The kitchen

Here's progress on the project to remove the Caribbean beach cabana look from our kitchen and get a bit more daylight in there - we need the lights on pretty much all day.

Day one: the straw and timber come down and already it seems lighter, even without the skylights. We ask our builder if it's possible to take the archway out going in the nook - funny little room off our kitchen. He says yes. Unfortuately he also discovers that he can't lift the tin roof to get the insulation in, so the old lathe and plaster ceiling has to come down.

Day two: After a lot of cleaning (we're now on day 5 and there's still black dust), here's the new look room. It looks and feels completely different without the archway.

Day four: the skylights and insulation are in. It's amazing. We haven't needed to switch on the lights at all. We've been a bit surprised by how different the room feels now it's been opened up, but the nook still feels like the nook once you're in it, so we're going to keep the piano in there and add a sofa. We're going to divide the room off slightly with a narrow floor to ceiling open bookshelf on the corner where the lamp is standing - something like the pic below.


Day five: It's Saturday night and we're wallpaper stripping.
The plasterer comes on Monday, so more to report next week.