Keep repeating the mantra, "It'll all be worth it in the end..."

Day 1 of kitchen renovation.

Both Keith and I were up early this morning as I had expected the skip to arrive at about 7am. We emptied the remainder of the stuff out of the cupboards lining the wall, and I took some things out into the garage. 

At 8am two men from Highfields arrived and we had a bit of a shock... they said they were ripping the entire kitchen out today, rather than just the cupboards lining the wall... We spoke to Anthony who said we could keep half the kitchen but in all honesty what was the point? Yes, it'll mean hardship for a few weeks - no dishwasher, no washing machine, no oven, no hob, and no sink - but we'll have to cope. We may have been laughing about it today, but I doubt we'll find it so funny after a few weeks!

By mid-morning everything had gone and it was all piled up on the driveway as the skip still hadn't arrived. We were shocked by the state of the under-sink cupboard - one corner had virtually rotted away!

Amazingly, Monty-cat was fine, even during the worst bits of the banging! He curled up on the sofa and went to sleep, but when one of the men came into the conservatory to chat, he scarpered! He is a funny one!

Yes, I'm ok!

By 3pm, the skip still hadn't arrived, and the kitchen contents were now covering the driveway! Everything, and I mean, everything had gone from the room so cooking, washing up and doing laundry will be fun over the next few weeks! Now I'm glad we bought the twin tub the other week as it'll come in handy for doing small amounts of laundry and spin-drying the clothes! We've also ordered a dual hob plate that is coming tomorrow to heat up stuff in saucepans.

Just after Keith left to get Mike from work, and during another torrential downpour, the skip finally arrived. I helped the remaining builder put in as much stuff as I could, and when Mike and Keith arrived home, they helped as well. Within half an hour everything had gone!

Our very own climbing wall

It was alarming to see the ugly underbelly of our kitchen!

Our makeshift area for washing up (when we buy a bowl!)

Because we hadn't told Mike the extent of what had happened, he hadn't cancelled Abbie coming over, so now we had five mouths to feed! After some debate about what to do, we decided to go to the pub for a meal, but we vowed we wouldn't rely on this, or takeaways, every night! I think the barbecue will come in handy over the next few weeks, as will the slow cooker and the microwave!

I went and had a lovely, hot, bubbly bath and at about 7pm we made our way to The Royal Oak for something to eat. The pub was quiet, and it was bliss to relax and discuss what had been happening today. 

We all chose something different to eat, and the food was delicious. Sophie and I shared a bottle of wine and also dessert. By 9pm, all of us were extremely tired (most of us had been up at about 5am) so it was home, a loll on the sofa and then bed. Tomorrow the wall comes down!