Kitchen reno ongoing... Man, what a MESS!

Yeah, I can hear you saying "So, what did you expect when you do renovations? A shiny house?".. OK, OK, I know, I know.... but it doesn't stop me from thinking I will be glad when it is all done and life can return to NORMAL, though with more space to store things in the kitchen, and more space to get work done in there too :-D. I am SO looking forward to having SPACE to do my baking, especially with a new BIG oven coming in!! And if anyone is looking to get themselves a new cooker - check this one out : http://www.elba.com.my/procook-EPRC9860E.htm! This is what I am getting. A 5-burner cooker with a HUGE 105 litre capacity, 3-shelf, oven! Considering that most home ovens are 50-55 litre capacity, you can imagine the size of this one :-). They are having a really good offer on now, so if you ARE looking for a new cooker/oven, go check it out.

So, where are we at for the renovations?

Where the kitchen is concerned nothing much has happened since last update, as they have been focusing on getting my parents room extension + new bathroom done first. So, the last two weeks, they have done the following:

- Demolished the outside wall of my parents bedroom
- Built (and have almost completed) a brand new wall for my parents bedroom, 3 feet further out
- Built (and almost completed)the new ensuite bathroom walls
- Done all the relevant in/out plumbing for shower, sink
- Done the relevant in/out plumbing for the new esnsuite for my parents (yep, including connection to sewage tank).
- Started demolishing the end wall of the old ensuite (as this is going to be extended to be a new room for a maid (assuming we get one in the future).
- Started ripping up the old floor and wall tiles in the kitchen

Check out the pictures!

- new bedroom/ensuite walls

- This used to be the wet kitchen :-)

- This used to be where the fridge was in the dry kitchen

- This is where the sink for the dry kitchen used to be. The wall is gone and the dry and wet kitchen are no longer there.

- The end wall of the old ensuite is gone, ready for extending the room.

This coming week they should be able to:
- finish the walls for the bedroom and ensuite
- finish the demolition of the old ensuite and ripping out all the fittings and tiles
- finish pulling out all the old tiles and plumbing for the kitchen
- get the new kitchen walls at least half way built
- get the new room for the maid at least half way built

In the meantime, what about the mess in the rest of the house? Of course, "mess" refers mainly to the downstairs only, as the upstairs is pretty much untouched by all this - other than the fact that my parents have to use one of the guest rooms upstairs (luckily both the guest rooms have ensuites!!) while waiting for their extended bedroom and new ensuite to be ready.

Check these out:

- This is the dining room, crowded, but still liveable. Microwave, rice cooker, dish rack, all on the cabinet on the left, next to my fridge. Dining table holds medicines (for both parents), water bottles, and miscellaneous junk! And, on the right, between the piano and the grille doors, are packing boxes full of kitchen stuff, and on top of the boxes are the bare minimum daily use items my mother deemed necessary to survive till the kitchen is done. And not to forget the water dispenser (the pink and cream coloured contraption on the right of the picture) and the old oven (behind the water dispenser), sitting and waiting to be re-connected and installed in the new kitchen

- This is the entrance foyer. Lots of packing boxes under the stairs. The little kopi tiam table that used to be in the kitchen is now here. Also not tooooo messy!

- The living room - hardly affected really. My parents TV is sitting on top of the piano in the dining room, facing the two easy chairs.

- The hugely messy garden - the old windows and grilles, taken from the kitchen and my parents room, are all here... and will be re-used wherever possible. And check out the driveway! Half of it is occupied with bricks, bricks, and more bricks. When parking in the driveway, I have to get as close as possible to the side wall otherwise I have to climb over the bricks to get in and out of my car!

- This used to be where I would park my car every day... sigh... look at the junk lying there now! Never mind, I will get it back eventually :-D

- And, finally, here is the mess at the side of the house. All the things that used to be neatly stored in the garden shed had to be pulled out to move the garden shed, and wont be put back into the shed till the construction is over and we can figure out where we want the shed to be! Also, the dining table and chairs that used to be outside, and the kopi tiam table, have all been shoved to one side. Some of the kitchen cabinets from the wet kitchen are still with us, as we want to fix them up in the new laundry area. Also the aircon and compressor from my parents room, the immersion water heater, etc, etc, etc, are all piled up here! What a MESS!

Another 4 weeks of this to go... though I do expect that once the demolition part is complete, things will look a bit better! I can't wait!!!

Till next time folks, have a good day, every day!