This has been the week of kitchen renovations. The pictures tell the story. The first job was to empty the kitchen cupboards and pack the contents in boxes on the back patio.
Saturday morning Slavic assisted us to push the lounge furniture together and cover it in plastic sheeting.
We strung sheeting across arches and around cupboards, taping the edges to the walls and the bottom to the floor.
Next the upper floor was curtained off. Jonesy, who was fearful of having dust everywhere, had wanted to unpack display cabinets. I persuaded her to leave things in place, promising to seal the cabinets completely - and kept my word.
The breakfast benches pictured above were originally constructed with hinged wooden seats. We stripped off the wood for future use.
The builders arrived promptly on Monday morning and set about demolishing the tiled concrete bases.
Next they set to work to chip away the wall separating the kitchen from the living room. The mounting rubble heaps were collected in large buckets and dumped in the box of the tractor parked outside.
A welcome breeze blew much of the dust out of the window.
Tuesday morning, as soon as the workers were settled, I took Jones to hospital for a check-up on a finger that she'd injured while gardening. It will take time to heal. With a rubber glove to keep the bandage dry, she continues to swim.
Both of our black cats have caused us concern. Braveheart appears to have been bitten by some creature and has lost a lot of weight. Squinty, seen above, went awol for several days - unusually, failing to respond to Barbara's come-home whistles. So it was with much relief that we welcomed him back one afternoon.
Wednesday morning the builders set about plastering the arch.
Next on the scene was the air conditioner technician, for whom we'd been waiting for weeks. We haven't been able to use the AC in the bedroom as it's been leaking water. The problem turned out to be a spider cocoon blocking the drain.
Thursday saw the team fine-plastering the arch and retiling sections of the floor. Hard on their heels came the electrician and his mate to wire up the new switches and lights.
Thursday evening Cathy flew in from Berlin to spend ten days with us. Jones is spending the weekend in Lisbon with Llewellyn and Lucia. I think she'll like what she sees on her return.
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