Phase 2 is imminent

Stardate: March 2012 - and I finally have some actual renovation to write about! This is in relation to the downstairs bathroom update and the implementation of a utility room. The builders came back with a quote, which was quite high, so we revised the plans to make it as simple as possible.

The quote was still too high but after some to-ing and fro-ing it looks like the building work, building materials and a separate water heating unit will cost £6,500 + VAT. We have to buy all the sanitary ware, tiles and extras (heated towel rail, laundry shelving etc) but it looks like the builders can start work next week.

I'm quite liking black tiles - not sure how they'll feel in a small wetroom, but after years of looking at white tiles I feel like a change.

In other news: there was a weird sound coming from our Samsung side-by-side fridge freezer. Turns out it was the fan hitting ice. It took less than 24 hours for the fan to grind to a halt and start overheating. Luckily (?) this happened while we were hosting a lunch at ours rather than say, the middle of the night or while we were away for the weekend. Rob quickly defrosted the fridge with our handheld steamer, and viola, the fridge is working fine again. The fridge is less than four years old and I had no idea it got icy - and we know a few people with the same fridge. Let this be a warning to ensure you defrost yours from time to time...

Marching on

House update - the wood for the deck was meant to be delivered yesterday but this has been postponed to "tomorrow, hopefully" - what was meant to be three days of snagging is now stretching to three months of waiting. I read back over this blog and was mortified to see advice I'd written into the ether that builders aren't motivated if there's no financial incentive and am cursing Rob for paying for so much up front. We've withheld he last 5% but that's not enough of a carrot to make the builders rush back and finish the job. I know it will get done, but I have to admit I am getting impatient now - what should have been done and dusted by the first week of January still isn't looking likely to happen by mid March.

The new Livingetc is just out and in there is a tour of radio presenter Jamie Theakston's mid-century furnished house in West London. The article asks him what his favourite feature of the house is and he replies the fridge that dispenses ice and water. Pictured top is our fridge which also dispenses ice and water. I have to agree - it's been no end of pleasure having a G&T without having to smash up a frozen bag of ice cubes first, and we feel virtuous at reducing our consumption of bottled water.

American style fridge

Hubby and I had a splendid time in Florida a couple of months ago, and there were two things the Americans include in their kitchens which we decided we'd like too.

Firstly, the side-by-side fridge/freezer. Not only does it hold a whole lot more stuff than our current under-the-counter side-by-side arrangement, but these fridges have water plumbed into them. Which means ice cubes and chilled water at the touch of a button. I'm keen to nix our bottled water habit (plastic is bad, shipping is bad etc etc) and we go through a bag of ice in our house every few weeks. (So we drink a lot of G&Ts, it's normal).

We've looked around at a few of these types of fridges in various retail stores and inevitably there's some design feature that irks - eg the handles are made of some nasty plastic, or the finish looks cheap. But in Milan last week Samsung had a rather impressive display of their new products and I was instantly smitten with this fridge. The blue LED screen looks so much cooler (pun intended) than others I've seen, and look at those stainless steel doors...

The other thing the Americans had in their kitchen which was incredibly useful was a hose attached to the tap. Great for rinsing salad greens, and also good for hosing down grubby sinks. Ikea has a new range of taps which feature a hose attachment, including ones where the hose is hidden inside the tap, it retracts in there when you're not using it. How brilliant is that? As our sink will be facing out into the open plan dining room, I don't want a massive hose on a stick ruining my sight line. I can't believe I'm looking forward to a retractable hose. I used to be fun.

Kitchen inspiration and fridges

This is the sort of aesthetic I like for a kitchen - lots of white, wood and slate. My current kitchen is lots of wood and white tiles. I still love the wood but I really hate those tiles. It doesn't help that they don't sit completely flush thanks to our flakey builder.

When we stayed in Florida two weeks ago we agreed that the American style fridge (ie side by side, with ice and chilled water on tap) made perfect sense. It was also ecologically better than drinking water from bottles (as we do now) because a litre of water is used to manufacture the plastic bottle, such a waste. We agreed that if the water was filtered and chilled we'd drink it, so goodbye to the piles of bottles we need to recycle each week.

People have been asking if we're living in the new place yet. The answer is a firm no. There is so much building work to be done that it's just impractical with two small children. We'll be paying two mortgages (arrgghh!) for the immediate future. Hopefully no more than three or four months, but we know that the glazing can't be ordered until the extension is nearly finished, and once we order it there's a 9-12 week delay. So I guess it could take longer than four months all up. Once we're ready to move we need to repaint our flat and get it ready to rent out. I'll keep you posted, literally.