About three years ago our conservatory roof started leaking.  First a little, then the sort that required a bucket.  We were assured that the old style plastic roof that had been fitted around 10 years before we moved in 7 years ago had lasted far longer than it was designed to.  And if one of those giant Beachville seagulls took it upon themselves to drop a pebble on the roof it was so brittle we’d have more than a bucket sized leak. So we figured we should probably do something about that.

And the kitchen appliances that we’d also inherited started to get a bit grumpy so we knew we’d have to replace them at some point.  So obviously it made sense to rip out the whole kitchen and start again.  And take down a wall while we were at it.  Oh, and the floor too….right through to the lounge.

(And when I say ‘we’, we actually had nothing to do with it.  We left for a week in Cornwall three weeks ago and the most amazing team of builders entered).

We have gone from this:

(these were taken as we were emptying it.  It was usually marginally tidier)

To…(three weeks in)…this:

We have a couple more weeks left. And I wont lie – I wont miss trying to make three  dinners a night for a two veggies and one meat eater using my teeny tiny kitchen of two rings, a microwave and an air fryer, but actually, my temporary kitchen is about the same size as the one I had at Pog Towers.

And I wont miss washing up in the teeny tiny sink in the utility room.

And I wont miss having all the windows open when I cook so the house doesn’t stink of onions and spices.

And I wont miss eating in the office on a teeny tiny table.

And I wont miss spending all day in the office working and all evening reading or watching tv on a laptop because the tv is in the freezing, dust lounge (obviously we took the radiators out too). I really wont miss sleeping in the office the few nights I did because Mr R had some kind of lurgy and was a sweaty, sick mess.

But most of all I wont miss the dust. Because who the hell knew you could wipe and hoover and spray and dust and EVERYTHING only to find an hour later that the bloody dust is back again, over everything, even the bedrooms that have had their doors shut all the blimin’ time?!

But I know it is absolutely going to be worth it.  Three more weeks and I’ll be about to spend the weekend cooking up a storm with a stunning view, space to move, a conservatory room I can watch the stars through and an oven that actually wants to cook.  (There is the small issue that every new appliance is touch operated and my hands are so cold that I can rarely get my phone to do anything, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.. 😉)