English Rose Kitchen

It was with great regret yesterday that we said our final goodbyes to our beloved Smeg FAB28. We had one false start when the original winner of the auction unavoidably had to pull out through no fault of their own, but we were at least happy when the next highest bidder accepted it and turned out to be a lovely couple who’ve been married six weeks and moved into their new house a week ago to the day. We made them promise it was going to a good home and delivered it ourselves. It looks good there and we are tempted to go back an wave at it from time to time.

Bye Bye Smeg. It hasn’t always been easy living with you, what with your temperamental innards and your freezer door that broke, twice, but ultimately it’s been a rewarding relationship and we’re very sad to have to let you go.

When we got back home we realised that the Electrolux American Style Sherman Tank of a Fridge Freezer won’t fit through the door from the living room (where it currently resides) to the kitchen without taking its doors off first and even then we’re not quite sure. That said, our old (so sad to use that term already!) Smeg didn’t actually fit in the intended space in its new kitchen either

Bladders full to bursting we set off on the 15 or so miles to meet Mr Poole, or “Michael” as I’ll call him. 20 or so minutes later our satnav directed us towards some concrete bollards that cut his road in two and another 10 minutes later we arrived at Michael’s house.

The stark contrast between his welcome and the reception we’d found in Brockenhurst threw us momentarily. He took us through to his kitchen and we saw, for the first time, some restored and installed units.

In fact he had installed runs top and bottom along both sides and one end of his kitchen before getting completely carried away and using some of the units he’d intended to sell on along two walls of his dining area. Ray and I thought that that part was probably overkill, lending itself to the effect of standing in a show room, but that’s just a taste thing and you’d be hard pressed to fault Michael’s skill and enthusiasm.

He was full of useful advice and told us the processes he’d used to restore the units. I was planning to document them, but before I had a chance he posted a comment to say how here: Restoring English Rose Kitchen Units, Michael’s way .

In his garage was another restoration project of his, a beautiful 1937 Ford Club Coupé. Michael is sort of like Al. Only – er …

Michael’s Ford Club Coupé

He took us to a lock up garage he has about 15 minutes away to pick up the units. A double sink atop four base units, two full size wall units and  two half size units, plus a larder, a couple of end shelves and, as every self respecting seller on of English Rose kitchens has, a surpising amount of unidentifiable bits. We unscrewed the bottom run into two lots of two units and he knowledgeably guided us round them. He explained that some parts, particularly the backs, are steel rather than aluminium, which is good to know and now I understand why those are the parts that get rusty.

Mercedes Sprinter splitter vans are huge, but when configured for a band, there’s very little space inside for other stuff. We managed though and Michael thoughtfully provided carboard, a piece of underlay and some rope to help lash it all together.

We did plan to drive the lot of it back to my parents’ garage that night, but that would have meant clanging large pieces of metal around at about midnight in what is a very quiet area. That’s not a good look, so we drove it home (I did the best parallel parking job of my life in the thing!) and waited till the next day. Luckily Ed was on hand to help lift the fridge down from the van and then later to just inside our French doors, where it will remain till the Smeg sells (it’s coming up tomorrow and is currently an absolute bargain at £75).

Yesterday was the big run to pick up the American Style Fridge Freezer from slighty-angry-woman in Brockenhust and English Rose Kitchen units lot 3 from Mr Poole in Poole. Brockenhurst is in the depths of the beautiful New Forest down near the South Coast and conveniently only about 20 miles from Poole.

I got to Tiger Tours and picked up the van around 2pm. There was a problem with the van that they were gong to give me, so they gave me another, which was not one of their own, but rather funky nontheless.

We made it down to Brockenhurst for about 5:15pm. One of the wonderful things about running around the country acquiring bits and pieces is that you get to meet so many different people and get a 20 minute snapshot of their lives. Most of the people we meet in this way are incredibly warm and friendly and it can be a very rewarding experience.

Not so on this occasion. We were greeted by slightly-angry-woman’s slightly-interesting-husband, who showed us the fridge. To be honest out of the two of them the fridge had more personality, although their eBay description of it as being in “Excellent condition” turned out to be far fetched at best. Actually it’s only a side that you won’t see when it’s installed that has some scratches and dents so we didn’t make the fuss that we probably should.

It took the three of us, with the assistance of a slightly-interesting-neighbour, to lift the beast into the cargo compartment where we wedged it at an angle to stop it rattling about. We were desparate to empty our bladders, but as soon as the fridge was in the van I think it’s fair to say that they couldn’t get rid of us fast enough.

