Chapter One – The Twilight Hours
We inherited our kitchen when we bought the bungalow, 12 years ago. The kitchen extension was then, Ann, who sold us the bungalow, informed us, 8 years old, so that made it now about 20 years old and in the twilight of its life. Don’t get me wrong; it had served us well, all 15 foot 6 inches length by 5 foot, yes, 5 foot, width of it. Definitely a one-person kitchen, unless you were into sequence dancing and the quickstep.
Over the years we had put new doors onto the units, little enough else we could do really, especially as, at the time, we were not into affording brand new kitchens. We had also learnt to live with its main foible. Whoever had fitted the kitchen was obviously a man and, equally as obviously, had never worked in a kitchen. They had built the extension, fitted the kitchen, installed the freestanding washing machine and tumble dryer and then, and only then, had they tiled the floor! This meant that changing or repairing the washer or dryer was a major operation involving clearing the worktops, prising them up and lifting/easing the washer or dryer up over the lip of the floor tiles. As you can imagine, the delivery fitters/repair men just loved us!
Our original kitchen – looking front.
Last year the hot tap finally devoured its washer and we were faced with a never-ending torrent of water pouring into the sink. As we have a combination central heating boiler this soon resulted in the kitchen transforming itself into a sauna. We panicked, calmed down, turned off the water at the stopcock, and then panicked again. How could we cope without water? Drinks – in and out!! Luckily common sense prevailed - we had a friend whose husband was the nephew of a plumber and who had picked up enough basics to come round and sort us out a new washer. Pretty soon, however, it became apparent that the tap had developed a taste for washers and it was not long before it began dripping again.
Our original kitchen – looking rear
The end was looming and a combination of coming into a modest inheritance from an elderly aunt who had sadly passed away the previous October, the Chinese water torture of the tap and the dryer needing to be repaired spurred us into action. “We need a new kitchen” was the fateful decision. The Dream had begun.
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