Once upon a time, in a land at the bottom of the earth , where people say Cooeee and Crikey and Freakin' in general conversation, there lived a fair princess who had a very ugly kitchen. She and her Prince did not have the funds to make the kitchen beautiful because while she was rich in love, she was poor in coin, and there was always something else that needed doing round the palace that was more important. Upkeep on a three bedroom palace with one bathroom and a double garage is very costly and the palace was in a state of utter disrepair stemming way back from the Prince's wild swinging bachelor days.
The Princess found it very hard to be creative or interested in cooking in her blue kitchen with cedar panelling, 1970's routed doors, and poorly designed layout. That's probably why her baking sucked so bad-not due to a lack of culinary skill, but squarely because of negative kitchen mojo. So dark and dreary was it in the kitchen, that the princess was convinced in days past it had been used as the royal dungeon. The pineapple wall tiles may have been trendy and the height of fashion in about 1963 but they certainly didn't scream style by 2001 or for the subsequent 9 years she had to live with them. She wept every time she had to mop the gross brown tiled floors as despite her best efforts they NEVER looked clean.
Finally she spat the dummy, in a very princessly manner of course, and demanded the kitchen see some action. The Prince got overly excited about this until she explained she was talking about a renovation, not actual action in the kitchen. Deflated, but supportive, the Prince agreed that she had been patient and good and loving and it was time for a payoff. So she and the Prince set about living on two minute noodles and Vegemite sandwiches for about a year so they could afford what became known throughout the land as the Never Ending Kitchen Reno. Many obstacles were overcome in the Year of Eating Noodles, and after much planning, dreaming and endless choice making they were finally ready to start slaying dragons, metaphorically speaking.
Throughout the process the Princess complained to all of Blogdom, her family, her real life friends, the postman, the guy that runs the local deli and random people in the street. Eventually she became known throughout the kingdom as Princess Whiny Arse. However the Bloggy People were super darn awesome about her whinging and supported her through the trauma of no ceilings, lots of dust , 300 pounds of dried leaves falling out of the roof cavity along with an unexploded fire cracker , no floors, no walls, tradies not turning up when they said they would, delays with deliveries, homelessness, delays with the install because the Princess had requested Royal benchtops and not those available as standard, angle cuts that weren't sent with the rest of the kitchen, no way to cook, a microwave and cooktop that were inadvertently sent to Africa by mistake, petulance, and a small nervous breakdown. And just when it all seemed to be sailing along and the finish line was in sight the universe decided to mess with the electrician's van and so Slack Tea Thursday was able to return one week early but it meant the kitchen remained unfinished.
Nothing bad lasts forever, (it just feels like it does at the time) and eventually there came a day when no tradies were tromping through the castle filthying up the royal tiles, or making sawing and hammering noises and the Princess awoke one morning to the realisation that she had a functional kitchen and no men in her Palace aside from her husband. Oh Happy Day! And while the Prince still needed to tile the splashbacks behind the cooktop and around the sink, and do some other things, and the fixit guy needed to build the pantry shelves and install the pesky angle cuts, this Princess is pulling up stumps and pretty much calling this finished.
It's kind of hard to believe this ....
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could become this ...
The Princess was deliriously happy because it truly was the kitchen of her dreams. Or maybe because the medication finally kicked in. Whatever.
Oh and Dudley is whisper quiet but apparently the Princess needs to do a tutorial for the Pyjamas Clan on how to empty him and put dishes away. A Princess's work is never done!
P.S. For all my griping, I just couldn't bring myself to throw away the vintage fruit tiles. Look what I found packed in one of my kitchen boxes.
P.P.S. Just a heads up. The Princess hasn't finished the dining room. This wild ride aint quite over yet.
I'm linking up to Finished for Friday because I finally have a finish!
