Kitchen men cometh

Did I mention we have a big hole in the wall in our house? This is step 1 of phase 1 of the Road to a New Kitchen, aka (for the residents of this house) the Road Never Previously Travelled.

It is a terrifying road. The house as it stood when we bought it had a lousy kitchen. The type of kitchen that someone with Laura Ashley taste who doesn't cook might go for. I don't say 'might fit' because it isn't fitted. It's one wooden cupboard, a lot of twiddly shelves, a Belfast sink, a hob in the fireplace and wallpaper that looks like trellis. There isn't even an oven.

When we bought it we said, we will get the kitchen done. But we didn't have any money so we couldn't. We still don't have any money but two years have passed and somehow we can borrow more money without paying any more, because the house has gone up in value while interest rates have gone down.

I think this is evil, as we are basically getting ourselves into even vaster debt, but we took a leap for the sake of the kitchen. And now it's happening.

If we *had* had the luxury of money when we moved in, we would just have replaced the existing kitchen, but instead we had the luxury of time. And just before Christmas S suggested putting the kitchen in the long thin back room instead of the middle room it currently occupies.

A stroke of genius, but one whose execution involves turning French windows back into a normal window, and knocking an arch between the long thin back room and the conservatory which is a dining room.

And all we've got so far is a hole in the wall. A careful sequence of builders / carpenter / kitchen fitter / carpenter again / tiler (tbc) is all laid out, and this is what is so terrifying. At any point it could all go to shit, and we can't call the landlord.

However, today the cheque arrived from the new mortgage company. So at least we can pay for it. In many ways, that was the scariest part of all.

I know I'm not too young for all this, but I sure as hell feel it.

joella