November 2020 – Kitchen Kapers

November 2020 – Kitchen Kapers

Freddie here this month. Before you all start shouting, I know that ‘Kapers’ is spelt with a ‘C’ but I just thought it looked good starting with a ‘K’!

I believe the new house is now looking pretty good from along the lane. We three felines are not supposed to run the gauntlet of combustion engine and velocipede, but how do the humans think they are going to stop us walking down to the road?

House framed by autumn branches and hedges

The lull before the storm

Goodness me, what a time it has been here at Hazels since Layla last reported in to you at the end of October. Actually, we three felines felt had exhausted a month’s worth of emotional angst by the end of the second day, as you will see below.

Arrival of Kitchen Worktop – Monday 2 November

This was indeed an auspicious day as the quartz kitchen island worktop was due to be delivered. It all started bright and early and SWhoMBO was there ready and wielding the camera on her trusty mobile phone.

Island in Readiness for Worktop (1)

Island in Readiness for Worktop (2)

Drawers ready for action

The team arrived early and soon got to work manoeuvring the pieces of quartz into the house. Each of the two island slabs weighs about 300kg! (Apparently, the wheel contraption they use to help weighs almost as much!)

Unloading 300 kgs of Worktop (1)

Unloading 300 kgs of Worktop (2)

Carefully does it!

Hmmm …. how do we manage this?

Half in Place

Both Pieces in Place

Pantry Slab

Finishing Touches (1)

Finishing Touches (2)

All Done!

When SWhoMBO came over to check that all was in order, she was so pleased UNTIL the moment when she noticed that (stunning though it was) the worktop was 30cm short (3.9m long instead of 4.2m) – there was overhang on the western side but none on the northern end! As I am sure you can imagine, she was not at all happy. But when I casually mentioned to Layla that in my view pandemonium had broken out, she was at pains to assure me that SWhoMBO’s reaction was certainly not one of ‘unrestrained disorder or tumult’, and that there was no scene of ‘wild riotous uproar, utter chaos, or abode of demons’ – you could have fooled me!

Mr Rod was summoned immediately from the Godalming office and he too was somewhat shocked for a while after inspecting the worktop. He had been the one who particularly wanted to have five bar stools round the two sides of overhang. The stone and granite company readily admitted that the error was indeed theirs and made a number of suggestions to resolve the problem, including replacing the whole thing. However, having taken such a long time to find exactly the piece of quartz they wanted and knowing that the second lockdown would make identifying a replacement extremely difficult within the timescales, Mr Rod and SWhoMBO reached a compromise with the company. After all, it is a first world problem!

They decided to keep the worktop (in fact, it is now perfectly symmetrical and the requested item would have been quite long anyway), accept a refund plus the offer of making a garden table from an ‘off cut’. There will now be three stools at the kitchen island unit and our intrepid pair have alternative plans for the other two.

Phew – major crisis averted!

Further Kitchen/Pantry/Utility Progress

Kitchen – Winning the battle of the doors!

Pantry – ‘His’ and ‘Her’ Wine Fridges

Pantry – ready for the Ice Sink

Utility – Just waiting for final touches

Let There be Light

Our electrician, Dan, has been working wonders to get all the lights in the house up and running. He has complained (softly and only occasionally) that Mr Rod works on the principle that if you can have one electrical socket, then you might as well have two (or three, or four)!

One of 32 uplighters!

Looking up to the Landing

Looking West

The Scandi Triangles

Scandi Shower Room

Looking South

The North Face

The South Face

The Staircase Arrives on 27 November

But, where are the apples?

35 Packages – who’s good at staircase jigsaws?

What’s New in the Postbag

Kitchen in Bacchus Marsh, Australia

Only a few hours after the October blog was published, the whole family was delighted to receive this photo and message from the Down Under Dudes (aka Colin and Ali): “Gudday! Well, isn’t it coming along brilliantly.  When saw pictures of your kitchen was amazed how close in colour to ours and so thought would share.  Hopefully we can come and see Hazels first hand some time soon!  Similarly, very much hope we see you out here at some point. Take care and love seeing the brick coming flying.”

