The Kitchen 2 of 4

Ah the kitchen ... the cuisine!  A summing up!

What a mammoth task, taking about 15 months and more out of my life.
Taking out the good parts of a fited kitchen and upcycling the cupboards for laundry / larder room setting took 2+ months.  Continuing that room and preparing four walls, a beamed ceiling and a floor took 2+ months. Some months to recover from exhaustion. Some months to fathom out the measured plan, as opposed to what the kitchen fitting sales shops want you to have! Some months visiting shops and seraching internet to find 'the look' when a number of looks appeal. Some months angsting about the budget. Some months finding the electricians and plumbers to arrive to give estimates and then to do the work when I NEED them to do it - this is also affected by French Holidays.  Some months whilst my helper went to warmer climes for the winter.  Maybe that covers it!

I can't believe how much energy I wasted in the last 15 months without a kitchen at all. At first with only the exterior building sink and cold water whilst hot water was carried there in buckets.  In desperation after three months or so, the dishwasher saved HOURS!  Later the 35 year old oven died the day before my friend left. Down to the dechetterie it did go!  Without an oven and a proper hob, I made do with fierce gas burners on a two-ringed camp stove, a cheap slow cooker,  an electric steamer ( sold for 5e each at the Spring Brocante!). It was a road to burned meals as I dashed 'twixt the cold atelier subject with outdoor wind, le grand salon and the laundry/ larder room.  I survived!  

The existence of a proper kitchen has lifted years from my shoulders.  Freedom seems to have arrived but the honeymoon is almost over as I gradually get used to it.   Every morning I thank the fitter!
The kitchen isn't completely finished.
Ideas to do:
'Coffrage' - a cupboard around the electricity meter would be good. Planned was a shelf above the door and window to mask the pipes but I can't see the point! Just another thing to clean!
The major thing that I cannot decide upon is the backsplash or do I mean splashback - 'un credence' in French.
Bright or neutral?
Tiles or glass or something else? I went off the idea of glass as too ultra modern! It would be easy to keep clean. The snag would be measuring exactly for the plugs PLUS tempered glass is expensive in France!
I explored a few hand made tiles from Provence and Brittany but have not found what I was seeking.. as if I really know? FIRED EARTH have some Parisian themed tiles at amazing expense I cannot afford! Would love to see them in REALITY though!
Next year I hope to buy a French larder fridge freezer if I am still here!  Meanwhile my 14 year Bosch larder fridge soldiers on, even though two of the trays have had to be repaired.  The French freezer is good but oh so noisy even though A+.
Maybe a mirror on the wall above the radiator .. and / or a shelf for cookbooks.
Maybe one or two selected photos on the bare walls towards the laundry room.
H'm.. will have to plan carefully as when the plasterboard receives the screw holders if, in the wrong place they are a nuisance to make good. 

REALLY the positive is that:
I LOVE the white, black and grey.
I love the new floor -exceptionally nice and inexpensive.   This is in keeping with the age of the village farmhouse.  So glad to have steered clear of wood, lookslikewood and other ideas! 
I love the drawer concept.
My friend modified the IKEA drawers to fit. We took back their rubbish plinthes twice.. first white, then black but they were slubby brown! My friend made his own in wood, having to modify the awful IKEA legs of the furniture!
IKEA is not bad, in fact LOVE IT and HATE IT.  The fitting of it though does require careful attention but one done means the next are easier!  We had to watch a few videos to get ideas on e.g. how to release the drawers once fitted!!!
I wish I'd known how many IKEA videos there are once one starts to enter key words!  These would have been helpful in the planning stage but might have taken longer. 
I detest the amount of cardboard, paper instructions, leaflets and surplus parts accrued.  At one time I started to weigh each material but eventually got bored. Some cardboard and packaging board was usefully recycled.  Some packaging materials were saved for the Arts Group.  Anyone for IKEA parts (???), which I might recycle back to IKEA as a protest!

IKEA were excellent on delivery and true to their word on exchange and replacement. Never accept 'un avoir' unless you wish to purchase further products. I forgot to use 160e one day such is the experience that the feeling of "phwew let me out of here" at the cash desk lulls one into forgetfulness! I discovered this when I got home!   In order to get a refund I had to return, but that was six weeks later (one has a year to use an avoir), buy something using the AVOIR, and take it immediately back to the desk for a refund to my bank account.  They did not tell me that.  I had to work it out when the nice man and the nice supervisor manager said NO to a refund and NO towards the monthly payments.  At least I think there were ten visits of a three hour return journey each time in the deliberating, planning, buying, returning stages. Hwoopee all done!

It has been a saga that I am very glad to see the back of and to be able to sit in my kitchen and view the world of my courtyard! Maybe little birds will return to "Le Petit Oiseau".  

The oven seems to do a fine roast or braise in a closed casserole but two cakes were crumbly and dry. So I must TEST a recipe that has been successful in the past to determine how this new FANDANGO Neff oven works. I highly recommend the 'escamotable' door which opens and glides into the oven so one does not have to reach around the door.

The hob is a dream to clean but salt or sugar would scratch the surface, so I am careful!  It's like cooking by numbers!  I already miss fierce wokking of onions, garlic, veg for a stir fry!

So pics .. of the MAGAZINE look and some as the kitchen is in ACTION... tomorrow!
Such a tease this is!