14.12.2024 All change!

 ~o~

  Saturday 14th 36F/2C. Overcast, rain and wind.

 Up at 7am after drifting. Another quiet night. Woke at 4am.

 After deciding which kitchen whiteware I like I am struggling to find the oven in stock anywhere. The mini oven is already hopeless. The washing machine isn't so desperate but ought to be replaced soon. The top loader in the bathroom stinks. As do the clothes coming out of it.

 11.45. Drizzling. I have ordered an oven and a washing machine. From a nearby dealer. One of a nationwide chain. Delivery expected next Wednesday. The oven is easy. Plug and play. If you ignore the naked exterior. It can go on top of the recycling cupboard. Though I still need to find a smart box to house it. IKEA? No. I'll keep looking for a pine storage solution in a charity shop. That would make a better match with the cupboard than white, plastic laminated chipboard.

I need an electrician and a plumber to have the washing machine in the kitchen. I bought a riser base for the washing machine. 30cm gain in height brings the door up to slightly above praying mode. At least I have finally done something. I have been pondering a serious upgrade for years. My late wife would not accept any change. 

 Now I have to make some brave new decisions on kitchen layout. No real lack of room. Just a lack of proper organization. The shoe storage towers can now go elsewhere. Leaving the alcove free to house the ugly pine dresser. Or just the base? Sans shelving? Or not  at all? It presently only holds a collection of drinking glasses. Which were never used. Except on a few, very rare occasions. 

 My problem is, as always, an excess of stuff. All of which needs to be found a new home. The shoe towers have gone under the stairs in the living room. The bags of fine sand for rendering the living room wall? No idea. The scruffy dresser base could go under the TV in the living room. Its badly finger-marked, naked pine seriously needs a coat or three of paint. I could find something smarter in many charity shops. The TV belongs up on the wall. Losing furniture means sorting and hiding more stuff. It's all Catch 22!

 The recycled hospital trolley in the far left corner has to go. It doesn't have a middle shelf. So it is mostly supporting damp air. The junk on the lower shelf does not belong anywhere. Not where there is any pretense at being a proper kitchen. The trolley projects into the intended washing machine space. I do not want the washing machine under the working surface. My knees couldn't stand the constant grovelling. Which leaves space for shelving or neatly stacked storage tubs under the working surface beyond the sink. The worktop is currently a repository for dirty dishes.

 I could take down the shelves currently housing the tinned larder. Storage for the .gov recommendation to survive a crisis. That could go out of sight under the worktop. Then it wouldn't be easily read to see what was missing or in need of a top up. Let's not try that.

 15.30 The dresser has been emptied and the shelves cleared. A square storage tub has been completely filled with the drinking glasses. The trolley cleared and dragged into the hall for disposal elsewhere. Possibly back to the greenhouse. It is the right height for a workbench. The dresser has been moved to the right and backed into the alcove. 

 Plenty of space for the washing machine now. The paint, building materials and rendering tools need a new home. Unless they can be hidden at the back without becoming inaccessible. I am hot and tired now. So need a rest.

 Dinner was sardines on toast with tomatoes. I had to do a lot of tidying before I could even reach the work surface. The horrible image at the top is when the mess was at its worst. I am sorting everything into storage tubs. Which will go under the far end of the work surface. The low, white "table" at centre is the platform for the washing machine. I considered rotating the machine to fit at the end of the work surface. This would mean shortening the work top by several centimeters. Not a major problem but the ashing machine would be tight against the end wall.

 The far end wall needs to be insulated and covered in plasterboard. I had previously boarded it with recycled, vintage pine. Up to the yellow wallpaper level. After two decades the wood was riddled with woodworm. So it all had to be taken down. Moving the pine dresser has exposed the ugliness once safely hidden. 

 9.00 Now I have to do a load of washing up! Half an hour's worth.

 

  ~o~