Is it possible to survive without a kitchen? We are still not connected to mains water, nor do we have other essentials such as a cooker, sink or drainage.
Our budget for a kitchen is ridiculously small. All of the appliances were bought for less than the price of a family sized pizza.
The rest will all be hand made.
Annoyingly every single wall in this kitchen has been rendered with concrete. The tiles have been glued to the wall with concrete, as has the skirting. Even the light switches have been pressed into solid concrete. After the second world war, to stimulate rebuilding of property, concrete was heavily subsidized and often given away. Therefore it’s use was epidemic. It does not breath properly and has damaged many traditional properties beyond repair.
Many of the downstairs outside walls of our house have nearly an inch of concrete and it is almost impossible to remove without damaging the walls. The walls are stone and only held together with soft lime mortar. Using heavy power tools to break the concrete causes the stones to separate and fall apart.
Simply removing one tile with too much force can create a crater in the wall.
Removing the tiles from the wall took over a week. Brickies chisels needed to be re-sharpened several times due to the density of the concrete. Kevlar gloves were shredded and left dripping in blood as knuckles grazed across walls. These tiles had absolutely no intention of coming off.
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Enamel Sink
The enamel sink is mounted on cast iron brackets embedded deep into the wall. It’s quite low for a sink but we intend to keep it. With the brackets so deep in the wall and attached so well to the sink, it’s removal would probably end in it’s inevitable destruction. There are several chips in the surface but repair kits are available. We like the traditional look of the sink so we will keep it.
The drainage from the sink currently leads straight into an underground stream. Many years ago this way the way in France. When the new Fosse Septic gets installed, this will change. Once complete, although still antiquated by some societies standards, we will have one of the most modern sewage and water systems in the local area.
Log Burning Oven
When we viewed the house there were two log burning ovens. They had obviously seen a fairly hard life and owls had been nesting in the chimneys. They were filthy and covered in grease and oil. In France, good condition log burning ovens; particularly due to the fuel crisis; can fetch good money. These didn’t meet those criteria. When we placed our offer the world was in Covid lock-down but the Russian crisis hadn’t begun. These ovens weren’t so sort after. We already had a practically new NEFF electric double oven and still boxed induction hob that we had bought on eBay for the bargain price of £10.
A local scrap collector took it away. The chimney outlet has been swept and will become the flue for the overhead hob extractor.