Full Time Position

I'm fast coming to the conclusion that renovating a house is a full time job. I've tried this line with Dr B and he's having none of it, since he's got used to my bit of income and he's in no hurry to spend any more of his life in the Bupa Hospital to furnish us with Grohe basin taps. Today he spent 2 hours talking to a man in a kitchen shop - he arrived armed with a design drawn by Wickes (and if you're considering a Wickes kitchen then I hear they're well made but that there's a company called Benchmarx that supply exactly the same for a third of the price). The man in the kitchen shop is lovely, he tells me. His name sounds French but he looks like an Arab, though none of this is relevant because he's never built a laundry chute and though he's love to have a go, he'd be adding £1000 to the price for the experience. You see, kitchens are much more complicated than they look, especially when you 'factor in' the utility room and you realise you need a belfast sink for dirty boots and a tap with a spraying arm for all-round cleaning. And a laundry chute coming directly from the bathroom, of course - though I'm not sure how you stop other things coming from the bathroom into the utility room - you know, like noises. And then there's the appliances and the tricky question of whether they ought all to bear the same brand name. Would I be the laughing stock of the school playground if I mixed Neff with Seimens? Do I play it safe and go for an unbranded island hood? 90cm hob or a metre? Chicken or beef? The kitchen man has nice painted doors and you can choose any colour of Farrow and Ball you like, which I realise isn't the main consideration, but perusing the F and B colour chart is so much more fun than looking at dishwashers. Dr B thinks I'm the sort of girl who chooses a car based on it's colour. I'm not - I choose it based on the colour of the seats. Don't tell him.