Home, sweet home

We’ve been back from the cruise now for a week and a half, and although feeling rested after two weeks away from home, rolling about on the high seas, we’ve come home to a mountain of work. Some of you may remember me mentioning having a new kitchen fitted, whilst we were away, and whilst it was obviously a good idea to have the work carried out in our absence, we arrived home to find the place in chaos. Like nearly all construction projects, the job over ran, and whilst not by much, it was still sufficient to cause more than its fair share of chaos.

Although the majority of the work was complete, many items were either out of place, or packed away in various boxes, and then tucked away in the garden shed. The most significant issue was the amount of dust, which was perhaps inevitable given the poor condition of the room to begin with. The previous owner of the property had a fixation for pine match-board, which he used to line the kitchen walls, but what might once have been fashionable in the late 1970’s, now looked drab and decidedly outdated. It certainly made the room appear very dark, a look accentuated by the fact that whilst pinewood starts off very light in colour, it darkens significantly with age.

Moreover, the ceiling was in poor condition, a fact made worse by this person’s clumsy DIY attempt at covering it in Artex. The stuff was all the rage during the post-war years, but I have never been a fan of  as it collects dust and looks untidy, even when professionally applied. Left to a bodging amateur, the finish is as bad as you can imagine, but fortunately all that has changed, with the installation of a nice, smooth replacement ceiling directly over the old one. The same applied to the walls, as I’m sure you can imagine the damage caused when it came to removing the pine match boarding. The kitchen now has smooth, professionally plastered walls and ceilings, along with a new vinyl floor covering. Also included in the deal were the cupboards, drawers, work surfaces and appliances, including a gas hob, electric oven, and much to our delight, a dishwasher.

We started the clear out of the old kitchen, several few weeks before our holiday, a job that included the room that connects the space to the dining and office area. We spent a significant amount of time boxing-up crockery, cooking utensils and cutlery, taking some  items to the charity shop, whilst disposing of others. It was a race against time, as the deadline loomed for our Sunday morning departure, but we managed by the skin of our teeth to clear the kitchen-cum-dining room, storing items we wanted to keep in our garden summer house. A few days before leaving, we handed over the keys to the two brothers we’d engaged to carry out the work and then left son Matthew in charge of the property.

That worked well for the first week, but for the second one, the lad was dog-sitting for his cousin, looking after three very lively spaniels. Rather him than us, as he certainly had his work cut out with these hounds, but it did give him a break, plus a change of scenery as well.  His cousin’s house also provided Matthew with a place to shower because halfway through the build project, our hot water system developed a fault. The cause was later identified as a build up of sludge, plus a malfunctioning pump, which was relatively easy to rectify. This isn't the first time that something like this has happened during our absence, but in this instance we’re fairly certain that replacing a radiator in the dining room and thereby disturbing the sludge that had built up in the system, was the cause of the incident.

It was straight back to work on Monday morning, but fortunately my in-tray, or should that be inbox, wasn’t too full, although on the home front it’s back to the clutter and the “joy” of sorting through several decades of accumulated junk. I made a rather half-hearted effort before we went away, but now I have some time to go through what has been haphazardly stored in the shed. I trust that Mrs. PBT will do the same, as she tends to keep many items, but I get the impression that this time around she will grasp the opportunity, and finally let go of things she no longer requires, or indeed desires.

That’s more than enough domesticity for now, but in spite of the upheaval remain convinced that we did the right thing by having our kitchen replacement carried out whilst we were away from the property. And as things slowly get back to some semblance of normality, I shall have more time for the pleasurable things in life, such as trips to the pub. I’ve only had time for a couple of pub visits, so far, one of which involved some excellent Goacher’s beer, in one of their tied pubs- the Rifle Volunteer, in Maidstone. Closer to home, there are several pubs that are due to re-open following either refurbishment, or a change of ownership. So, some interesting times in the pub trade, as well as things closer to home.