This was swiftly followed by a message and photo from Hong Kong Buddy: “Thanks Layla for the informative and funny posting! I am pleased to see real progress is being made. Hope you will all be cozily settled in the manor by Christmas…. such is my confidence in the builders and from personal experience !!! They seem to take forever and really test one’s patience! Well the end is here now so we can chill our champagne and wait to hear more good news !! You and your feline siblings better mark your territories now before Mr Rod and SheWhoMBO get there before you.  Take care and keep the blog coming.”

‘Cheers’ from Shatin, HK 

And of course Layla was pleased to receive yet another encouraging note from Guildford Girl: “Well, another superb blog from one very talented female feline. So near, yet so far from moving in! Keeping my fingers and toes crossed that you will be in for Christmas. Who would have thought that the build would take so long? Keep up the outstanding work and the next weeks will fly by.”

She was also interesting to receive the following missive from the Compton Couple, with the tantalising challenge at the end: “When we saw your Blog heading we were worried that the entire Hazel’s work gang, SWhoMBO and Mr Rod had succumbed to a new virus – Wintirfylleth! We should have realised that such an intelligent cat would want to share her knowledge on October facts and not another pandemic! We were thrilled to see such progress in the house, now fast becoming a home. Have you chosen exactly which drawer in the blue kitchen island unit to store those little rodents  you bring in for Mr Rod? We hope that SWhoMBO’s driven STAKE of moving in by the end of November comes true and that a celebratory STEAK can be prepared by Mr Rod with the inevitable glass or two!” 

(It needs to be stated that an end of November move-in has not happened but SWhoMBO is holding Mr Rod to a celebratory steak and the inevitable BOTTLE or two when that day does occur! Ed)

News of Mr Rod’s love of sunflowers has clearly spread far and wide beyond Hambledon. He was both amused and excited to receive this jolly looking face mask from the Pilates Princess.  

Mr Rod’s Favourite Face Mask

Mikal’s Mate wrote from Helsinki: “Luckily you managed to do the essential IKEA shopping before the restrictions got more strict! It was so exciting to see the interior photos showing progress- and I stopped for a while to admire the view from the bedroom windows. Beautiful! The blue kitchen will be equally beautiful. Hopefully, the quartz countertop has arrived safely and matching perfectly. Maybe I have been watching too many TV renovation programmes in which there are always last minute surprises………… Let’s hope your ‘Grand Design’ project will progress steadily and the move in day won’t be too far from the planned date.” (How little did she realise the truth! Ed)

Then, Espoo Espresso (Mikal’s Mate’s sister) was very quick off the mark (there is an obscure joke here) to share with us the ‘white stuff’ photo and a Finnish funny.

Tapiola, Finland – Early morning snow 

A prize for who can tell the difference!

It seems that everyone is out walking, walking, walking during these days of lockdown and some days have even proved to be sunny! Thanks to friends who sent these photos.

The seemingly endless Thursley Common

The beautiful Hascombe valley

Cat Humour

It certainly makes a change from ‘sleeps’!

I thought of the Young Master when I saw this

The old jokes are still the funny ones! 

This really could be Moses and Layla talking!

  Oh no! Call the RSPCA! Just because you don’t want us to walk across the Zoom screen…..                                                                             

Next candidate please!

How about this for a novel Christmas Gift?

Trump Humour

My fellow felines and I will be very sorry indeed when this current source of humour dries up. In the meantime, please enjoy my favourite ‘the Donald’ jokes from recent weeks.

It’s a brave person who dares to contradict………

Now why would he say that? 

Groan!

Time will tell!

Let’s wait and see!

A message to us all

You could (almost) feel sorry for him…….

NEXT MONTH – DECEMBER!

As you may just have noticed, moving in by the end of November has not been achieved – these final tasks taking far far longer than ever envisaged, and there are STILL yet more decisions to be made! However, it looks as though some of the rooms – kitchen/family and ‘oriental’ bedroom/bathroom – will be sufficiently finished in December so that Mr Rod and SWhoMBO can spend the five days of Christmas in their new home.

In the meantime, Moses, Layla and I will continue to enjoy strolling down the lane to enjoy the longview of the house from the road.