WELCOME BACK & A SUMMER OF D.I.Y

So here we are, back once again after a month long Summer break.
It's good to see that many hundreds of visitors have been visiting
this blog daily even though I've not been posting anything.
Hopefully these two big return posts are not too big to both appear
on this opening page, what with my holiday photos further down
in the next post.

Above is an image of the damaged floor and carpet by my small kitchen, and I mean small.
It seems that over the last few years that my old fridge was constantly leaking, especially
more so every time I defrosted it. So come this very warm Summer in what seemed like
the hottest two weeks we had in July, I started the process of repairing all the damage.

And first to go was the fridge. And after that I pulled up the surrounding damaged carpet
and laid down some hardboard. And then on top of the boards I put down some floor tiles.
It also gives the appearance that the very small kitchen floor area now spreads out
into the main room. And I was really pleased with the outcome. But being that I had to
get a new fridge and a much wider one, I had to cut into the partition wall that I put up
several years ago as the fridge was too wide to fit under the kitchen worktop.

But that whole week without a fridge was a tough week. Why? Because it was the
hottest week we had during our Summer heatwave. And I guess you've all heard of
The Naked Chef, but being up here on the top floor of our house I actually spent many hours
working in just my briefs and a tool belt. Now that would have made a picture as it
seems impossible to keep this flat cool during rare severe heatwaves.
But boy did we load up the new fridge with cold drinks and ice lollies once
it arrived.

The fireplace in the above picture was one I hand made but I had to awkwardly build
it around that little cupboard where a disconnected old gas meter is housed.
 

Above middle picture shows the original fireplace which is still concealed under the present one
which I made a few years ago when we had gas heating, which has now been disconnected.
The image on the right was of the new facade fireplace that I made. And on the left is a picture of
when I went for the old country cottage look.

And below is how things are now.

Above: The small kitchen on the right. And on the left is the newly
constructed guest room.