The kitchen’s been slow in coming together.

First the painter stripped all the pink wallpaper and painted the walls and ceiling (the ceiling needed 6 coats).

Then our builder removed the old stovetop and the bit of benchtop that was rotten and grease-laden, chucked out the dishwasher and the shelf that held the microwave. He also relocated a cupboard and some benchtop to fill the spaces left once all the yucky stuff was gone.

We took all the beige doors off, and found a gas stove that fit perfectly. We tried to get some Ikea doors to fit the cabinets, but they were too short, so we ended up getting the Builder’s Bargain Centre to cut new white melamine ones. Much fiddly drilling was required, and some incorrect hinges needed exchanging, so it’s taken us ages to get around to hanging the doors. But finally, they’re up.

Here’s the before shot of the troublesome corner:

And here it is now, in the middle of cooking dinner tonight:

When we first got the keys, we realised the kitchen had no oven. Sure, it had a convection microwave, but it appeared that the devil himself had crawled in there to die (his spawn had evidently followed suit in the dishwasher).

Not only that, but the chipboard in the bench-top beside the sink had swelled up so much that there was a cavernous gap down beside the built-in electric stove-top, into which had fallen all manner of grease-sodden food scraps.

Chris took that entire section of the kitchen away for us. We need mention it no more.

This leaves us with enough room to put in a GAS STOVE. Today we bought a 5-burner gas stove with electric oven. Stainless steel and sweet as:

The oven has 116 litres of room for cupcakes!