Was Worth the Effort- So it's Worth the Reward

Well, if anyone out there was reading the last post then I am sure that there would have been plenty of doubters as to the possibility of getting our kitchen re-built in time for Xmas.

I have to say that with what came next I would have been one of those folk.

The guys came and ripped the floor out on the 9th through to the 13th December with our belief that we had the flooring going down on the 16th.

However--yeah ok so you were expecting that-- we received a call saying that only the Vinyl flooring would be going down on the Monday and that the hard laminate flooring would not get laid until first thing on the 19th December. Based on that info which we could not get bettered, we ordered the kitchen to be delivered late morning on the 19th.
I also realised that the flooring in the bathroom would not take the gluing of the Vinyl due to the waterproof treatment coating so I ended up putting a hardboard on top to ensure no slip ups. Also had to trim down the bottoms of all the doors or there would have been some rather tight fitting openings.

Below is the hardboarded floor that I laid ready.

Below is the completed bathroom flooring and the hallway done in Laminate --this was on the evening of the 19th, without anything done to the installation of the new Kitchen.

One of the best things I ever did was to stop off on the way home on the evening of the 18th at B&Q and bought 3 Tarpaulins which on the 19th I strung up in the patio area to ensure that when the kitchen was delivered it at least for a short time would be dry-- by Christ did we need that over the next 3 days, with torrential storms.

So finished kitchen floor below on the evening of the 19th before we started on the kitchen installation on the 20th Dec.

Graham, our carpenter started the kitchen installation at 7am on the 20th and we had hardly started before we found the corner base unit was the wrong type--fortunately we were able to get them to deliver and swap the unit later that day. had to cough up 400 quid for the privilege immediately but got agreement they will refund the most of it next week. It hammered down with rain for then next 2 days so very grateful to the tarps.

So just to make life more interesting we agreed to our daughter being able to collect this little chap--called Ossie after the king of Stamford Bridge--- and he seams to have settled in pretty well. We hav'nt lost him yet. He is cute though.

The tree finally got put up on the 24th Dec when we moved everything finally into the kitchen which while not finished, is pretty nearly there.

So here we are with what all the fuss was all about from the floor being finished on the evening of the 19th Dec until these pictures taken on the 24th Dec.

 Lynda and I enjoyed a wonderful Xmas day with Craig & Juliet at their house with all the family, Jonathon and Lynsey, her Mum and Ian and Charlotte. A big thank you to you all.

Just like his Dad and Grandad--wear your heart on your sleeve Jack.

Lynsey with a prompt behind that says "I don't give a damn my dear"

This hat is mine and I will wear it if I want to.

After a quiet Boxing Day Lynda and I flew to Greece on the 27th to our home on Aegina Island.
We had the bad luck to pick a stormy day and ended up with a 4 hour wait in the rain in Pireaus waiting for a ferryboat that we were never really sure would come, but come it did at around 7pm after sitting on harbour since 3pm. The journey over was ok and we were very grateful to Mr Giannis Papadakis for picking us up in the car as we would have got soaked.

There is something said that all the time that you are under the kind of pressure that Lynda and I were in the run up to Xmas day , that you don't have time to get ill of to relax so I think that is why right now we are sleeping until around 10 or 11 every day and why Lynda has now got a cold.

New years eve started off with a bit of singing in the courtyard and these were the best of those---

Aren't they great and growing too fast-----


So this was on the 29th Dec doing a bit of pruning where it has gone a bit rampant---the bougainvillea I am talking about--had about 7 plastic sacks and a hand and arm covered in scratches, but had to be done.

 

 So having real problems downloading photos today so gonna keep it to words only from here on in.

 

Had a great New years evening and day with the Antonios, the Papadakis, the Kerllis and Mastrelli families with a very important person who was physically missing but no doubt he was there spiritually-- we miss you Vangelis.

 

Saw Mike and Janet back from Corfu on 2nd and was treated to a fab meal last night from Sylvia.

 

Off to see David and Dimitra tonight in Marathona so looking forward to that as well.

 

Starting to feel a little more like human again and don't want to ever go through that again--thought io had done with all that type of pressure.

 

Looking forward to a fabulous 2014 with my darling wife and that includes some serious exploring of this wonderful country , Greece.

 

I have made a commitment to do at least a blog a week so I will be back-----------