need to shade the front of the greenhouse. 

 I went to the city in the afternoon to collect the new kitchen worktop. It came back lying on top of the trailer and well strapped down. It was incredibly heavy. Just at about my limit to carry it across to the house. 

 Once inside I discovered that simple geometry is no answer to limited space. It would no go into the kitchen. Not even when I took the kitchen door off. Not even with one end in the bathroom and the other up in the corner of the kitchen ceiling! If I lifted it to go out of the window above the sink it would still not clear the corner. It is about 15cm too long. 

 By coincidence I have a plank of exactly the same length. I shall try that tomorrow to see what might work. It might just go out of the window. With the other end in the front hall. Without having to lift the dead weight of the worktop itself. I would much rather not cut the board any shorter. 

 It felt wrong today being in the city without my wife in the passenger seat. Though I had been there several times on my own since she gave up going out. It didn't feel wrong then. Because I knew I could come back to find her at home.

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