Kitchen makeover in small house - We love it!! PART 2

So after the painting, and decluttering, and getting it right, here's what the finished room looks like:

 

So here we are on a gentle tour round our new small space.  We had a British Bake Off oven installed at chest height for comfort.  And the door folds right underneath for ease of access to dishes inside.  No "reaching", no fear of burning!

All the boards at the front are those used most, and they are collected together in an old box that once held just a bottle of wine.  C'mon!... it doesn't all have to be perfect, and this cost nought!

Anthropologie Sale - oh yes!  £10ish each reduced to £1.99 so lush upper knobs at a saving of £90!

We loved the tiles - especially after choosing a selection of square light and dark grey tiles and then them not matching the cupboards.... got a refund, went somewhere we didn't know existed, and found these lovelies!

Remember in Part 1 I showed you a gaping hole under the oven.  What a waste, but the cabinet for these kinds of ovens are a stock size, and you get what it called a "vanity panel" to fill in what's left.  Mmmmmm.  Well - here's that vanity panel attached to a drawer we asked a local carpenter to make for us - more "stuff" has a home!

Go to PART 3 now, following on immediately!

Kitchen makeover in small house - We love it!! PART 1

Long time coming..... here's our new kitchen!!  But first, as this is Part 1......

This was the old kitchen.

The room was extended by 3 feet so it had been only 9 feet long.  It's still small, 8 feet wide and 12 feet long in total.

You can probably guess that we didn't have enough storage!  All the working tops were covered in "stuff" the rubbish bin was permanently on display, everything was fighting for space.  We had this kitchen for 15 years!

At it's worst.............

we just didn't have enough space to put everything away!!  In this picture, right in the centre above the dishwasher, although you cannot see it, we had two wine boxes side by side with "stuff" in and on top of them!

Moving on, and telling you what went out:

Green cabinet on the right in picture above, in store in our summer house because I love it and want to find it another home.
Trolley under green cabinet, now in summer house awaiting a new owner.
Cooker/Stove now passed on to someone else.
Cream wall cabinets cabinets taken by someone for their workshop.
Waste bin went to a recycling centre

We kept:

The knife rack (top pic on the wall).
Kettle and toaster.
Lots of the "stuff" you can see all over the work tops.
Washing Machine.
Dishwasher.
Extractor.

But before the change, we went to see four different kitchen companies - one was way too expensive for not very much; one was not really quite what we wanted, another we nearly went with - and finally,  not a quarter of a mile from home, we found a new company who worked with us and gave us exactly what we wanted for an affordable price.

And here we are almost at the end result:

The night the kitchen fitter finished, so not yet  Wow!  but nearly.....

Ignore the symbol, this is not a movie, but just a decent pic of the sink and the hob

...and come back tomorrow and see what we did with this bit of spare space

Next post I'll show you wall colour and some close ups of our storage and you can see what you think!

Anne's House of Dreams - L M Montgomery

This is the 5th in the series about Anne Shirley, the little girl who got sent to Matthew and Marilla's farm at Green Gables by mistake (the had asked for a boy).  She had ginger hair, and never stopped talking.  Written over a period of years, the author also covered Anne's growing up, education, career and marriage.

Anne and her beau, Gilbert Blythe, are married in the garden of Green Gables, and set off for a new life in a small house on the other side of Prince Edward Island, sight unseen by Anne.  Gilbert is taking over a medical practice as a new GP, and rented this house as the retiring doctor is staying on in the home where his practice was.    So Anne and Gilbert arive, and Anne finds that it is indeed (as the romantic she is) her "house of dreams".  Adventures befall her, new friends are made. Some real sadness in this book along with joy, for that is way of things, back then or now.  Having read myself through the series I found I liked this one the best, and as usual there are some great characters.   I loved it, and now it only leaves me Anne of Ingleside (although there are more books about the children if I take a fancy!)

Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars - Miranda Emmerson

I surprised myself at how much I enjoyed this at first seemingly light read.  Certainly easy to read (I zipped through this less than 300 page book over a weekend) and totally different; this was a spin on what seemed at first like a murder mystery, but  whilst certainly a mystery  - a good one - it's only possibly a murder - no body can be found however hard the police investigate.  Police procedures in the 1960s were certainly not what they are now and ignorance and abhorrent behaviour was sort of taken for granted.  Set London, An actress disappears.  Totally.  Her dresser Miss Treadway at the theatre is out of a job temporarily because the play was pulled when the lead disappeared and the theatre is dark for a while; and with time on her hands she is quick to try to find her actress. So in her very amateurish way, she starts to investigate the disappearance of Iolanthe Green.  She's only on the front pages for a short while as a dreadful case up North takes over, and suddenly no-one is talking about the missing actress anymore.

But there is much more to this story than the missing actress.  Lies, deceit  and an acutely smart observation on racial issues at that time form only part of the book.  It has a great twisty surprise half way through and a nicely surprising end too.  If, like me, the current explosion of psychological thrillers is not for you, try this one - I recommend it!

   

Mrs Mac Suggests - what to read in AUGUST '19

The Day Lilies are almost over;  the roses may pick up since we had a night of rain recently (although we could do with more).  Whilst sitting in the garden reading this week I saw movement from the corner of my eye, and there was a Wren!  The tiny creature dancing about on a brick propped up against the wall of the house - and just for me!  We know they are in the garden, we know they nest at the bottoms of the hedges, but it's rare to see one so close.  A gift just for me.

So talking about reading, what shall we read in August?  I think you need to look on your shelves for

Something with a very odd title!

 Me?  I took off the shelf

Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars - Miranda Emmerson

which I think is odd enough!  Enjoy August, ask for rain (but only at night) and if you are having a holiday - enjoy!

The Speckled People - Hugo Hamilton

This is a fascinating little memoir of Hamilton's early years.  A "Free Ireland" father, and a German mother, he and his siblings spoke only "Irish" (Gaelic) or German at home, and English when their father was not around to hear them.  At one point he describes some other children playing cowboys and indians in the street, but he could not join in  because cowboys and indians could not possibly be played in the Irish language.....  They were loved and cared for, but during the course of the book various beatings were meted out by their father for not speaking Irish:  he even made his own life difficult by wanting to make a little more money than his job paid and various schemes were put into practice.  Most failed because of his insistence of only dealing with people who would pronounce his Gaelic name properly (and most couldn't).   His mother, a gentle soul with a dark secret, came to Ireland after WW2 and only rarely went back to visit family and friends in Germany and was homesick for long periods of time.

There are some nice little insights into recent history here - how non-Nazi supporters had to act during Hitler's rule, and how kind those people tried to be if they could.  His mother referred to the Nazis as "the fist people" and it's easy to see why.  Then there was the building of the Berlin Wall - up in the 1960s, gone by the late 1980s; and the blowing up of Nelson's column in Dublin.  I found some parts rather harrowing, but Hamilton has such a wonderful writing style here that I found it quite magical too.

Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man - Fanny Flagg

When Daisy Fay and her parents move to Shell Beach, Mississippi, she starts a diary, and you'll find out lots of things about Daisy Fay's family, her Father's drinking, her Mother's disappointment in him, and Daisy Fay's life.  She's eleven, and Flagg has captured the mind of an eleven year old so well.  She's funny.  She's a tomboy.  She hates maths, and why shouldn't she?!  Her Father has raised money to buy a half share in a fast food and drink establishment on the beach, and he has loads of ideas about making money down there in the South.  It's no surprise that the ice cream freezer is soon full of road kill and the like, because one of those schemes involves taxidermy from a "teach yourself" course.  And no, it wasn't a success!

She's a brave kid, always the optimist. It's not too long, after many rows and makeups, that her Mother leaves, and Daisy Fay becomes even more independent.  Her father drinks even more, invites "women friends" to stay the night and at the end of the first year the business has made a loss.  Her life is described as though she was talking to you, a friend she had just met, and in the most part you will laugh out load (a lot!).  But you will also have a great deal of sympathy for this tomboy who does not quite fit anywhere with  her specs and chipped tooth, and there is a nice balance of pathos too.

Along the way she looses her Mother, her dog, eventually the cat, but she makes some really good friends, and a couple of enemies too, and by the time the book ends she is eigheen and life has a surprise in store for Daisy Fay. I have enjoyed every one of Fannie Flagg's books and this is no exception.

Recommended except for this new cover..... she's a tomboy!  Jeans or shorts and a Tshirt - under no circumstances a cute gingham dress with puffy sleeves and neat hair.