All This Space!

The main room in the cottage used to be a kitchen/lounge where we also had our desks, it was a little cramped but a huge difference from living in the caravan so all this space seemed amazing! However, we needed to move the kitchen into the new room to free up more space for our living area and working desks. I have my Grandpa’s old dining table and this was sitting in the shed patiently waiting for a room of it’s own.

After breaking through the wall from the main room to the disued part, putting in the concrete floor, bricking up the old door way and putting in a window we were ready to create our kitchen/dining room. The sink went in first, it was the one that was in here when we moved in and other than being incredibly heavy to move, fitted perfectly in the gap beneath the window. The new piping had gone in – I use that term quite loosely, the piping from the old sink went straight into the flower bed so until the fosse is done, that is exactly what has happened with the new piping – and the sink and tap were installed. Next came tiling the floor which was done with the help of Tom’s Dad and two of his friends. Having 3 extra men in this tiny space was interesting to put it mildly, it was quite cold so the only warm place for them to sleep was in the lounge. Unfortunately everything from the new room had to come back into the lounge as well so it became an assault course to get from one side to the other. Cooking dinner for everyone was even more interesting with no work top space and just the cooker standing forlornly in the lounge. We managed it though and the tiling was done (I will gloss over all the swearing….)

Next came work tops, we decided to buy long pieces of basic wood and cut them to shape and size, that way they could fit into the space that was there. Once finished we gave them several coats of clear varnish and used the old cupboards and shelving that had made up the previous kitchen to go underneath. I made some curtains to cover over the fronts – sewing or cutting in straight lines does not come naturally to me but I feel the rustic look lets you get away with wonky seams! A light had been wired in and next came some plug sockets, a bit more swearing there but finally that was done and we could plug in the fridge freezer. The walls have been left in their rendered state so not a smooth surface, we began to realise that every time a wall was touched bits of sand/render would drift down and after several crunchy meals we decided to seal the walls with watered down glue, messy but essential and it worked a treat. We had been given a huge dresser which was too tall for the room so we decided to just use the base, gave it a few coats of paint and lined the shelves. The cooker finally got moved across and the kitchen was ready to go!

Grandpa’s table was bought in from the shed and just after Christmas we had our first meal sitting at it. Having a whole new room took a while to get used to, it felt quite alien going out of the lounge to get a drink or some food. The dogs were very unsure at first, their first outing into the new room was just after the concrete had been laid between the rooms, it seems fitting somehow that their paw prints are forever marked in the floor! They very quickly got used to the fact that this new room was a good room as this is where the food lives.

Once the kitchen was done, we started looking up towards the ceiling and thought, hmmm, what can we do here…..

 

These blogs are just short excerpts of much bigger chapters! I am currently working on getting a book published about our journey so far in order to assist funding for the Earthkin project. If you would like to be informed when the book is available, please subscribe to our newsletter, thank you.

 

 

Hello, I am Debs. Myself and my partner Tom are following our long held dream of bringing our vision to reality – Earthkin – a place of sanctuary for nature, wildlife and people.  I am sharing our journey so far by writing about the good, the bad and the downright messy!  I will continue to update you every step of the way, do come and follow us www.earthkin.org