Things have been quiet round here because we have been busy putting a new kitchen into our house. If DIY isn’t your thing you probably want to skip this post.

A quick recap, we had been making do with this:

The previous weekend we ripped it out and so Friday we started with this:

By Friday night (circa 22.30) our plumber had sorted out the pipework on the right and we had laid the majority of the new floor:

By Saturday evening things had moved on a pace and the first coat of paint and wallpaper had gone on; the washing machine, dishwasher, fridge and upper left hand units had all gone in. Meanwhile all the lefthand side units had been built. The cooker hood took a bit of fiddling to get right but that to went up:

By Sunday we were flagging and the four of us went for a well earned lunch. Yet we still managed to get to this point:

The cooker arrived Monday morning and with that work commenced on the left hand worktop, plumping in the sink, more door hanging, handle fixing, securing of left hand base units and some minor replastering on the left hand wall. In short we worked our arses off, conscious of only having one more day. For some reason we didn’t really get a picture of this part.

Tuesday, our plumber renewed the kitchen waste, the boiler got a shiny box in which to hide and the kitchen came to life as it became functional once more. There are still some finishing touches left to do: a final lick of paint, a splashback behind the cooker, some tiling, an upstand or two, the kickbacks and some trim. But we have a fully working kitchen for the first time in two and a half years. And right now it looks like this:

I realise you may not want to see it but I fully intend to post a picture when the final paint job and finishing touches are in because we all worked like the clappers to make this happen (bear in mind none of us had ever done a kitchen completely solo). That includes our friends M and L who kindly lent a hand (and valuable expertise): we genuinely couldn’t have done this without their help, thanks to you both.

And now I need some rest.