For the last 22 years, I have shivered and suffered in my freezing cold kitchen. When we moved in, there was no heating in there and no wall space for a radiator to be added. The room is around 18 feet long and 10 feet wide, with two external walls which we can't have insulated because the previous owners had the wiring dropped down between the cavity walls instead of being channeled into the internal wall. It would be very disruptive and expensive to remedy this problem.
This year, I finally put my foot down. I do nearly all the cooking (DH cooks about once a fortnight) and he didn't seem to see heating in the kitchen as a priority. His argument was that the hob and oven would eventually heat it, so there was no problem. What he didn't take into account was the fact that, while he usually cooks something that takes little preparation (bought frozen battered fish and frozen chips, re-heating portions of meals that I had batch-cooked etc.), I always cook from scratch with a lot of chopping, mixing, pre-frying and so on.
Last year, I cut myself quite badly when chopping veg as I was literally shivering and shaking. I finally snapped and said that unless there was some form of heating installed then he would be doing the majority of the cooking in future! Voila, I now have an electric plinth heater that warms the kitchen in five minutes so that I am no longer cooking in my coat! It took the installer about an hour to put in and has made such a difference!
Has anyone else made a small change that has made such a big difference?
