"You start out playing in kitchens, and you end up playing in kitchens." Trisha Yearwood

So now it's the kitchen, probably the most important room in the house. Somewhere to sit, relax, cook, chat, socialise and just generally live. It's a blank canvas at the moment - but my memory keeps filling it with images from my early childhood.

I clearly remember being washed in the stone sink in the kitchen of the pub where I was born. It was less glamorous but more exciting than this one - I used to get to "push the button" on the gas water heater to magic the cold water hot.

and the tin bath was put in front of the fire once a week, on Sunday, and my brother and I took it in turns to be scrubbed clean. Speaking of Mick and kitchens, I also remember the day he locked mum upstairs and shooed the chickens we kept into the kitchen before running away. She had to call for help from an upstairs window!

However warm and fuzzy these childhood memories are, I decided to bring the Manse kitchen into 21st century. To be honest, I didn't have to do too much to make a difference to the room as we found it. So...on with the show!