IT'S FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our kitchen is finally all finished - thank goodness, no more dust, paint fumes, stuff piled up around the house, not being able to cook!   We found a painter who lives not far from us, and has a painting business in Preston.  His quote was more expensive than the other three we got, but he was very professional - the three page quote was very detailed, and I said to Ken I don't mind paying more if the job is going to be done properly.
Alan and one of his employees Abdul (we learned they are both from Iran) started work in our kitchen on Monday.  Ken and I had taken everything off the walls and benchtops, and taken down the curtains.  The chook cafe curtains were carefully put aside, but the 40 year old scrim curtains were thrown in a heap out in the yard along with the curtain rods and sun block drapes that were behind the scrim.  I liked them when we first moved into the house, but ended up hating them because they were impossible to wash and very expensive to get dry cleaned!   We have two curtain shops in Eltham, so we will be going there in the next day or two to select some nice curtains in a fabric that I can toss in the washing machine when need be.

Getting back to Alan and Abdul, the whole of  Monday morning was taken up in preparing to paint.  They put plastic over everything - walls and cabinets - everywhere that didn't need painting.  Dropsheets on the floor of course.  Then they started sanding the window frames, which were stained with dark brown, and were to be painted cream.  So the brown had to come off.  One of them did that, and the other stood on a ladder and sanded the ceiling.   The dust and noise was worse than when the old kitchen was being ripped out!   Once they'd done that, they put the first undercoat on the ceiling, and started patching up the walls with plaster.  The walls were in a real mess, with holes in from shelves that had been removed, and years of nail holes from me hanging calendars etc. up.  Ken said NO MORE NAILS!  but I just smiled at him and said "This is MY space, butt out".  LOL!
Here is Alan waving at me among all the mess!  He and Abdul were great - very cheerful, and very hard workers.  See what I mean about the plastic??

Abdul on his knees painting window frames.

Alan had originally stated in his quote that it would take five days, but by Tuesday night, the ceiling, walls and window frames all had two coats of paint.  On Wednesday, Abdul spent the day on finishing touches and cleaning up.  The ceiling is flat white, the walls are "China White" and the window frames were to be white, but Alan showed us a lovely creamy colour that matched the cabinets, so we decided on that instead.  The following are all the photos I took tonight after Abdul had finished for the day and shook hands with us.

 In the above photo you can see the glass splashback.

 Table set for tea with chook placemats.  Our first meal at home in three days!  It was impossible to cook or eat in the kitchen with all the mess before they'd finished, so we went out to dinner with friends on Monday, and down to the Eltham Hotel on Tuesday on our own.

This is the pantry with the doors open to show the adjustable spice racks that I hunted all over for, and finally found in Bunnings in Box Hill.

Sigh....I think I'll just set up a camp bed in the kitchen and spend the rest of my life in here.  Why did I ever think I would regret this renovation?   We are already talking about the bathrooms now!