The journey continues: visible progress

Right, time for a wee update! It's been long enough. A lot's happened since my last post, so much, in fact, that I'm cautiously optimistic we'll be ready for the kitchen when it arrives next week. But see for yourselves.

The kitchen at the end of August/beginning of September:

 Brick walls and cable spaghetti.

 Yay, cables, sockets AND a flue! And a random ladder. :)

 Our shoe rack is going to go where the door used to be.

 More cable spaghetti and a shiny new brick wall. The wall at the far end is going to be demolished, to create a passage to the living room. (See the second to last photo for a look at the other side of that wall)

Some of the light switches have been put in place.

 Amazing, how many sockets you need in a kitchen!

Then, the next job was waiting:  plastering the walls!
The first part was expertly done by my boyfriend's dad.

 Ta-daa! Plaster on the wall. These are the most recent pictures.

 A rather lovely panorama of the kitchen.

 Beams for the soon-to-be suspended ceiling and  a properly insulated hatch with a ladder to get upstairs.

 The kitchen floor was sagging badly and needed a bit of support.

 Welcome to the construction site!

 I tried to clean the floor a bit to see the real tile colours.

 Mess!! Constructive chaos in the kitchen.

 A view from our kitchen window. Sunday breakfast looking out at trees and fields? Yes, please! :)

 The bricks are almost gone.

This is actually the other side of that white brick wall, currently a small corridor leading from what will be our living room to the bathroom.

And finally, some tiles we might want to use as a splashback. Decisions, decisions!

Somewhere between dream and reality

What an exciting few weeks since my last post! I've had a few more driving lessons, two intensive weeks teaching in Dortmund and 3 new regular classes have been organised and are waiting for me, I've actually spent a weekend working hard  in our future kitchen and finally, we went down to Lake Constance to take a look at our new kitchen. Things are definitely taking shape.
I have called this blog post "Somewhere between dream and reality", because my multi-talented boyfriend has kindly sent me his 3D model images of what we want our house to look like one day. The photographs I am going to add, however, depict the current reality. ;)

 Come on in!












So here's our dream:

The front door (to be replaced as it is paper-thin and a veritable black hole for heat).

The hall.

Dining area.

The kitchen.












And this is the reality:


That's the kitchen, in its current location.

 Soon, I hope, we will be able to move the kitchen to its new position right here. A lot of work needs to be done before this can happen though! We still need to drill all the holes for power outlets, lay what feels like a few kilometres of cables, then plaster the walls, paint them and install a new tile backsplash.

By the way, did I mention the kitchen's coming on the 17th October? That's PLENTY of time to get everything done, right? Eeeasy. No worries. *chill*

 I did say "just over a month", right? ;)

This window needs to be replaced as well, and the wall insulated.










We haven't even been anywhere near the bathroom and the bedroom, but this is what we want them to look like. Eventually. One day.

Meanwhile, in reality: a weekend full of work.

 My amazing boyfriend, who's done most of the work completely on his own.

 Le me, trying to scrape the mortar out of the joints, to be able to remove old, ant-eaten wooden beams.

 After the wood had been removed. Splinters of it are still visible. My idea of leaving the gaps open and effectively turn them into wee shelves was sadly rejected. :(

"And today I'm going to be...a bricklayer!"

 Our very own mortar-bucket-challenge.

 A crack in the universe!

 Our own local radio station WDR2 and a rather good Dutch station (one of the advantages of living within cycling distance of the border) provided the necessary musical background.

 The supports, prior to removal.

Me again, removing flagstones and tons of damp, heavy soil from the short hallway between the kitchen and our living room. Later we will be pouring concrete into the newly-created hole to create a proper floor, which will then be tiled.

From this:

To this.

 Bunny and Foreman Kitty were supervising our work.


Trying to get any work done with Foreman Kitty in the house? Almost impossible!

So that's it for today. Getting there...