Taking the Rangehood Out

Hope you had a great Easter!

Here's a quick recap of what I've been up to...

Getting quotes for our benchtops
We decided on Tasmanian Oak. Click here to see some examples.

Going out to Movida Aqui for our birthday
The highlight was our entree of slowly braised beef cheek in Pedro Ximenez on cauliflower puree - it was melt-in-the-mouth tender and absolutely delicious.

Here's a pic of our main, Paella de Marisco (Bomba rice cooked with seafood and saffron):

Taking the rangehood and splashbacks out
Before

After

All of the old cabinets are out now, apart from the area around the sink, but that is going to wait until the benchtops are nearly ready (in about three weeks). The old sink will come out, the plumbing will be moved, the new sink cabinet will go in, the benchtop will go in, then the new sink will go in and be reconnected.

Ripping the kitchen out has been my 'weight training' lately, but I've been doing some sort of cardio at the gym Monday to Friday.

Related posts
Exciting Plans
Kitchen Benches and Cabinets
Visiting the Kitchen Designer
Second-Hand Kitchen Cabinets
Cabinets - tick
Preparing for New Kitchen Colour
Test Colour
Taking the Breakfast Bar Out
Taking the Pantry Out

Taking the Pantry Out

I went to the gym a bit later this morning, so my 45-minute treadmill session went uncommented on - thank goodness!

Today I attacked the other side of the kitchen, taking out a base cabinet and wall cabinet, the cupboards over the fridge, and the pantry (to the right of the fridge).

Before

After

It's tiring work!

Related posts
Exciting Plans
Kitchen Benches and Cabinets
Visiting the Kitchen Designer
Second-Hand Kitchen Cabinets
Cabinets - tick
Preparing for New Kitchen Colour
Test Colour
Taking the Breakfast Bar Out

Taking the Breakfast Bar Out

This morning I did some incline walking on the treadmill at the gym. There is a 20-minute time limit on the equipment, and most of the equipment is set up so that it automatically times out after 20 minutes. If it's quiet in the gym and I want to use something for longer than 20 minutes, I usually restart the machine at the 20-minute mark and keep going.

Today I used a treadmill I hadn't been on before and it didn't time out after 20 minutes. There was another other treadmill free, so I decided to keep going on the one I was on, since there no-one was waiting to use a machine. After I had been going for 37 minutes I heard the woman on the treadmill behind me get off, walk up behind me (to see what my console display said), then go back to her machine. Then I heard the muttering begin: 'Thiry-seven minutes! Grumble, grumble. Thiry-seven minutes! Grumble, grumble'. I couldn't make out exactly what she was saying, but I could gather she wasn't happy about the amount of time I was spending on treadmill. I couldn't work out why, since she was on a treadmill, and there were other machines free.

I finished up at 45 minutes, then spent a couple of minutes cooling down before jumping off. As I walked away I could hear the woman saying 'Forty-seven minutes! Grumble, grumble. Forty-seven minutes! Grumble, grumble'.

I stretched quickly and left the gym, but it wasn't a great start to my day to (literally) have someone talking about me behind my back. And this from a woman who runs on the treadmill while holding onto the console.

Any suggestions about what to do if she does it again?

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Before the new kitchen cabinets can go in, the old ones have to come out. I have this week off work so today I took out the breakfast bar and surrounding cabinets.

Before

After

I will call the plumber tomorrow about getting the pipes capped so I can take out the sink and remaining cabinets.

Related posts
Exciting Plans
Kitchen Benches and Cabinets
Visiting the Kitchen Designer
Second-Hand Kitchen Cabinets
Cabinets - tick
Preparing for New Kitchen Colour
Test Colour

Test Colour

It's been a while since I last posted. In addition to working, I've been:

Painting
original kitchen wall colour

undercoat 1

undercoat 2

test colour (Dulux Clotted Cream)

I think this will be a nice, light, warm colour when it's applied to the whole wall.

Moving
We hired a truck and collected our second-hand kitchen cabinets. I now have a giant jigsaw sitting in our garage

Shopping
We bought Domsjo double bowl sink from Ikea for our kitchen.

Training
The people at SKINS sent me some gear to try out.

SKINS A400 Women's Compression 3/4 Tights

I started a new program last week and trained without the SKINS tights. This week I'll do the same workouts while wearing the SKINS tights, then write up a review.

Food for Thought

"Food is to be enjoyed – all food – there’s no single food that one needs to feel guilty about eating. What matters is how much you eat and how often. There are many ways to achieve balance, and how you do it is your own choice."
(Dr Penny Small, The Food Lover's Diet)