WHEN IS A KITCHEN NOT A KITCHEN?

When it's filled with the clutter and furniture from the living room!

You don't realise how much dust, and goodness knows what else, collects behind pieces of furniture that very rarely get moved, until you have to empty a room completely. This past few days has seen me clear the living room entirely as the floor was in a pretty poor state of repair, and, long overdue, I decided to have it renewed with an overall sanding and sealing.

As I moved ever larger pieces of furniture out I found odds and ends that I had long since lost. The hoard was so varied at one point I fully expected to unearth the treasure of the Sierra Madre!

But this furniture had to go somewhere, and I had it in my mind that it would all fit, with room to spare, in the kitchen. Big mistake. I am amazed just how much "stuff" I have managed to squeeze into the living room over the years. With the kitchen now rendered useless I turned my attention to filling every available space in the bedroom, which is where I ended up living for 3 days!

Hardest part of all was the three-seater Italian leather sofa. This is one huge piece of quality furniture, and weighs a ton. When it was first delivered it would not come through the door. We had to remove the window and employ several people to haul it through. To make it even more of challenge the room is on the first floor! However, since then I have discovered that it comes apart, but it is no five-minute job, taking two of us the best part of an hour to dismantle and move.

Now of course I have the happy task of putting it all the furniture back. Joy. The finish of the floor is stunning, but of course now everything else looks tired and in need of some TLC.

I'll look at that in another 10 years.