15 SEPTEMBER 2008

Well, the puppies are chubbing up nicely – and Wilma is beginning to spend a little more time away from them, rootling around in the garden while we take the chance to cuddle and get to know her offspring….

And the house is coming along well, too. With the arrival of the puppies and Mary starting school, the builders have taken a bit of a break, while Laura, who is doing most of the painting, has been coming in every day. She’s made the most of the good weather to paint the window frames inside and out, and has also given the kitchen cupboards a first coat of colour. The paint, by the way, is mainly Farrow & Balls‘ new Estate Eggshell, which combines all their wonderful colours and finish with far fewer toxic ingredients (VOCs) than in the past, and means I’m much happier about using them in areas of constant use.

I’ve not been slacking myself, either. Having finally tracked down the right stuff for treating the reclaimed lab-top counters (Sadolin’s Worktop Oil), I’ve given the kitchen worktops a couple of coats, and also done the desk top in my study, which comes complete with old burn-marks and ancient graffiti. The yellow wall on the right is made from pinboard, which will soon be completely covered with favourite pictures, photographs, school timetables and so on, while the shelves on the left will be filled with my favourite gardening books. I’ve got so into treating old wood that I’m thinking of keeping the worn wooden floor beneath a coat or two of wax oil.

Further inspired, I spent a sunny afternoon dusting, sanding down and re-treating the wooden shelves and old dishwasher rack we had in the former kitchen here and which I am planning to re-incorporate in the new design. I also dug out this old cupboard door, which I found in a skip about fifteen years ago and have kept, just waiting for the right purpose to come up. Well, I think it has. Don’t you think that, with a back and some shallow shelves fitted inside, it would make a great cupboard for tea and coffee-making things, to go above where we plug in the kettle? After treatment, the wood has come up exactly the same colour as the teak of the counter tops, and I can paint a contrasting colour inside. Thank goodness Frank rescued it last year when, having read one of those clutter-clearing articles that tell you to get rid of anything you haven’t used for five years, I put it out on the pavement in London. It’s going to look lovely.

Projects such as this have helped distract me from doubts about the ENORMOUS fridge that finally arrived this week. Although it’s a fine-looking thing, as fridges go, and I had obviously taken measurements, nothing had prepared me for the sheer bulk of the thing, and I worry that it is going to be the first thing people notice when they walk into the room. It’s now too late to install it in the only other feasible position – down by the sink – because the work tops and cupboards have now all been screwed into place, and much of the plumbing and electrical work has already been carried out. I can see I’m just going to have to live with it, consoling myself that it works better practically in this position, forms a natural enclosing “end” to the kitchen, and will soon have that large shiny door broken up by some pretty Mexican tin fridge magnets we have in London. We’ll also make a nice-looking wood store next to it that will come about two-thrids of the way up the side and form some insulation from the heat of the woodburner. Enough already – I’m boring myself about it! But you know how it is when you have a niggling fear you have got something in a house/room design wrong? I suppose I can only be thankful it hasn’t happened to me more during the progress of this project.

Anyway, it looks very nice here, with the late afternoon sun slanting in on it. The smart new cooker is also in operation – and Mary and I celebrated by baking a batch of flapjacks for a weekend of visitors. Here she is, licking the bowl in the sitting room – wearing her pink fluffy tiara like a halo….

The light that comes in through that run of small windows above the double doors is one of my favourite things about this new extension. Hopes for this coming week include more colour in the kitchen, with shelves all painted so we can unpack our stuff; electric lighting for the kitchen and left-hand carriage (candlelight at night is romantic for a couple of weeks, but I’m beginning to miss seeing what I am cooking!), and a door on the entrance to the utility room. The puppies don’t know it yet, but in a few weeks they will be de-camped there from their cosy den in the carriage compartment, so that we can have our spare room back, and finally get around to treating the wooden floor. There’s still a lot to do – including the front porch – but we’re definitely getting there…..

For further photographs and details about the background to and progress of this project, and for articles on gardening and greener living and information on my forthcoming books, please visit my website.

And if you like gardening, you might be interested in a nice piece the notoriously mischievous Garden Monkey has written about me on his or her (no one knows the identity of the anonymous GM and the gardening world is agog to know) brilliantly entertaining Blog – scroll down to the post for 9 September, but be sure to stop off and read lots on the way – he/she is wickedly funny about the presenters of Gardener’s World.