The only appliance not yet purchased is a dishwasher. Whilst I am probably not under an obligation to provide one (there is nothing wrong with freestanding) a kitchen looks better when they are built in and I don't want to give a potential buyer a reason to walk away.
As we could not be totally sure about how much space there would be in the kitchen when we were planning it, the original plans had a slimline dishwasher. It now appears that there will be space for a full width until. I will need to pop down to Homebase to buy a suitable door (£45.00) and then I just need to buy the dishwasher itself.
Taking a look at Redhill Appliances again after they did such a good job last time they appear to have a couple of suitable units in stock. I am tempted by the Hotpoint. It is £30.00 more expensive that the other model I looked at but 4dB quieter which is quite a bit in a small kitchen. It is £260.00 plus £1.00 delivery so with the new door I will have spent just over £300.00 on the dishwasher. That is much better than it could have been as there is a limited choice of slimline units and they tend to be more expensive. I am pleased we held off from buying this until we knew how much space we had.
I am concerned that progress on this project appears to be slowing.
I am sensible enough to know that at the beginning of these jobs there is a huge flurry of activity, much effort is expended and the results are obvious. As you near the end the work gets fiddlier and the impression is given that things take a little longer. Never the less we seem to have less forward momentum now. I was told that the kitchen would be fitted this week and would be completed by Friday. I was told earlier this week by somebody else that this is looking unlikely and it now appears that the kitchen won't be started until tomorrow (Friday) and it will be installed by somebody else. The somebody else is someone who I know well (I wonder how many other parents of my eldest daughter's friends I can get involved) and he will do a first class job but these additional delays are very frustrating.
The fitting of the carpets on 10th February is the last job to be done so we have (from today) seven working days and two weekends to get everything finished. Will we do it? If you had asked me on Monday I would have been confident but now I am less sure. I am a born optimist and the glass is always half full so I remain positive but I have a double shot of realism in my half full glass.
I had naively hoped to have completed the sale of the property by the end of this tax year so I could take full advantage of Mrs APD and my CGT allowance for the year. I think that would have been a challenge two years ago let alone in the current climate.
Mrs APD is venturing forth this morning to visit the house and then, after getting some inspiration, setting off to buy carpets and tiles.
I fear we will very shortly be going over budget. This is not because Mrs APD has a tendency to purchase Italian marble flooring (although she does) but because even the initial quote we have had from the carpet suppliers indicates that it will be £1500 to supply and fit the carpets and with the tiles probably being another £400.00 on top of that we will have spent too much.
There will (I think) be one or two savings to be made elsewhere so I don't think the damage will be too bad unless she comes back with one of these in which case we are in deep trouble!
The famous Flanders and Swann song starts
"Twas on a Monday morning the gas man came to call.
The gas tap wouldn't turn - I wasn't getting gas at all."
If I am permitted some poetic licence to change the second line to "The gas tap would turn but I wasn't getting gas at all" it gives me a perfect link to our weekend trials and tribulations in relation to what should be a very simple challenge. Getting gas to the house.
On Sunday morning – unannounced and with no fanfare, our Corgi plumber arrived to so some work. He took a risk as there is never usually anybody around on Sunday but fortunately the builder was there and so he could get on. Everything was connected and the time came to switch the gas on and fire up the system. On went the tap and out didn't come the gas!
I got a telephone call saying "could I telephone British Gas and get them to reconnect the supply". Obviously they don't answer the telephone on Sundays so at 8:00am this morning I got through to be told that I would have to phone the emergency number that you would usually use for a gas leak.
I did that and in fairness they came out pretty quickly and diagnosed the fault. It appears that that when the gas main was relied a few month ago they sort of ……...... forgot our house and didn't put a connection to it. This is despite the fact that the house has a gas meter, an account an account number and so on. It did make me wonder quite what our Corgi guy was up to three months ago when he came round to cap the gas! You might have thought he would have noticed that nothing was coming out.
At the point of writing this we are now waiting for someone to come round and re-connect us. I have no idea what that will entail.
All of this reminded me of the classic Flanders and Swann song mentioned above.
If you have never head the song before the words are listed below and a really funny lego animation is on You Tube here.
The Gas Man Cometh – Flanders and Swann
