Boom! The kitchen lands!

I cannot remember if I mentioned that we went ahead and ordered our new kitchen. If not, we ordered our new kitchen!!

It was actually just over two weeks ago when we drove down to Ikea and just went for it.  I had been designing it using the online planner for a while but it hadn't really occurred to me that at some point we would be saying, YES, let's do this.  Or rather, it hadn't occurred to me that this was something we could do right now. I was a little scared when I sat down to talk to the guy in the shop and Neil occupied Nye.  Neil really hasn't had much input on the kitchen design or content, so if it's not right.  It is certainly my fault!

Yesterday the influx of boxes arrived and we currently have cardboard and polystyrene taking over the kitchen and dining room.  It looks a little something like this...

The whole design process was really easy, after measuring up and inputting the details we chose the units that we liked and tried to find a combination of draws and shelves that would work for us.  Compromises have been made as we know this isn't our 'forever' home so that's a no to the £1000 range cooker or even a double oven.  But we have managed to organise a built in microwave grill which will free up some much needed worktop space and a gorgeous ceramic sink.  The built in microwaves at Ikea are insanely expensive, I think because they have to have front ventilation.  So, on the day we ordered, we left off the microwave to see if our current one would fit, (no such luck).  However, we have  managed to find a second hand one on Ebay that appears brand new.  I couldn't be more thankful to the lovely lady who packaged it up so beautifully for me on it's travels from the south coast.

Last week we spent as much time as we could getting as much of the painting done as possible.  We first used a steam cleaner to give the walls and ceilings a thorough deep clean which instantly made such a difference.  Then, we used some leftover white paint to give the ceiling a bit of love.  It took us a few coats to really make it sparkle but that alone has refreshed the room.  Next we tackled the walls.  Whilst poking around for paint brushes we found a discarded pot of paint we initially bought for the bathroom and didn't like.  We thought it would be worth a try in the kitchen, as it wasn't doing anything sitting under the stairs, and even after a quick test patch we agreed that we thought it would work really well.  As I'd been dreaming of my white kitchen with pops of orange I spent a while sulking but we've since realised that using pops of orange kitchenware will still be possible and look brilliant.  So, we've already been out and bought up a few pieces of le creuset from our trusty TK Maxx. I really can't wait to see them in situ as I really think they will look ace.  So, the colour palette now looks like this:

Kitchen colours by jc on Polyvore.

The kitchen units themselves are an off white colour with a solid wood worktop, and the turquoise, Mountain Rain is being used only on the chimney breast to provide a bit of contrast. I'm also hoping to use some Margareta, wood look fabric to go in the alcoves.  The majority of the paint work is complete now, and we have started taking the tiles off the wall which wasn't too difficult.  Now we find ourselves in the position of trying to work out a good way of taking out the old kitchen, whilst balancing baby duties.  And you know that as soon as you take out the old one, we don't actually have a working kitchen, until we install the new one, yikes! 

So far we've both been googling anything we think will come in handy and have been out to buy a jigsaw to cut the worktops, purchased plastering equipment for the walls and working how we can get the best deal on ply wood for the floor.  It certainly feels like we are getting there, and I have no doubt it WILL be done by Christmas but oh boy is it a daunting task!

Our Kitchen - Moodboard

Since we were able to finally fix the floorboards in our kitchen, we've been talking so much about how we'd like our new kitchen to be.  So, to see how the colours would look I created the mood board below.  The only problem is, now I can't wait to get started!

Our Kitchen by jenni-clutten on Polyvore

August Holiday

I've unexpectedly had a bit more time off than I was anticipating as the agency I'm working for didn't have any work for me after my planned time off after I finished my last job.  The time has gone pretty fast, I've been relaxing quite a lot but also been able to have a lovely time with friends.

I am beginning to wonder what I have been doing with all my time, and I think in truth a lot of television watching .  I am also starting to notice that I am finding normal household tasks quite exhausting.  Even just taking the washing from the machine to the dryer upstairs really makes me feel like I need a good sit down!

I drew out an outline of our house today and listed in each room, the things we will need to do before the baby arrives.  A lot of it is stuff that doesn't relate directly to having the baby but I get the impression we'll have very little time or energy to do any D.I.Y after we have a newborn to look after.  I really hope that we can get all of the things done in time.  This list obviously includes the whole bathroom re-do so there aren't many things on the list that can be ticked off very easily.  The problem is quite a few of them involve extensive time, money and energy.  The time I have, but although Neil is at home he's working night and day on his masters Thesis. I swear you've never seen anyone work so much, I certainly don't have the concentration to be so dedicated to anything.

And, you're hearing me right, my husband is home! He arrived back late on Thursday evening and will be at home till his first day of term in September.  It's all a bit scary as in September he'll be a proper science teacher.  I'm so proud of him, thinking of him taking on all those girls and making them believe that Science is fun, useful and interesting.  If anyone can do it, he can.  I can't wait to hear about all the things they say, I'll bet they'll come out with some corkers!

I have been successful in finally tidying the 'Nursery'.  I was given a reason to tidy as my friends came to stay and needed some floor space to put down the bed.  There's still lots of stuff and very little storage but we are getting there.  We have so much clothing and we even managed to sort through it properly.  Being ruthless and getting rid of all the surplus stuff we have and then organising it in to 3 different sections. Stuff only for girls, stuff only for boys and things that are suitable for both.  Neil and I did have some disagreements on what constitutes unisex but we got there in the end and it was so much fun.  Even though all our stuff is second hand it's 'new' to us and it's so much fun looking through it.  Almost like being in a free sweetshop!

I also picked up some Duplo off Freecycle recently and spent a good afternoon making shapes.  I have to admit it was quite relaxing, so I hope the baby likes playing when they're old enough.  In any case I can play with it whilst they play with the multitude of other things we have available.

We even went to visit 'Babies'r'us and Mothercare yesterday.  We found the car seat we've been looking at (Britax First Class Plus) for a good price in Toys'r'us and tried to buy it but they wouldn't let us take the one off the shop floor and didn't have any in stock so we were foiled from buying anything yet again.  There was also nothing of interest to us in Mothercare, we have had so much stuff given to us we're quite stingy in terms of prices we're willing to pay.

However, we have now realised that Ikea do cot mattresses which we're sold on.  We were going to go and get one today but we decided to wait until I have a few more weeks wages in the bank.  They are really reasonable though and as the cot we were kindly donated is from there is makes sense.  (Also our own mattress is from Ikea and we love it.)  P.s how cute are Ikea toys!