25 February 2014

The empty kitchen

Call it early spring cleaning. The man who fixed our roof last summer is coming today to repair the stained and cracked ceiling. We had to remove everything from all the flat surfaces in the room. Luckily, we haven't had to empty the cabinets and drawers, or move the appliances.



Bertie was pretty confused when he came
in this morning. I put down his water bowl
because he's used to finding it there.


Besides clearing all the flat surfaces
we had to take all the pots, pans, and
other utensiles off the two pot racks
on the wall near the dishwasher.


Here's what's being repaired —
the stained and cracked ceiling.
The whole ceiling is getting
a scraping and repainting.
We didn't empty our doorless
cabinets but might have to do it
in a few minutes.


We might also have to move
the refrigerator into the
dining room. It's on wheels.


The curtains and curtain rod
had to come down, of course.


Where did we put everything?
Everywhere. A lot of it ended
up in Walt's den, where
he has his computer and
we keep all our books.


And a lot of the stuff is
in the dining area, including
our temporary kitchen.
We'll have to make do with
the coffeemaker, microwave,
and countertop oven for
the rest of the week.

15 comments:

  1. Poor old Bertie.... no wonder he's confumbles!!
    Whereas you two can put a couple of sleeping bags down on the sejour floor....
    and pretend you are camping...
    eating off plates on the sofa...
    washing up in the bathroom...
    getting the barbie out...
    [no, perhaps that's a bit too much]...
    but with all the modcons!!

    But cats don't like changes in their routine....
    Baron has had a bad ear and had to have an operation to clean the wound...
    he now has to wear a wide plastic cone for a quinzaine [minimum]...
    he finds it difficult eating...
    the cone pushes the food bowl away...
    or blocks it completely.
    He can't eat grass for the same reason...
    so he's doing what cats do so well... sulking!
    And his sister doesn't recognise him and keeps hissing...
    and is also sulking!!

    However...
    at least your roof leak has had probably the best testing that could be thrown at it....
    our machine has recorded 123mm of rain so far this year...
    and I think you've had more up there?

    I notice from the last pic that you've got those great veg illustration pix...
    we've got the left and right ones...
    postcard size...
    never seen anything other than the tomato and chilli ones at a poster size!
    I think the quality of illustration is wonderful!

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  2. ha! ok i laughed that you put everything in the living room. perfect! and i love that you put your dry goods in big jars. nice!

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  3. It always amazes me how much stuff there is when you have to empty the kitchen. I hope the contents won't be taking over the rest of the house for too long!
    I presume you will still be able to cook your meals - or maybe this is the excuse you need to eat out for a while !!

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  4. I always love your kitchen, especially knowing the delectable dishes that are created there by you two.

    Will you be eating things from the freezer, or fridge, and just heating them in the microwave? Or are there plans to catch a pizza in town at that little place in Saint Aignan that you've mentioned...at least once? :)

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  5. Tim, we've recorded something like 165 mm (not a typo) of rain since Jan. 1!

    Judy, a pizza is a possibility. There are 4 pizzerias in the area.

    Jean, so far so good. BTW, your house in England is gorgeous.

    OFG, the living-dining room/den is the best place for all the kitchen things, because putting everything there means we don't have to tote it up or down stairs. Day 1 went really well.

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  6. How about trying that restaurant in Chedigny that Susan and Simon enjoyed?

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  7. Ken, I thought you'd had more...
    but I didn't realise just how much more! That's almost 20% more than us...
    our meadow would be well flooded!
    As it is, I can't mow out there... and my paths are rapidly vanishing because the grass hasn't stopped growing!!

    I was going to suggest treating yourselves to a couple of meals out, as well!!
    You ought, you know!!

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  8. Carolyn, nearly an hour's drive each way -- probably not. I can spend those two hours cooking!

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  9. Oh the joys of fixing things in the kitchen...so many things that can't be around when repairs will create such a mess.
    You've got a plan and your substitute kitchen looks well-thought-out!
    Once we had wooden floors put in our kitchen and a vinyl curtain was put up to separate the kitchen from the family room/substitute kitchen! Refrigerator and micro were there but it's manageable!
    Mary in Oregon

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  10. Mary, day one, no problem. Tomorrow... well, it will be fine. Still raining, though.

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  11. It did come early, Madonna. But cleaning like this is always a good thing to do. The kitchen, by the way is just as we found it when we bought the house 11 years ago, except for the yellow paint. We added the appliances too, and took the doors off the wall-mounted cabinets.

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  12. This is almost as bad as moving!

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  13. Starman, you are right. Walt and I moved five times between 1986 and 1992. One was a cross-country move, from DC to SF. Easy. The worst move, though, involved going from a 3rd floor unit in a building to a 4th floor (top floor, no neighbors overhead) unit in the same SF building in l988. We made the mistake of thinking that moving such a short distance would be a breeze. We didn't get organized, and it took us weeks or months to recover. Of course, we were both working stiffs at the time so we had to do double duty.

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  14. tim, I got those vegetable prints from Vilmorin on the Quai de la Méssigerie in Paris over 20 year ago. My how time flies.

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