5.05.2022 Working well above my pay grade!

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 Thursday 5th 38F, bright start. Up at 5.45am. I have a bad back [and shoulders.]

 Kitchen Therapy Project ongoing: I am expecting the hob and the new sink to be delivered today. I had been arguing for years that we should renew the kitchen and all its appliances. My wife flatly refused.  

 Being able to finally carry out the work, with a completely free hand, is a very big deal for me. Alas, it is far, far too late. To be enjoyed by its main user over the last twenty five years.

 I built the kitchen probably a couple of decades ago. Mostly from recycled items. Now it is being recycled again. Though not nearly as efficiently IMO. It will soon become just more scrap metal and rotting wood at the recycling yard. 

 Beware of stubborn resistance to change. It may be hiding severe, underlying depression. The glaring clues are all there. If only you can open your eyes to see them. I didn't and will always regret it.

 My first half hour, on this sunny, Thursday morning, was spent outside in the warm sunshine. Clearing the Horse Chestnut trimmings. Unless I re-saw or lop them sensibly it will be two trailer loads. The branches are too stiff and bent to lie flat.

9.15 54F. Presently enjoying morning coffee and a wholemeal bread roll with marmalade. 

 The ceramic hob has arrived nice and early. In a van which could easily have made it down the drive. I ran along to the 'T.' Just to save the driver from negotiating the last hundred meters. Normally they send an 8-axle, articulated lorry.

 Once it was placed in the desired position. Resting on the old working surface. The hob proved to be much larger than expected. I thought I had the layout all clearly fixed in my mind. Obviously some user error in the kitchen designer, software upload. 

 I'm seriously thinking of lifting the mini-oven onto a shelf. The toaster and kettle can go underneath. This will raise the mini-oven to eye level. Then I can monitor my salmon pasty's progress more easily. Not that it really needs it. Leave it for 25 minutes and that about the extent of the cookery skills required. Moreover, it would same me getting my hands and knees dirty while grovelling to see into the oven. I'm getting far too old for that sort of thing anyway.

 Or, I could move the mini-oven onto a raised surface behind me. It could sit beside the upright, fridge freezer. After I have moved the latter 6' to the right. This will produce a nicely compact, working triangle. Though at the expense of needing new electric sockets on the far wall.

 Or extension leads while I sort out all the bugs? This 75-year-old, kitchen design software is a nightmare! I actually glimpsed the mini-oven on top of the fridge freezer, behind me. Sheer genius?  Or another bug..?

 Hmm. The fridge freezer is only 120cm high. Absolute perfection for a [newly appointed] Head Chef. To [occasionally] supervise his mini-oven. Coincidence? Sometimes you just can't make these things up!

 Oh no! I just saw the fridge freezer in the corner of the working surface with the mini-oven on top. That would leave the entire kitchen completely free of clutter. The "towering edifice" could even be housed in a new alcove built beneath the stairs! No!

 Lots more room for a [modest] table and chairs. New window in the [western] end wall? To admire the garden as the sun sets? A proper kitchen-diner? Oh dear, now I need a scale drawing. I'm clearly working well above my pay grade here! 😂

 The fridge has now been moved to the NE corner of the kitchen and the mini-oven placed on top. This opens up much better arrangements for the hob in the middle of the new working surface. While freeing up the entire western end of the room. 

 The existing dining table [in the lounge] is a bit too large for this space. A smaller and squarer table, with only two chairs [for optional views] would be much more sensible. Though it needs a new window to provide an interesting viewpoint. Otherwise it is just a table and chairs in the closed end of a kitchen. Somewhere to sit when my legs get tired?

 The new sink with a proper draining board turned up in the post at 10am. Excellent finish and it will finally get rid of the tired, old, twin, inset sinks. 

 It took and hour to clip and  load them compactly. Before I got rid of the trailer full of Horse Chestnut branches to the recycling yard. Then returned home for lunch.

Afterwards I delivered some stuff to a charity shop. Then drove on to deliver more old paint, chemicals and batteries to another recycling yard. They don't all accept this sort of material. 

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