It Has to Get Worse Before it Gets Better ...

It's been all go at the new place in the last few days.  

We have had a general handyman in doing lots of the jobs that Alan would usually do, but that since his Covid jab has been too unwell to even consider.  Dave, who seems to be a Jack of all trades and master at them too, has cracked on magnificently.  The kitchens were both due to be ripped out and put in the skip that's arriving today, but then on Thursday night of last week I decided to try putting mine on Facebook Marketplace with Alan's base units being thrown in as a freebie.  

They were snapped up by the first person to get in touch.  So instead of paying to have them taken out, we were paid and they were removed on Saturday by a guy called Phillip and two of his mates.  A couple of hours and they were both disconnected, out of the houses and loaded on to the van to be taken away and made good use of in a house he's renovating - result  😀

How Alan's kitchen looked before.

How it looked immediately after the removal.

And how it looks after yesterday morning's cleaning session and us capping off the pipes and making the live wires safe.

Alan has chosen to have grey gloss base units in the same style and finish as the wall units, with an almost black worktop, a new stainless steel sink and an integrated washer, oven and hob.  It's going to look very smart.

Dave has also been very busy outside in the yard, taking down the dividing fence ...

 

... and breaking up a large section of the flag stoned area so we can have plants and gravel and make a more natural looking garden.  The flags that he has taken up will be used to fill in the area outside the patio doors that is down to bare earth as the decking that was there was in a really bad state.

Here's a bird's eye view of all his hard work.

The pergola will also be coming down next as it is not as strong as it looks.

And the view from the top floor window.

The fence panels that were dividing the two areas originally are going to be used in this area at the end of the annexe and along the bottom of the garden, and a new fence will be put in between us and the neighbours once some more of the work has been done.  They have been nice enough to let us be able to remove one of their panels to gain access to the skip at the front through their driveway, as our only access to the front would have been through the house.

Also in Alan's, the falling to bits fitted wardrobes have been removed and the larger of the bedrooms on the middle floor now looks even bigger and will be Alan's.

So, it's all coming along nicely and we are on track to get done what we want to do.  I'm trying to upload some photos of my kitchen to show you but my phone is not playing ball  😒

Yay, it's working now, here we are ...

As it was.

Straight after the kitchen had been removed ...

... and after a bit of a tidy up.  

We didn't have anything to clean the floor with after we had swept it, but as the tiles are to be prised off the wall today it didn't really matter.  All the dark turquoise paint is to be painted over with a couple of coats of white paint to hide the colour and then the whole annexe will be painted white.

Oh, and it won't be called 'the annexe' for much longer, it has a new name and a brand new name plaque to go up outside once all the work is done.  I mean, I know I'm a granny and it's an annexe but I didn't want to be living in a granny annexe  😄😉

The new Challenge is up and running now on my other blog - Challenging Myself

Sue xx