While we waited for it to arrive, we discussed options.
My ideal was to take the bamboo worktop - bought this time last year as a temporary thing, but extremely lovely - and put it on top of the desk. It didn't have to be now, it could wait until we re-did the kitchen. (We've been going to re-do the kitchen since 2013, but I haven't found one I want yet. And I haven't looked for about a year). The desk could be dismantled and stored in the summerhouse, or the shed. .Or it could stay mantled in the summer house.
It was likely that the new desk wouldn't be able to take the weight of the worktop (and the rest of the stuff), but my sewing desk upstairs can take 150kg so a swapsy was a possibility.
When the desk arrived, it was quite a neat little thing, much less industrial than its upstairs brother. We speculated about the weight of the worktop. We had a piece left, so we weighed it, and calculated that the full worktop is 57kg. The new desk can cope with 100kg, so we decided that was probably OK.
We discussed whether to do something, or to leave it until later.
We decided we'd do something. The something was going to involve some lifting and shunting, so I called upon my DB2 to see if he could help. He came over almost straightaway, we'd only got as far as emptying the units that currently lived under the worktop.
For the next few hours there was a humongous amount of activity. Taking the worktop off, fixing it to the desk. Moving the two Units. Both were from Ikea, but from completely different ranges. One has sliding doors in a sort of pink colour, the other has drawers.units in a very high gloss cream colour. (Bought at different times, for different purposes, and to try out different Ikea kitchen styles. Each was hidden under our worktop, so it was never a problem).
With the new arrangement there is only space for one unit, so one unit had to go. The one that stayed could either live under the desk, looking like a pedestal or (in the case of the sliding door cupboard) we could try wall mounting it. We tried the Ikea sliding door cabinet first. Luckily, it was a wall unit which we had mounted on tall legs on the floor. It actually looked good in both places. Lots of photographs and discussions, and the decision was made.
The pics came down, the nails were removed, the light fitting had to be moved a bit. Wall unit up, table in place.
It looks..like it's always been that way.
The table can now be moved and used as a proper table. It can be lowered for small children, raised for sewing or a bar, it can be pitched at the perfect height when we are dealing with a half pig.
It's great.
The rest of the house looks like a bomb has hit it. Operation clear-up had to wait, as it was Vet time.
