More on the door

Well there's not been much making or baking here for the last week or so, only some filling, sanding, filling, sanding, filling sanding... and sadly that's not edible filling either.  We've put oursleves on a bit of a diet following several months of not worring about such things so my trusty Rosemary Conley's Low Fat Cookbook has made it's way back into the kitchen.  The recipes are surpisingly good and tasty but there are very few cake recipes in there!  Plus, these chillier mornings and evenings are starting to make me think of autumnal food, caseroles, roasts, sausages, cheese, crumbles...

Still, to take our mind off such things, we have Project Front Door.  Work on the front door has been moving very slowly, everytime we think we're nearly there it takes a small step backwards but, fingers crossed, it's going to be painted today.  The beautiful hinges already have two coats of a matt black metal paint and the oak door step is a couple of coats of varnish away from being finished.  Weather permitting, the knocking a hole in the wall could soon be upon us.  Maybe we can have a cake to celebrate!

Here's some photos of the progress so far:

My new kitchen!

Well it's nearly finished.  After over a year of struggling with the what had to be one of the worst designed kitchens going and it's 30cm of "worktop" we decided enough was enough.  We didn't have masses of money to throw at it and, in the long term plan of things, it isn't going to stay a kitchen so we had to be inventive. 

The kitchen as it was:

First thing was work top and having been starved of worktop for a while I wanted lots (and now have about 4m, oh yes!!).  We were going to buy an oak block worktop from the UK but living in France getting it here proved difficult.  It was a bit big and heavy for the car roof and getting someone to bring it over cost almost as much as the worktop itself.  Instead, we bought a belt sander, which was a similar price to the oak worktop, and turned some of the remaining original floorboards from the bedroom into a beautiful, characterful, solid chestnut worktop.  We removed the streaks of owl poo first!

How the worktop started out:

Then cupboards.  Fitted cupboards were out of budget so instead we found an old sideboard which was the right dimensions, only 35 euros and came complete with a rectangular marble top ideal for rolling pastry.  After ten minutes with "Reg" the wrecking bar removing some of the extra detailing and a quick sawing off of the legs the cupboard was ready to paint.

Trying the sideboard out for size post Reg and saw.  This wasn't our paint job!

Next was the sink.  The existing sink I actually didn't mind too much, even if it's draining boards clearly weren't designed for draining.  The main problem was that it was just too big so, another shopping trip found us another sideboard for 45 euros (complete with a top we've yet to use).  We used it as a temporary kitchen cupboard before we took the kitchen apart.

Again, after a few minutes with "Reg" taking the top off, some sawing at the back and another paint job we dropped the new white ceramic sink in.  The sink cost 73 euros from the local brico shop.

Finally, after a trip to Ikea for some shelves, the purchase of some end of line, 50% off tiles and a quick paint of the walls our new kitchen was finished.  Well it wasn't quite that simple, there was some swearing, a broken tap, numerous trips to the local brico and probably some more swearing but we think the end result was worth it.

The butchers block that Mr Joe built from the remains of old oak cider press.  The curtain hides the gap for the dishwasher.

A wall to display my lovely cat plates.

And finally with my lovely new oven raring to go - or it will be when the house electrics are sorted, a very long story...