Sunday 28 October 2012

Kitchen Details and Blurred Photos

We went along the coast to choose some worktops, G likes stone I like Formica.

My choice

Dogbone Storm
Bermuda

Earth
Midi Mode White on Folkstone

 or

Amber Burl
Boysenberry

I think Midi Mode White on Folkstone looks like a punch card knitting pattern and Amber Burl....that would just be too fabulous.

But there isn't the time to make a decision about what colour, what thickness and have it delivered before the fitter comes, and, sometimes you get the feeling the sales staff at the builders merchants are making things difficult for you because you are unsure of your needs at this time.
So that visit paled


On the same day the stone masons.
Mostly pale stuff for G.

I got on board with the following terrible photos.






This Verde Marinace comes in a red and it is awesome and we even priced it up and I may have talked G round before deciding it was way out of budget and secretly thinking that we would have to move if we ever went off it.


This was the best pic I could find on Google images, can you imagine!





At home previously G suggested these on the wall behind where all the cooking action happens I flatly said no, to which there was a rage eruption, I yelled something back about them being lovely but imagine cleaning them.




WHY did I always have to bring hygiene in to it?
I'll tell ya!
Because I am the one trying to keep on top of the house work but if he was offering to clean them I would gladly buy him the tooth brush that he would require and he could clad as much as he likes.

The lovely man in the stone shop agreed with me, completely impractical and the argument was closed.


Back at home I managed to say that as we both came from design back grounds it would be nice if we didn't plump for predictable wooden worktops and that it would be nice to imagine the alternatives, I think sometimes the engineer in G comes out and he just wants the job done and WTF's wrong with me.

So we started looking at copper, brass and pewter.
I can't even begin to up load some of the 100's of images I have saved to my phone.

We almost made a decision but I have an under mounted sink and I kept thinking what the return would look like in a metal and before you know it I am knackered and there is now a wooden work top delivered and ready to go in the hallway.

We went with Zebrano.




Funnily enough, Formica do a print just like it.


The oven G has bought has to be handmade in Italy, probably a bit of an over exaggeration, but it won't be shipped to the UK till mid November and then be delivered to the dealer and then on to us.

So with much disappointment we cancelled the re fit and it is now booked for the end of November.

Now G and I are discussing tiles, it is the last thing we need before paint colour.
I like antique mirror.

It has been half term this last week and a half and the girls have been full of fever and snot hence the big break in blog postings and Mrs B in Madrid from the previous post also put the fear in me by suggesting that she would link the Homestead into her Facebook page.
It sent me into hiding, freaking me out that people she knew might think 'what is this crap?', I couldn't do it to her.
I have analysed those thoughts mixed them up them up with a memory of an email from her regarding an Alexander McQueen jacket, taken a deep breath and decided to get a life.

None of that will make sense except to me so until next time

It's getting really cold out there.
CM

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Notes from Madrid

Yonks ago I posted, and I can't find it to share, a delicious email from Madrid describing the differences between buying a length of elastic in Spain and here in the UK.

I have been trying to find that post but can't because I don't LABEL things proper and I wanted to link it here to go with the new email that arrived yesterday.

You should know that Otto is under 5 and incredibly well turned out.
You should also note that his mother Mrs B when dressed for any occasion makes a peacock look like a pigeon and her poise makes a flamingo look like a lay about.


*Sigh*

I took Otto to have a haircut today.
We go to the barbers in the next street.  It's run by 2 eldery brothers who each day, co-ordinate their beautifully laundered candy-striped shirts, so they're matching.  (Cufflinks, of course)

It's a tiny shop, that's been open for decades.
The decor and chairs haven't ever been replaced, but are well cleaned and maintained.  The shelves are chocka with half-full bottles of cologne and hair pomades, going back about 50 years, but not a speck of dust.
The clippers are antique, and they still use razors and strops.
There's always an old man sitting in a waiting chair, reading out the bits in his paper that annoy him most.

