New cuisine = happy campers!

Well it's been weeks, if not months without a home cooked meal, but we finally have a brand new kitchen in our apartment and I have to say that I have enjoyed the whole renovation process (minus cracker dinners and microwaved rice!). We were lucky enough to be put in touch with a South African building manager who helped us finalise our design, oversaw the building works and organised our builders, electricians, plumbers and so on. It was difficult at times, especially when forced to communicate with local tradesmen after being in the country only a week or so, but this meant I had to learn the French basics très quickly and I now have all of the household lingo down pat. Trips out to Ikea and other home renovation stores were interesting to say the least... I never knew Ikea could possibly take 3 months to deliver! Or that your plumber might decide to go on holiday half way through completing your job... oui, Paris certainly can make kitchen renovations challenging, but all the more rewarding in the end. We are thrilled with the final result and despite the pokey size and bizzare shape of the kitchen, we made good use of space and it actually feels significantly larger than the original design. We look forward to inviting you to dinner! Enjoy the photos. Bisous x

the original bare boned kitchen, pre-renovation ... and new floorboards, the transformation begins

the new kitchen, ready to cook! taken from the same angle as above

the handy mitten 

le parfait jars, full of cutlery & other bobs

bench & storage space

new plates, safely stored

the smeg & the pantry

recycling a wedding sign

straws for scott's daily fruit juice

the butler's sink & oven

breakfast

somewhere to store all those plastic bags