So Jo what's happening with your new kitchen?

Photo from Walk Among the Homes

Well may you ask. We have been trying to make a start on our kitchen renovation since this time last year. We ordered a kitchen, had to wait until it arrived in the country in November last year. Then we had a series of problems on our end ... problems that turned up in other areas of the house that ate up our kitchen budget, a tree that fell on the back of the house which caused insurance problems (have given up the fight on what remains outstanding on that one), trades that couldn't coordinate because of our delays, let our kitchen cabinets go in return for a credit to use when we were ready to start again, etc etc etc. Finally about a month ago we were ready to start again. Yay! Bring on the demolition!

Can you imagine walking into a kitchen where a blind husband is wielding a sledgehammer then an electric saw, followed by a circular saw, a crowbar and whatever else he could find in his tool shed? Welcome to renovating at my place. Surprisingly everything went well at the beginning. We had had an electrician in to isolate a couple of power points so we could remove cupboards and were happy with our first day's work. A small cupboard next to the stove was easy to remove (photo just above). Then we moved to the other side of the room and a large, heavy built-in along the wall. You can see it in the top photo on the left. Solid beast. Wasn't going anywhere. Let me apologise here for the quality of the photos. I was using my phone not my camera.

Look at those old bricks! So exciting. I'm planning to just have a long zinc topped bench/table/counter on wheels along this wall and a pantry at the end. Perhaps some shelves. And a sliding arm industrial style light on the wall. Next we demolished the lower cupboards and got our first glimpse of what was hiding behind this hulking wall of cabinets.

Yes that's a bow in the wall. Old limestone mortar gone. Cracks (but not in the bricks). Wall hanging out from plumb by 2.5-5cm. OMG! What are we going to do? You'll have to wait till my next post to find out :)