Well – I have been receiving many questions about the status of the Kitchen ..and like life ..NOTHING ever goes as planned ..
The kitchen no longer has that “lovely “ orange and yellow wall paper. However upon removing it, I found the walls colored in a weird yellow – not very nice to look at when you are eating. Also upon removing this paper which was on for 30 years – chunks of wall came off with the paper. This left the kitchen in a bad way, holes everywhere, and a yellow that you stay away from when you see in on snow …
So, the next step was to cover the holes, with ‘ mud ‘ ..but of course here – you have to mix your own !! So, thankfully, I have done this back in America , so I knew how moist the mud should be to fill up the holes. So I mixed it to my memory, (why does France do these things to me ?)This was an easy 2 day project ,because there were parts of the wall – that I had to build back up –to level out to the other part of the wall..
Next came the sanding of the walls – and this is NEVER fun .Dust everywhere, but I am getting smarter, and now wear a mask for this part of the job. This is very messy and its not possible to control the dust,it just goes everywhere…under the doors , in your eyes, and ears ..everywhere. I tried to encourage the dust to leave, out the window ..but it did not work as I planned . This part took around 4 days – and 3 weeks of cleaning .
So now, I thought I at least, prime the walls white – to at least , look clean, like a kitchen should. Not a war zone, with holes and dust everywhere. This primer over here cost 30.00 a can !! I do not recall paying that much in Lowes..but I have no choice, I needed primer for the walls..
So all set , I thought to buy the cabinets ..BUT wait .here is the joke ( on me ) . It seems .that the old owners installed a window, that is too long – and if you measure the countertops heights from IKEA , the window will not open . We are talking about 2 inches ( dirty mind ) , and it seems, this kitchen was ‘ built ‘ by some person, and the sink base was custom made. I am not able to pay for custom work – so this is out the question. I see in France- IKEA is very common in homes and the quality is pretty OK for the price .
So now what to do ?? we have to make the window smaller- so it will clear the cournter tops when you open it. There is a style of window here- I call it Child Proof –cause the bottom glass does not open, only the top does. So on Monday, a installer is coming to the house to give us a quote of the replacement window. ( you can see this style was used on the upper part of the door – its a fixed window -because the old stone house had a door that went from floor to ceiling)
So we have to replace the window, to buy kitchen cabinets ..yep ..sounds crazy ..welcome to my world ..
yes, that is a bottle of wine on the table , and yes i drink ..do you blame me ? lol
bises
DIXIE in PARIS 