The kitchen went in today, and some of yesterday. It all went together remarkably easily and I have to say the quality of the IKEA stuff was very good. There wasn’t a single screw, nail or fixing missing. Everything just slotted together perfectly.

The cooker is in but not connected to the gas yet. I’m waiting for a plumber friend to come and sort that out. The other minor change, which required an extra shopping trip to IKEA in Nantes, was to replace our free standing fridge/freezer with a built-in unit. This meant an additional 60cm wide tall unit and the purchase of a new built-in fridge/freezer. The new fridge/freezer is going to be delivered in a couple of days and should just slot straight into the corner cabinet.

So, kitchen in but not quite functional yet. It is also missing handles, plinthes under the units, the splashback and extractor for the cooker and some tiling behind the sink. I guess we’ll have to live without these for a short time.

No photos as yet, I’ve just not had the time (a bit of a lame excuse) but at the moment it’s basically wake-up, work, sleep.

As it turned out it wasn’t quite as quick as hoped. Assembling all the various bits and pieces and getting the curved shower doors to fit and run smoothly took most of the day. The water connection was very simple, just two screw fittings, but the waste proved a little more tricky.

They provided a flexible waste outlet from the shower tray, but it was very difficult to get your hands in to connect the waste and push the unit back into the corner without kinking the pipe. After quite a bit of fiddling about and some cross words the whole unit slipped into place and the water seems to run away without a problem. I’ve no idea if there is a leak on the waste as you just can’t see properly.

With hindsight it might have been possible to jack the whole unit up in the air 30 cms then make the connections and lower it into place, but when you are up against a deadline and very tired the obvious or alternative solutions don’t always come to you.

In the last week we have also managed to get quite a lot of the other sanitary ware installed. The kids bathroom is basically finished. The painting is finished and it has a toilet, sinks and shower. It’s just waiting for the hot and cold water to be connected to the sinks and shower. The downstairs bathroom is also almost complete with it’s undercoat, toilet and shower. It’s just waiting on a corner sink to be fitted. It’s not much use moving in and not being able to wash and go to the toilet. The kitchen and lounge will have to wait until the last minute.

Nine days to go before we are homeless.

As you can see the walls are now up, and with a first coat of filler for the taping and jointing. It’s a L-Shaped kitchen with the classic triangle of fridge in the corner, sink and cooker opposite.

Whilst the filler was out we have also finished the taping and jointing of the two kids rooms upstairs and they have had a undercoat on the plasterboard.

The kids rooms have taken priority over our bedroom as they come to stay with me at the weekends and I don’t really want them living in a complete shambles.

The lounge is still a storage room and all the bathrooms are as yet unfinished, although the upstairs bathroom has been painted. It just hasn’t got a toilet, sinks or shower yet!

It’s going to be very tight to move in on time

We always knew that in order to make a living five gites would be required and judging by the success of the last year, the two extra gites have made the difference. The renovation of the gites was hard work but the extra income is worth it. With the extra gites it also means that the fixed costs don't bite into any profit quite as much.

All the guests this year in the new gites have been very impressed and having two slightly different layouts meant they catered for each type of families requirements. One gite has a ground floor bedroom and en-suite for wheelchair access and the other gite with the extra upstairs space for larger families.

Fortunately there were no breakages or problems to note, so the extra attention to detail paided during the gite renovation was worth it. We do have a couple of lettings over winter and I'm hoping all the extra insulation in the walls and roof will make them comfortable and less expensive to heat.

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Gite master
bedroom

Gite dining
room

Gite kitchen

Gite bedroom 2

Gite bedroom 3

Eighteen months hard work and the two gites are finished. Here are some photos of the most recent gite, Abricot. The other gite, Fraise, which was finished at the end of last year has photos on the website.

Time for a well earned break.

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Everything has been cleaned up and my tools are safely back in the workshop. I've no plans to see them for a while. Curtain poles are up, and Caroline has been hanging curtains and pictures. The missing kitchen cupboard doors arrived from IKEA, which was a relief. Nearly all the furniture is in place with just a sofa suite left to put into the gite lounge.

Over the next few days we have got to take photos of the rooms and publish them on the website. The garden has been a bit of a distraction over the last few weeks, the grass growing like the clappers, weeding, hedge trimming etc. but fortunately we have got enough spare time to add the finishing touches to the gite and smarten up the garden.

The first guests for the new gite arrive on Saturday 27th May.

Update: Gite Photos

Gite kitchen

Well finished apart from the two cupboard doors under the kitchen sink. They are in the post from IKEA because for some reason we got the wrong doors. Hopefully they should arrive before the first gite booking at the end of the month. All the white goods, cooker, dishwasher, fridge etc. are in and working. The tiling is finally finished and grouted. On the suspended ceiling you can see the smoke alarm and fire extinguisher on the wall. Apart from popping in the other 'essentials' like a toaster, kettle, microwave etc. the kitchen is complete.