Otto's lifted onto the red leather child seat that matches the chair, a cape is put on, and the trimming starts.
They do 2 cuts for boys: 1940s and 1960s, for the more rebellious parent, but it's really just a slightly longer 1940s.
We get a 1940s.
"Eres un bueno hombrecito?"
"Si"
"Entonces, los hombrecitos buenos cogen caramelos"
("Are you a good little boy?"  -"Yes"  "Well then, good little boys get a sweetie afterwards")

After a brief discussion of football, where Otto's asked if he's a little capitalist, for supporting Real Madrid, so switches allegience to Atlético Madrid (The left-wing underdogs)  his hair is done.
A swift side-parting, a spritz of cologne, then he's handed his Chupa-Chup (lollies, with Dalí-designed wrappers)

And that's it.  No chairs shaped like fucking rockets, with a Playstation and telly built in.  I can't imagine what they'd say if I said "Yeah, keep it long all over, except the front"

Wish you could come and take pictures.
Besos guapa,
Señora B


No pressure but it's one of the biggest treats of my year to receive these emails.
Apologies if you didn't want me to share.

I will remove it if you ask me to.



On another note G tried to order the carcasses for the kitchen today..............no........ not happening.
He had made the decision that oak was what was wanted.



Turns out you can only have these if you are trade and can guarantee that you will spend £3000 in one year.
Do businesses want to take money in a recession?

So it is wind out of the sales for the mister today.
Never mind.

We also now own a dishwasher, I am not sure how I feel about that one. I buy washing up liquid at 95p a bottle last lasts me three plus weeks and now I will be getting involved in things called Rinse Aid and limescale tablets and I can see an extra £10 on the monthly shopping bill.

See what tomorrow brings
CM

Monday 8 October 2012

We Are Getting a New Kitchen

G and I have spent the last couple of weeks raging at one another over our opinions and what the kitchen is going to look like.

It all started when he came to tell me about a two part resin white floor paint he plans to put down.
I'm not sold, mainly because once it is down it's going to take a lot of maintenance and if it is a mistake we will probably have to lay lino to cover it because it will never lift.
Anyway he could see the unease on my face and BANG we were off.


I'd ripped out the greasy kitchen when I moved in and me and the lodgers happily survived on small table from my grandmother, a sink, and what amounted to no more than some beer crates next to the oven.
I also bought part of an old stage but the ridges between the planks made for an unsuitable work top and that found its way to the skip.
I don't do salvage yards now following one too many bad decisions in the past.


A hundred years ago I saw Practical Magic and fell for the kitchen.
G and I set about putting a kitchen in at the turn of the century.
All the cupboard doors that were available in our tiny budget I didn't like. If you weren't happy with fake wood then they were vac formed plastic and a shaker knock off and I just didn't like them.
I thought keep checking the shops, fashions change and at some point someone will stock what you want.
It never happened and everything got really expensive. So to this day the contents of the carcasses remain open to view.

The kitchen is on the first floor and there were once trees outside each window and door.
We laid the wide boards and stained them black.
The light airy space was immediately depressing and it showed every speck of dust so the colour lasted about a season and I hired a sander and pulled them back to natural wood gave them a white wash and put a clear ballroom varnish over the top.




Before you know it 12 years have passed I never had the PM kitchen, the range cooker we have no longer works and I can't cope the the hob for cooking any longer so by Halloween we will have a brand new functioning kitchen.
But it's a bumpy ride to get there.

My tastes haven't changed I still like the mix and match look, I think it will probably look something like the following although G calls it slap dash, but he has become completely confused and no longer knows what he wants as I keep firing alternatives in to the mix.
My evil plan worked
Actually I spend most of my day in there so really I do believe I should have the final say.





All these images are from GOOGLE and my housey file, huge apologies for the lack of credit


So it is going to be kitchens all the way for the next couple of weeks.
Later I will tell what happened in the stone masons.

We bought an oven!

CM







Friday 5 October 2012

Totally Bombed!

I have a long list of blogs that I read every couple of days, it's instead of newspapers, gossip columns, fashion pages and interior design magazines.

So thank heavens for those creative on the internet. Probably saved me hundreds upon hundreds  of pounds over the last 5 years.

Somebody made a weekend list of links and in there was this you tube clip.
It is sweet.

Can you see it?
It's Chaddy Wisdom Teeth at Home if you search You Tube





G asks me what would I do if we won THE MONEY, I always say, I'd by Gas and Air.

Very determined to be a bit more organised by the end of the weekend, I think that was last weeks challenge but it kinda fell by the wayside.

Can see the path ahead of me but struggling to steer the course

CM