The day after the degree ceremony, 10th September, Diana and I headed down to Cornwall. By the time we had packed, it was mid-afternoon, so we were too late to call in on Ashley and Rosie on the way. We wanted to get down there. The kitchen was due to start on 19th September and we needed to empty it before then. Whilst it might appear from the dates that we had plenty of time – a whole week indeed – to do this, in fact we only had a couple of days, since we were booked into an Arvon Foundation writing course in darkest Devon from the Monday afternoon through to Saturday morning.
Many years ago, before my parents-in-law owned it, the extension at Treforest was used for holidays lets, with its own shower room and kitchen area. We got rid of the cooker there when we started letting the whole house, but the rest remained as a utility area. That meant cupboard space and drawers, mainly empty, to put things into. So most of the kitchen contents went in there. We had to keep a few things separate – kettle, toaster and the like – and carry them into the breakfast room or beyond for easy access while the kitchen was being taken apart and reconstructed. The only way through the house to the extension is through the kitchen, although you can walk round the outside to the back door. So we got most of that done.
On the Monday morning we went down into town to make our final selections of door and drawer handles. Out of the ten or so we had selected, four were no longer available. We looked at the other six and didn’t like them in real life. Then we saw an older-style one, which after some umming and ahhing we decided we liked. We borrowed a door, worktop sample and handle to see in combination with the floor samples we had. We picked up the decorative glass tiles from the Natural Tile shop. We had lunch and set off for Totleigh Barton in Devon, a few miles East of Bude.