Last week was always going to be challenging. Not only was it half term, but my wife was going to spend a few days in Scotland visiting her father who is recovering from an illness. This meant I would be flying solo with the kids while building work on our new kitchen was ongoing.
The one saving grace was that we didn’t have to live in among the mess. Some friends of ours were going on holiday and very kindly said we could make use of their house while they enjoyed an African safari adventure (this experience in itself deserves a blog post; Living in the home of a child-free couple and all their breakable glassware. Gimme a week or so and I’ll get that post written!).
While we were very fortunate to live elsewhere, a couple of additional challenges were thrown in this family’s direction. Firstly, I fell ill with a foul chest infection. For the first time in at least 25 years I found myself taking antibiotics.
On top of this, I got a phone call at the very beginning of the week from the builders. Not all of the kitchen units were available. It wouldn’t be possible to get them delivered for several days. He and his team didn’t want to return until the units were on site and there was plenty of work for them to do.
This was not ideal, but it did present us with an opportunity. I say “us”, my wife was either at work or in Scotland so I actually mean “me”.
I had an empty shell of a room. There was virgin plaster that needed to be sealed and painted. The ceilings needed a coat of pure brilliant white paint. The walls were going to be a new colour so needed three coats of paint (two undercoats and a top coat of overtly olive green from Dulux’s Kitchen range). There was new skirting board that required a coat of primer, undercoat and gloss.
Before the units and flooring were installed, I thought I would charge in and do as much painting and decorating as I possibly could.
As with previous weeks, I have recorded a video outlining the latest developments. Have a watch and see how tired I look!
We had planned to do all the decorating at the end once the builders had left. Doing it now, however, seemed to make perfect sense.
This is what I have been doing for days. I’ve been painting in the early mornings and painting late at night. On a couple of occasions during half term I even put the kids in childcare so I could blitz the paintwork and get more of it done.
I wasn’t particularly happy doing it, but for every hour the kids were in childcare, I could get more paint on the walls. This would be cheaper than paying a painter and decorator and reduce the chances of our flooring and new kitchen units getting paint splattered.
As a comparison, if you follow this link, you can see what the kitchen looked like after the first week of heavy building work was completed. Or you can watch the video here.
Oh, and there was also the incident when out three-year-old wandered into the kitchen and accidentally kicked a paint tray full of paint. The painting and decorating clearly needed to be done quickly to avoid any similar incidents from taking place.
I don’t mind admitting; I have pushed myself really hard to get as much done as possible. Probably too hard. I’ve been feeling pretty ropey in the evenings. I’d been told to take it easy because of this infection but I just feel the need to get as much done as I can.
Thankfully Mrs Adams returns from Scotland tonight, although she’s coming back to a messy house in utter disarray (although that was always going to be the case). The builders have also confirmed they’re back on site tomorrow. I think the next few days are going to be crucial to getting us back on track.
Tell me, what do you think of the colours we have chosen? Do you think I’ve done the correct thing by getting as much painting done as possible? Have you any suggestions for getting rid of a long, lingering cough?
36 thoughts on “Our new kitchen, week two; every cloud has a silver lining”
Love those colours, very chic, we had our house repainted a few weeks ago and it was painful. Love the colours but hated having painters in, despite them being total sweeties. It’s just having to get out of PJ’s first thing! Ha! Fab video! Hope your cough is better. Roasted pears apparently help according to a GP I know.
Great suggestion. If I had something to roast the pears in I’d give it a go! Anyway, it is a bit annoying having visitors constantly in the house but it is all for the best. Can’t wait for the job to be finished.
How exciting, having a new kitchen. I am so jealous! I am desperate to do ours. I can’t wait to see how it turns out! It looks like a good scheme there.
Glad you like the scheme. At night time it is a bit dark and so we need to upgrade the lighting in one half of the room but in daytime it look like a gorgeous colour.
Hope you’re feeling better! No tips for shifting coughs sadly, I feel like it’s all I’ve done the whole of February. Love the overtly olive too – good choice! Painting before is definitely a wise move in my opinion, my flooring still hasn’t completely recovered from the last round of decorating… 🙂 #HomeEtc
Glad to hear we had the right idea. Hope you can get your flooring cleaned up one day! Good luck shifting your cough too.
I have been following your progress in the kitchen with interest. We’ve just finished our first room and are about to embark on our huge lounge so we feel your pain entirely. I think you did the right thing with the painting. It’s always great to find a way to keep the costs down because something will invariably happen to raise them again! Good luck! #homeetc
Glad you’ve been following progress. It’s proved remarkably popular! Best of luck with the lounge. It’s an area we need to do some work in too.
