Tea on the Cobbles gets a makeover ...

I hope all my readers had a good Christmas and New Year and that 2020 brings everything you could wish for.

George and I spent the festive season with the 'other' Palin family and had a relaxed couple of days with lots of good food and wine before the work began on December 27th ...

 Our daughter in law Ange has owned Tea on the Cobbles (Facebook take a look and 'like' the page) in Newport, Shropshire for about 18 months and now wants to renovate to make it 'her own' and we had been invited to stay longer than we usually do over Christmas to help out with the makeover.  We hired a van to help with moving all the tools, paint, new kitchen units etc, ...

Tea on the Cobbles before the work started ...

 the Christmas decorations have been taken down in the dining room ...

 the 'shop' units have been dismantled and the cake fridge will be collected by its new owner tomorrow.

 All the items usually stored in the shop units are now on the dining room tables, the shop walls and ceiling have been washed and painted by the whole family and the old drab wallpaper stripped from the shop and dining room walls ...

 and at 5pm on the first day we were on our way home to our son's house; over the cobbles and along the wide High Street of Newport. 

Ange and I started on the wallpaper once the ceilings and walls were all painted and dry ... looking good!

Not sure what all the laughter is about though!

We needed more space so all the 'stuff' and tables were moved again ... they were well travelled by the time we were finished and it was difficult to find what we needed at times!

 The new flooring has been laid by George and son Mark and the boxed kitchen units and fridges have been brought in ...

putting them together ...

and cutting the worktops to fit.

There was water pipes to be fitted to the boiler and coffee machine and extra electric points to be installed.

The work was going well albeit not as quickly as we'd like ... as with all jobs ... two steps forward and one step back.

 Screwfix was the store of the day and on this particular morning (Saturday 4th January) when we called there the sunrise was amazing

Putting the furniture and equipment in place was quite exciting ... washing all the tea shop's crockery ... was not!

This is what it looked like at the end of Saturday.  The kitchen is finished except for the worktop edgings which will dry overnight hopefully.

Having stayed two extra days to finish the work this was our last day ... we had done remarkably well considering that all this was achieved in just eight days.  The dining room needed to be set out the following day (Sunday) ready for Tea on the Cobbles to be reopened on Monday morning.  

08:35 on Sunday (6th) George and I were back on the M6 heading home to Still Rockin' where the inside was colder than the outside! The River Thames had dropped a massive 4' in the time we'd been away but is still running very strong with most of the locks along it's length still on red boards (no navigation).

We are now catching up on sleep after working solidly for nearly 12 hours each day on the renovations but it was all worth while, the tea shop looks great and it was really lovely to be with and work alongside the family.  

At the end of Sunday, what would have been a long day for Ange, this is the newly renovated Tea on the Cobbles in St Mary's Street, Newport, Shropshire ... 

If you're in the area please call in for coffee and cake plus much more on the menu and say hello to Ange.