Reno #5: befores and afters

We spent almost the whole day at the new house yesterday.

It’s coming along. The changes are no longer very dramatic, since the demolition is pretty much finished in the kitchen, but things are definitely still happening. Small details are changing: there are finishes and trims, and Bill is getting on with the task of constructing my mega-pantry wall, using two recycled cupboards from the old kitchen and some shelving. The wall he’s building it on features two light switches, a power point and a doorway adjacent to it, so there’s some tailoring to do in order to ensure the switches can be reached, and to curve the shelves beside the doorway so there are no sharp points sticking out.

This was the start of the plan. Two of the cupboards from the previous kitchen, one large stacked on top of one small and almost the same width, in the centre of the wall. Shelves to go either side. It’s a dead wall, facing the kitchen, and the side of a through-way into my sewing room. Shelves and cupboards were the obvious solution to make the most of the space.

Here’s where we are now. The bottom cupboard is on a shallow plinth so the doors clear the floor. The shelves due to go in on the left will taper/curve from full depth to lose about a third of their depth in the far left corner, for safety and to give clear access through the door next to them.

That big shelf at lower right is going to hold my stand mixer, food processor, etc, to save me having to bend down to haul them out from under the bench-top, and there’s a power point in there too, so I can have a light there as well, if I want it.

There was also a little more of my favourite job, wallpaper stripping. Remember the nasty stuff that appeared in the kitchen when we took the top cupboards down? It wasn’t just nasty in appearance…

That’s better. Still a little more to go, but I didn’t feel up to stepladder work by the end of the day, so it’ll have to wait.

And finally, I got the first coat of tung oil onto the breakfast bar/benchtop on the left side of the kitchen. It’s butcher block acacia, and I love the variations of colour – it’s actually a bit greyer-brown than it looks in this photo. Second coat today. We’re having the same timber for the L-shaped section of benchtop on the right, and the joiner who’s making it for us came over to measure for the mason’s mitre corner, where to put the join around the sink, etc. We’ll also be having open shelves in the same timber above, no top cupboards, to make the room feel larger.

Outside, it’s also looking better. The Husband has cut the grass and I’ve done some weeding. Today, we’re hoping to take over a trailer load of furniture, clearing the guest room and installing everything in the new guest room. We can’t do a whole lot of that while there’s still sawdust and plaster dust everywhere, but it’ll be nice to have one room ready.

And now, it’s time to up and at ’em once again.