It was very clever to do the painting first. We had the same idea (although the builders did the work for us!).
The palette you chose looks very nice.
Hope you have recovered from all that work and that you are on the mend. xx
Alas we didn’t hire the painters to decorate. I thought it would be straightforward but there’s been a lot more to the decoration than I appreciated. Anyway, most of it is done now. And yes, feeling better every day.
it always takes so much longer doesn’t it? I love the colour you have chosen. Hope you are feeling better x
Glad you liek the colour. Just don’t ask after my diet. I’ve been eating junk with no kitchen to prepare food in!
ah this takes me back! we renovated the whole house just over three years ago. Its hard being without the kitchen but good idea getting the painting done first – it can all work around it then. Good luck with the rest of it and hope you’re feeling better soon #sharewithme
Felling a bit better every day Rebecca! Living without a kitchen is getting a bit annoying now but not much longer to go I hope!
I love the idea of the Blackboard wall, that is something I want to do here in our new Games room. Love the colour & can’t wait to see the finished room. #sharewithme
I reckon the blackboard wall is going ot make a great feature. My wife needed a little persuasion, but the kids helped!
Wow, great progress so far! I’m glad to say ours is finally finished (still to be decorated before the big reveal though!) #sharewithme
Thanks Pamela. Good luck with the decoration. I’m feeling greatly relieved that I managed to get so much done over the past week. Makes life much easier.
Oh my! Well done for getting so much done. I definitely think it’s best to do as much painting as possible…this was us three years ago and I remember feeling like the end was never in sight, but once the units started going in, it looked so much better, I love the overtly olive colour. Hope you get some rest soon xxx
Yeah, I get the “it’s never going to end” feeling. We’ve resigned ourselves to the fact the entire job will need to be done in two or three fixes but phase one will see most of the work done. Can’t wait until it is over.
I know how hard this must be seeing as we did a similar project once. But this was without kids and was bad enough!!!!!!!! Great colours and it’s looking fab. Soon be there! Thanks for linking up – much appreciated. Jess xx
#HomeEtc
Wait until you see this week’s update, things have come on massively! Thanks for commenting.
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I think you did totally the right thing by getting on with the painting while you could. And as childcare is cheaper than a professional decorator, that seemed pretty sensible too. We painted all of our bedrooms, including skirting boards, in the four days between getting the keys and moving into our house, then the lounge, hall and stairs (which are big!) in the following week. It was exhausting, but definitely worth doing!
Hope you’re feeling better now and the work is back on track.
Work is behind schedule, but coming on at a ferocious rate. I managed to do a bit more painting at the weekend so things are coming along nicely, despite the delay. When you have to paint and decorate at speed, however, it is very tiring.
Wow as painful as it sounds (both the painting effort and your cough) you’re doing really well and best to get it done now for sure. These things always create slightly more of a headache than we anticipate! #HomeEtc
Oh they certainly do. I was prepared for some turbulence along the way. We’re inot the fourth week of this now. It’s tough, but it could have been much, much worse.
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Good for you for taking advantage and painting first and getting ahead of the game. Sometimes set backs happen when doing up a house but in the end silver lining indeed. Can’t wait to see the finished product. Thanks for linking up to Share With Me #sharewithme
LOVE the colour you’ve chosen!!! Wooop!! It;s REALLY coming along John!!! I’m SO blooming excited to see the end result!!!!!
A good tip I learnt from a painter/decorater friend is to give virgin plaster a miscoat. He said that you just water down some bog standard white emulsion — don’t use the expensive stuff — and paint it on the wall. It seals the plaster (and is soaked up quickly too because it’s so porous) but also shows up any imperfections so you can fill and sand if necessary. One of the best tips we have ever been told — it works a treat and saves you a fortune as you only have to give a topcoat with the expensive paint! 😉
Thanks so much for linking up! #HomeEtc is live from 6am tomorrow — I hope you’ll be able to join us! xx
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Thanks for sharing. I always find that turbulence in the process can lead to some great inspiration for decorating. I think you’ve chosen some great colours to bring a lot of light into the space, and it’ll be a an inviting space for the whole family. As for getting rid of the cough, some hot water with a big dollop of honey and a squeeze of lemon should do the trick. Best of luck with the rest of the renovation.
Glad you like the colours and thanks for your kind words.
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The colour scheme you selected looks great! It’s always a tricky step trying to decide what colour to paint any wall – especially your kitchen, which you spend a fair bit of time in. It will be great to see the final product of all your hard work. Repainting a room is certainly a great step towards a new, modern feel.
Glad you like the colour scheme. I needed a little convincing when my wife suggested it but it does work.