English Rose Kitchen

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.

There seem to be two basic ways of painting the units. One is to spray them, the other to powder coat them. Farouk told us about the latter because of his car body shop and we’re inclined to give the work to him since he has the ability to heat the units to the correct temperature.

Again I’ll be Googling around for more information and again I invite comment!

OK now that I have a few pieces it’s time to approach the stripping process. I accept that I’ll probably have to totally dismantle the units to do a proper job and I already know how hard that can be.

I’ve heard several suggestions as to how to strip the units back to the aluminium. They include sand blasting (but that dents the aluminium) media blasting (leaves the aluminium intact, but doesn’t remove rust) or some sort of chemical remover, for example Nitromorse.

The next thing will be what to do with it once the metal is exposed. I’m assuming it will start to oxidise again almost immediately, so either we need to duff it up in some way in preparation for painting, or polish it up and protect it somehow if we were to keep it nice and shiny aluminium. We know that’s possible because Source Antiques do it!

Anyway, I realise that a bit of Googling will reveal some of the answers which I will do, but I wanted to state the problem first and, of course, invite comment. So to some extent, over to you!

Took the car back round to Farouk, who changed the fan switch and only charged me for the switch.

If anyone who lives near W10, W11 or W12 is looking for an honest and reasonable priced car mechanic, I think I’ve found your man.