With the kitchen finished it's really that last piece of major work in the gite. All thats really left is picture hanging, curtain poles a major clean up and shifting all my tools back to my workshop.

So next week we should be able to dress the gite ready to take some photos for the website. It's been a long slog but certainly been very satisfying to see the end of the project.

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The vast majority of the smaller stuff for the gite had already been bought but the larger items we left to later to avoid having to store loads furniture and move it all twice. The 'window' shopping and planning is the hard bit (well and paying for it) so it was just a matter of driving the van about and collecting the beds etc.

We are both really pleased with the result and the gite is really starting to take shape. A week or so left downstairs for the finishing touches and the gite should be finished. Where have I heard that phrase before.

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We bought 7 boxes of plain white tiles to do the walls above the cooker and kitchen sink that were on special offer. What I didn't realise was that there were three different batch numbers stamped on the boxes.

Like the books say I took several boxes and randomly pulled tiles out of each box and tiled the wall behind the cooker and under the kitchen units. The result looked OK when I stood back but the tiles seemed a little 'grey'. I just put it down to the light.

However halfway through the second wall I stood back and noticed the wall looked like a patchwork quilt of grey, white and off-white tiles. Truly awful. I just couldn't have lived with it. So I had to strip off the tiles and adhesive and chuck them out. Sorting through the unopened boxes revealed the batch number problem. Different shades of white.

Luckily when tiling the first wall I must have used tiles from the same batch but the second wall was a mixture of three different tile batches. So the first wall got left, and I had to go out and buy more tiles, this time paying particular attention to the batch numbers printed on the tile boxes.

Very frustrating having to do a job twice, but I guess that is what was special about the tiles.

Anyway back to the kitchen today and putting in the sink.

Cut hole in kitchen sink for tap

Hole cutter

The kitchen tap is fitted via a 35mm hole in the kitchen sink. The draining board is going on the right-hand side so I know the front and back part of the sink. I drilled a 10mm hole where the tap was to be positioned and the little black device in the photo is threaded through the hole so that the cutter is underneath the sink and the 'clamp' on top. By just tightening the nut the two halves cut a neat and easy 35mm hole in the correct place.

Markout kitchen sink location

Marked out position

Stick and oblong of masking tape on the worktop and then lay the kitchen sink upside-down on the worktop. I positioned the tap hole on the centerline of the kitchen window above the worktop. It just seemed pleasing to the eye. Draw round the sink onto the masking tape with the sink positioned squarely on the worktop.

Markout the hole

Marked out hole

The actual hole in the workstop for the kitchen sink has to be 10mm smaller than the size of the sink. Fairly obvious really otherwise the sink would just fall straight through. So, on the masking tape draw parallel lines 10mm in from the kitchen sink outline with a straight edge etc.

Cut sink hole

Jigsawing hole

The scary bit. With a large drill bit cut four holes, one in each corner, for the jigsaw blade. Using the jigsaw just cut along the lins to join up the four corners. I used a brand new fine cut blade and put the canter on a low setting to prevent chipping the formica worktop.

I have found in the past it's best to go slowly otherwise the blade skews off the vertical and you end up with sloping sides on your hole.

Hole cut

Obviously if you are cutting with the worktop resting on the kitchen cabinets make sure you don't jigsaw through the cabinet sides, and before you ask, not I haven't made that mistake; yet!

Pop the kitchen sink in place just to check everything fits OK.

Silicon sealant

Silicon sealant

If any water seeps under the kitchen sink and soaks into the wood of the worktop it could expand and 'blow' the worktop, so I put bathroom silicon sealant on the cut edges. Just pump a thick wiggly bead onto the edge and work it in with your fingers. I also do the same on the back edge of the worktop.

Kitchen sink clips

Sink clips

The kitchen sink we bought came with 14 clips that hook under the sink and then screw up onto the underside of the worktop to clamp it down firmly. I did have to cut some notches in the kitchen cabinet horizontal cross members so the clips could fit onto the worktop.

Sealing putty and earthing

Earthing

Nearly there. The kitchen sink came with with a roll of grey sticky putty like stuff that seals the gaps between the sink and the worktop. Just lay it round the edge of the sink. I also took the opportunity to connect up an earth wire whilst the sink was out.

Now simply pop the whole lot in the hole, make sure it is squared up and tighten up the clips to install it. I tighten up the clips in a sort of zig-zag order, a bit like tightening wheel nuts, to pull the whole thing down square and flat.

Fit tap

Tap fitted

It is most probably easier to fit the tap before installing the kitchen sink so you don't have to be double jointed to get to the nut for the tap. However there seemed to be enough room for my hands so I did it afterwards. The tap was supplied with braided flexible hoses so connection to the water supply was trivial.

Fit waste

Sink waste

Finally fit the drain plugs and waste piping to finish the job. Our kitchen sink came with this amazing bending, twisting, adjustable contraption that looked really wierd but actually slotted in very easily. The flexible waste tube was glued into the pipe coming out the bottom of the kitchen cabinet.

Finished kitchen sink installation

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