Coffee and chocolate

miggy

MatyMoo wrote: »

New flooring will freshen up the kitchen, throwing food is OK if nobody will eat it anyway and treating yourself when you know you have the money to cover it is allowed!

Aw thank you Maty!

The fridge freezer is now out of its cubby hole and looking very odd in the centre of the lounge, and DH is taking up the old lino that was under it. This also gives us access to some pantry shelves that were largely inaccessible due to the odd shape of the room. I'd made what use I could of them but it was far from ideal - however we've now discovered I had stashed away a wedding gift of wine glasses, rather posh and completely unused, in one corner! The box was manky but the glasses have polished up beautifully - however I am wondering whether they are old fashioned enough to be retro! :rotfl:

miggy

Progress has been made, several bin bags have gone out of the door and we still have no space to spare!

The DSes and sundry other people have been haunting the kitchen with anything useable for measuring (rulers, arms, guestimates... 'Daddy where's the tape measure?'... 'No idea!' *Mutters* "Leave me alone I'm watching 'The Jury!' ") and have concluded that Freezer B won't fit in the larder even if shelves are taken out but Freezer A might go under the stairs if certain adjustments are made. Personally I have my doubts that, once the tape measure is found, we will discover enough space for Freezer A to be ventilated, but in the meantime it's nice to play at old fashioned kitchens with my real pantry shelves.

I have been on the computer dreaming of tiles. I'm totally unable to find some I saw a while ago and probably couldn't afford anyway, but I have fallen for these. Cute, eh?

MatyMoo

Sounds like a fun evening with more fun to come!

Those tiles are very cute but would give me nightmares (bit scared of meeces)

miggy

:j:j:j New cooker now standing on new floor! :j:j:j

Not actually wired in yet, but that will happen.

The delivery people asked me if I wanted the packaging taken off the cooker before it came into the house and I said 'no', in case it got knocked on the way. They then tipped it over in getting it off the lorry, so I'm glad I thought of that! Seems fine though. Dh has come in on his lunch hour and is very pleased at the overall effect, though we now have to think about getting the other white goods back in without scratching the floor. I've asked DS1 to mastermind that as he's good with these things.

Now for a quick(ish) trip to see Mum and hope to be back in time to see DS2's reaction (probably a grumpy 'Uh!' when he realises we can't cook on it yet!)

miggy

MatyMoo wrote: »

Those tiles are very cute but would give me nightmares (bit scared of meeces)

Sorry Maty! Would some hedgehogs do instead? (Or 'hedge hocks', as the catalogue sweetly puts it!)

I couldn't find any puppies.

My BIL's house before he got married was on a farm and had pyrography drawings around the skirting boards with critters, tractors and the like - very appealing indeed. However I will probably end up getting something totally different for the kitchen. As you say - mice aren't necessarily for everyone - especially not near food!

MatyMoo

There are some beautiful tiles on there, I love the chicks and the kitchenware.

Hope it isn't too long before the cooker is connected - what plans have you for it''s first meal?

miggy

I don't know what the first meal will be... depends how long till electrician can come out but I'm not going to hassle him as he has a young family and deserves his Friday evening as much as anyone. Will give him a ring back later if he doesn't do so first, because I said I would, and hope he has half an hour free tomorrow.

Tomorrow isn't ideal because I've been offered a chance to go and watch what DS1 says is something to do with horses and which a bit of questionning suggests is probably dressage. (Rubs hands gleefully! Big dressage fan even if I know very little about it.) Well, we shall see. The cooker is more important but the horsey event is only an hour or so.

In the meantime the kitchen is throwing the rattle out of the pram again. This time the dishwasher connection is leaking. It didn't like being moved. DH has just gone to get a gadget that should improve things. At least it's leaking onto a clean, leak-proof surface!

Maty, yes, there are some lovely tiles on that site, aren't there? I was seriously considering the enamel jug or the bunch of keys just because they're fun, but I also liked the ladybirds and the horses, though neither is what I'm looking for in the kitchen.

By the way I've just had a look at the bank acount and it doesn't seem that the cooker money has gone out yet so I'm not going to transfer any to savings and/or mortgage. I have to think carefully what's best as we are getting closer to knowing more about the future of DH's job. Cuts are likely to be around 20% but will that be in posts or hours? We may know more in a few weeks.

MatyMoo

Huge horse fan here, love show jumping and eventing But I can't take dressage seriously since I saw Camels do it at Olympia :rotfl:

Fingers crossed you get to do the horse thingy and manage to get the electrician there to get the cooker up and running.

Flippin Dishwasher, hope DH stops it rebelling!

miggy

MatyMoo wrote: »

I can't take dressage seriously since I saw Camels do it at Olympia :rotfl:

Oh now how many people can say that?! I suppose it's like clowns doing ballet - no reason they shouldn't, but it seems a little incongruous!

Mum passed her love, and some of her knowledge of horses on to me and even gave me riding lessons for a while - it's one of those things I will probably do again one day, when not fending off dishwashers, lino and the like. Meanwhile Mum and I can sit and watch for hours. The horses, I mean, not the lino.

DH and a neighbour who had the right gadget have fixed the dishwasher so in a minute I am going to see if it's safe to put a load in the washer next to it.

And... the electrician has just offered to come round early afternoon tomorrow so with a bit of juggling I may yet be making that Sunday lunch!

miggy

Tonight's news - cooker installed :j and operational :j:j! First meal cooked in it was oven chips, to make up for DS2 getting steadily more and more deprived over recent weeks. He did the cooking - he did text to ask me first, but didn't wait for a reply!

The afternoon watching dressage was very good with some superb horses: not very MS as I am now thinking how much I would like to be in the saddle, but it didn't actually cost me anything.

We've bought in some supplies for mainstream cooking and for the first time gone way over the food budget, by about £12. That didn't even include Christmas Cake ingredients. Must remind myself this is not how we got back into the black and there is a tonne of stuff in the freezer to be worked through.

The good news is that tomorrow's pudding can be fruit crumble which will use things we already have, even to the accompanying custard.