Since my last update, on Wednesday last week, here’s what’s been happening.

On Thursday we had a contractor free day, the joiners were waiting on the new replacement corner unit, the plumber and electrician were on other jobs. I think Ylva was puzzled where everyone was and kept wandering in and out of the kitchen looking.

On Friday the plumber was back. He’s a nice guy but seems to work incredibly slowly. Anyway, he fitted our utility room sink and did the plumbing in of the sink and the washing machine. (We are using it as a kitchen and tea prep area now and it’s so great having a working sink and not having to wash dishes in a small hand basin.)

The plumber also did some pipework in the kitchen for the dishwasher and the sink going in there. To me it seems like he does a job, then comes back and has to tweak the job he already did. He did a load of pipework earlier and I don’t understand why he didn’t put the dishwasher connection in at the same time. I’m trying not to stress about it, he was recommended by our usual plumber who was busy and the joiner thinks he’s doing a neat job. Another neighbour said they used him and said how slow she thought he worked so it’s not just me. Deep breaths!

When our worktop is finally ready he will be back to fit the under-mounted sink. We decided against fitting the temporary sink they supplied because we can use the utility room and because connecting and then disconnecting it at the plumber’s snail pace seems an unnecessary expense. He also needs to connect the gas hob too.

7am on Monday the replacement corner unit arrived. Considering we had Storm Corrie blowing a hoolie all night I kept thinking the lorry would blow over in the night and damage the 3rd attempt. See how paranoid my brain gets 🙄

On Tuesday the joiners were back to fit the corner unit, bin unit and trim in the kitchen; put the doors and trim in the utility room; and start laying the floor.

The quartz worktop measurer came and set up his clever laser thing that measures for the worktop. We are going to have quite a big overhang so the passage from the kitchen to dining area will be narrow, but we are ok with that and want a big breakfast bar which is also where I do my felting. So hopefully that should be ready and fitted within the next few weeks and the kitchen will finally be finished.

On Wednesday (today) the joiners came back to finish the flooring, fit the kick boards and re-fit the skirting board.

The electrician had loads of emergency call outs because of Storms Malik and Corrie, so he still needs to do the wiring.

The joiners send a cleaner out to give everything a deep clean which will be done once the electrical sockets are done. Once the worktop is on they’ll be back to hang the quartz shelf above the bar, so I suspect my next update will actually be when the kitchen is all finished in a few weeks hopefully.