New house, new oven

We have decided to put our flat on the market.

No messing, just get the sale board out on the front lawn and welcome in potential buyers.

The boy's arrival eight and a half weeks ago has highlighted that a two bedroom flat is simply not big enough for a family of four whose hobbies include baking (me, obviously), playing the guitar (or rather three guitars - the other half) and making as much mess as possible using every toy possible (baby puddle duck is the guilty party here).

Combine this with the paraphernalia required for a newborn and it becomes difficult to navigate through the one living space we have to eat, work and play in.

So, decision made. A few decorating projects are underway, and we're taking the plunge into the murky world of estate agents and solicitors.

I have mixed feelings about selling. I'm pessimistic that we will find anything to move in to; I'm dreading trawling hundreds of properties we don't really want or like but can afford; expecting 'heated discussions' with the other half over location; but most of all I am excited that I might finally have a generously sized kitchen to bake in.

The kitchen in the flat at the moment could be described as "compact", "neat", "well planned" or "proportionate to the size of the property", and I look forward to seeing how the estate agent describes it on the details when they are drawn up, but if pushed, I would have to describe it as '"tiny".

Not only does the size drive me to distraction - and my husband too when I am baking in there and he can't get anywhere near the kettle for his caffeine fix - but the oven is about as useful as a chocolate fire guard.

In the glorious heat that has graced the country this week, I reckon I could cook a cake quicker outside using solar power. It's worse than useless. It's pathetic. It's temperamental. It's disastrous, or rather the results of anything that has the pleasure of being perched upon its sorry oven racks are.

I once cooked, or rather attempted to cook, a Sunday roast for my parents and brother. Four hours after the pork should have been ready we were still waiting as the oven had decided to terminate its own gas supply and go out on several occasions.

So top of the priority list when looking for our new home will be a family kitchen with enough cupboards that I can have a whole one to myself to house the many decorations, icings, cupcake wrappers, cutters, rolling pins, etc and one that has enough work surface that baby puddleduck and I can both decorate cakes and hubby can still get to the kettle!