What an evolution this was, reinforcing the advice of living with a house and it will reveal the optimum configuration. The new kitchen is off the hall and is where the lounge and the only bathroom of the original house were situated. It has a huge beam running through it, which is the hardest by far of any in the house. It was covered with horrible brown termite-resistant paint, which was IMPOSSIBLE to remove. I tried sanding, Nitromors, sanding again, electric wire brushing, scraping, hitting (which hurt me more). Eventually I declared the beam the winner and painted it in in several coats of “distressed” white, which actually fitted in well, but it was the only option. A large opening was made to link the house to the barn renovation, which at various stages we considered closing off with a wooden or glass door, but so far, the house has resisted it, and we probably agree. The huge fireplace was cleared of its plaster rendering, and we discovered an old bread oven opening which we restored and made a feature. The stonework and mantle beam were cleaned up, and later a large wood-burner was added. It was probably about Year 3 of the renovation that we moved our kitchen arrangements from the tiny utility room to the designated kitchen “room” where we now had running water and a sink balanced on an old cabinet! We had an “unfitted” work surface (on trestles). It was a further year before I got the additional luxury of a long shelf on breeze-blocks on top of the work surface!! This actually did very well as kitchen for another couple of years whilst work went on in other parts of the house. In the meantime I’d bought a big shelf unit off Lucie which of course I painted and Malcolm added some more stable shelves, but it was perfect for swallowing up any plates and bowls and it still works very well even today. But eventually it was the kitchen’s turn for renovation and we designed and bought a Leroy Merlin kitchen which Malcolm fitted, and we love. The original table and chairs which we sat around with the prospective builders all those years ago are still going strong (after a bit of TLC) and still have an original strengthening screw in the top that we don’t have the heart to remove - it’s an original feature. It is the heart of the house and links one part to the other, a room to gather in as well as a functioning kitchen.