The nicest thing about that experience was the appearance of a family of wild ponies¹ outside their house, which unfortunately had wandered off by the time I got my phone out to take a picture, so here are a couple of pictures of what they would have looked like. Believe me, they’re more interesting than the sellers of the fridge².

¹ The New Forest in Hampshire near the souh coast is famous for a) being quite beautiful and b) being home to some 3,000 wild ponies
² Interestingly, when I first posted this article, several the Google ads that it displayed were to do with marriage guidance counselling and divorce lawyers. Maybe Google really does have special insight into all of our lives!

We knew this day would have to come, but we’re gutted nonetheless. Because we’re moving in our American fridge/freezer, we regrettably have to part with our beloved cream SMEG FAB28 retro style fridge. The irony couldn’t be clearer – we’re selling a beautiful fridge that looks like it comes from the 50s just as we’re installing a kitchen that really does come from the 50s!

Smegs look great and must be about the hardest wearing fridges around, on the outside at least. It has not so much as a single tiny scratch on it. It’s well documented that parts of Smeg interiors need replacing from time to time and ours is no different. It’s on eBay now at http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180244270294 and you can read more about it at http://www.englishrosekitchen.co.uk/index.php/for-sale/ .

For whatever reason we fancied a Timothy Taylor this evening and repaired once again to the North Pole. I ran into a neighbour who used to make documentaries for the BBC. On seeing what I was drinking he said ”Whose favourite beer is that?”. I gave him the answer and he told me that he’d once interviewed the TT directors, who said that since Madge’s chance comment they couldn’t make enough of the stuff.

Then Ed Harcourt came in full of beans (he usually is) because he’d just found out that he’d got the soundtrack to the Donnie Darko sequel. He was so happy that he paid for the next two rounds of Timothy Taylor and the evening went downhill from there.

I’ve lined up a van for Monday with a company whose website I look after, Tiger Tours. The plan is to go down and pick up the fridge first, then the kitchen units. Mr Poole says he’s fine all day long. Slightly-angry-woman (with the fridge/freezer) has turned into slightly-angrier-woman because I can’t pick up the American style fridge/freezer at the weekend. This is proof of Al’s theory that English Rose Kitchen fans are of a certain type and the rest of the world are of a certain other type.

Then Martin (nice chap) at Tiger Tours called to say that there’s a problem with the van that I’m hiring (a transit type thing), so would I mind taking a Splitter van instead? Tiger Tours specialise in hiring to bands (we’ve used them ourselves). This thing is a 9 seater behemoth with another few feet of storage at the back. The whole thing is 6.5m or 21′4″ long. I guess the fridge/freezer will go in the storage bit (which serves it right) and the kitchen units can be split between the storage and the seats. It’ll probably have DVD players and broadband and all sorts of stuff that’s complete overkill for the task, but Martin said they’ll give it to me for the price of the van I was going to get.

I was trying to get Chris the Driver to fetch the American style fridge freezer this Saturday, which would please slightly-angry-woman but he hasn’t come back to me, so I’ve arranged to hire a van on Monday. That’s rather convenenient because I can pick up the Poole lot of English Rose Kitchen units in the same run. I just hope slightly-angry-woman and Mr Poole can both accommodate me on Monday.

Remember Dave, the builder/decorator we met in the North Pole last week? He arranged to come round at mid day today. Dave couldn’t make it so he sent his partner instead. Unfortunately his partner’s name was a bit unusual so I didn’t quite catch it.

For the first time the process of describing what needs doing to didn’t seem like a chore. We’ve asked him to quote for the floor, the kitchen, lighting in the living room and the shower/steam room (probably the subject for another blog I should think).

He was the first person who seemed to just “get it”. He was totally unphased at the prospect of having to fit an English Rose kitchen and suggested that before we go ahead and restore the units we let them place them roughly so we can all see what we’re dealing with.

In brief, he filled us with as much confidence as Dave did when we first met him. Let’s see what his quote is like when he gets it to us in a few days’ time.

My mum emailed me from St Petersburg today to tell me that it was fine for me to store the units in their garage. Told you I love my parents!

The woman from whom I’ve bought the American style fridge/freezer emailed me to say “No it’s not OK for you to leave it here till next week”, so I need to work out how to get it to West London from Dorset. Trouble is that I can’t find my driving licence at the moment to hire a van. Guess I’d better start looking. Ray’s the bloodhound when it comes to finding things.