In preparation for the installation of the kitchen on the 29th, the new timber floors needed their first sand & polish. The rather major impacts of this were that we would no longer have any furniture downstairs (we only had a table and chairs but this enabled us to eat and type comfortably) and we would no longer have a kitchen (not even the makeshift kitchen that has been serving us well for the last 2 months). Our plan was for the sanding to happen on Tuesday next week but the sander brought it forwards to suit himself so we are without a kitchen for 6 extra days.

The photo above shows the sanded floors. The photo below shows where our kitchen used to be (and one day will be again).

Floor sanding

On Saturday the first polish was completed. We had to stay out of the house for as long as possible so we sent the kids to our friends house (thanks Najmeh) while we watched a late film at a cinema! We probably still didn’t give it enough time to dry as our footprints were visible the next day, but that should be fixed up when they do the final sand & polish after the kitchen is fitted. The good news is that it looks fantastic and exceeded our expectations.

Downstairs – first polish

Upstairs – first polish

The painters have finally finished. It look longer than expected (and costed more of course). We changed our minds about one or two things and there was quite a bit of patching up to do. The painters weren’t exactly quick but they did great work and were good to deal with.

Internally, the colours are the same upstairs and downstairs. Similarly, the colours outside are the same, but with a catch: we used to have exposed brickwork at the front half of the house, and now we have painted brickwork! It was a scary decision but has really freshened up the house and made it more beachy.

There is now almost no work happening until the kitchen is installed. We FINALLY got a delivery date from the kitchen people but it’s not until the end of the month – they blamed us for changing our minds about the design and we blame them for not managing the process better/faster. Anyway, now we have to orchestrate the complicated set of tasks and dependencies that will start on 25 April. This will involve at least 9 trades plus multiple deliveries happening in the right order on specific days…