Ready for the kitchen!

Okay, nearly everything still needs to be done. But, in theory, at least, the kitchen could now be fitted as the pipes have been moved to where the sink will be.

We arrived today expecting the house to be empty: I was planning to remove the wallpaper from the porch, and Astrid was hoping to trim the hedge a bit. But when she got there (I was still doing the shopping), the plumbers were also there working on the downstairs and upstairs bathrooms. We were lucky enough to get plumbers, let alone ones that turn up early and even on Saturdays!

For those that don’t know Germany is currently experiencing a dramatic shortage in tradesmen. It doesn’t help to know that this was predicted twenty years ago but no one could be arsed doing anything about it; and the schadenfreude that things are worse back in Blighty also rings a bit hollow. Our British friends know that finding a tradesman who knows the difference between a hammer and a screwdriver is considered a win; as the double glazing “fitted” at my parents house bears witness to!

Big shout out to Jan Sauer and Christian Peters for going the extra mile and to Michael Gildemeier for helping us find them!

If all else fails we should, at least, have electricity, heating and working toilets, upstairs being a bonus. Though I think that Astrid was secretly hoping to have to use a portaloo and the wooden stove over Christmas!