The Kitchen: Where was I? Where am I? 1 of 5

Looking back:

It was a year ago that 35 year old kitchen cabinets, inherited in 2010, began to be removed! There were already gaps in the kitchen where various parts had perished!  Now, some of the better carcasses were upcycled into the laundry room

This was my kitchen... look back to here.

Some became destined for the dechetterie.
Some are still under the open shed roof waiting to be reused or passed on. The copper on the extraction hood  invites me to lift it off for selling or using the copper plate!  BUT I don't have skills!
Some doors without their carcasses are perfectly good when painted if someone can make a cabinet to fit.

When the oven stopped at the end of August 2015 I was bereft, but I knew that I would find a way to cook as I love cooking, especially when others are here to eat!
Out came the 40 year old two ring gas hob. Excellent.  Though it had to be housed in the atelier almost open to the elements! Jolly cold out there and it was and still is a mad dash to watch the pans from burning whilst backwards and forwards to the sink and to prep food.
In February friends sold me a gas hob with electric oven; an overwhelmingly saviour!
NO, I do not like slow cooking in a special electric pot.
NO, I do not like electric steam cooking.
YES, a microwave /combi has its uses. 
I tried all of the above.

Living alone, I cook very simply and maybe this has not always been good for the digestive issues I have! I tend to pan sauté fish, meat and veg in olive oil.  But I like it so am not going to change!
I lost confidence in cake making and meal making during the course of the year. Gradually, the passion is returning when visitors descend!
I like to find new recipes as well as re-discover favourite ones so I am looking forward to a display of my cookbooks. .

The saga of finding an electrician who I felt I could trust to do all the work and not to leave me in a mess was based  on the year long experience (between October 2014 and December 2015) of having Collet mess me about over the Chauffeau Thermodynamique. Basically he ignored my continual plea for help.  I had the choice of the most enormous noise in the house, sucking up warm air,  blowing out cold, or no hot water at all.... which was not good for my mind nor my physical ailments.  I became extremely depressed even though I rallied to  follow my grandmother's footsteps. "I can do it" was my motto.
Eventually, the compressor died completely. Whatever the electrician did in May 2015 (his only visit before I called in Protection Juridique, who took almost 3 months to solve the problem, the result of which was not to my satisfaction) to enable hot water, eventually blew all the electricity in the house forcing me to have no hot water for months between July and mid October, when then he arrived under instructions from the legal team with a manufacturer rep and an independent "expert".  He reconnected it, having contacted someone else to know how to do it!  This was the same as in May 2015 but it blew again the whole house electricity again in mid November. 
Patiebce had worn rather thin. Stress levels were high.
Finally, as reported in this blog I scrapped everything and paid for a new Chauffeau electrique with a different company.

The kitchen
Eventually after three estimates and a friend's offer of his friend, a jobbing electrician who was between professional contracts, I continued to feel uncomfortable until eventually I decided for various sound reasons to ask BERTUCELLI to do the work even though the cost!
I am so glad I did!
I am waiting for the sink delivery so that I can recall them for the second fix of plumbing.
I am waiting for them to connect radiators for central heating but that is because I've asked them to wait so I can stage payments.
All seems good.
Another large company were helpful but a small drip on the chauffeau electrique waited three months before it was repaired, making my decision easier!  They didn't get the work which was a shame as I liked the patron.

Continued tomorrow.