There are some things I will never do again.

By choice, I will never ride the Tower of Terror at Walt Disney Studios, Florida.

The first time was horrific enough, the ride photograph managing to capture the exact moment 12-year-old me thought I was going to die of heart failure.

I will never drink copious amounts of vodka again, in fact, I try to avoid the drink altogether after one extremely heavy night and bedridden morning as a student.

I will never watch Pearl Harbour, once was more than enough, eat Trebor Extra Strong Mints or choose to listen to the Cheeky Girls ever again.

And there is something else I will never do again and that is simultaneously get a puppy and refurbish my kitchen.

It is not really our fault.

Many months have been spent at Dogs Trust and other rehoming charities trying to find a dog which is happy to be around children.

The kitchen too has been a nightmare to sort out and it just so happened they landed both at the same time.

Which means our kitchen is out of use, dining room has been taken over by our pup Polly, our living room is also now our kitchen and our bathroom doubles as the washing up area.

Mess and chaos isn't unheard of in our house but this is really pushing us to the limit.

We are house training a dog, cooking using a microwave and spending half our time disinfecting the bath between washes and washing up.

I would love to say I can see the light at the end of the tunnel but at the moment all I can see is half made cabinets, holes in the wall and a dusting of plaster on my kitchen floor.

Dinner table is out of action which means we have to "enjoy" tv meals with trays or balanced on the fireplace's hearth with calls of "Don't put your cup on the rug" after several spills.

Saturday morning, after a mercy mission to McDonald's for bagels, coffee and orange juice for breakfast it struck me that there was an upside.

The electrician had cut the power to the house so with no distractions and no room, we crammed together in a circle on the floor to enjoy our food.

In two weeks of madness, this was the first time we had managed to all enjoy a meal together.

It was a lovely, family moment.

But one I would have preferred occurred at our dinner table with food from our shiny new Ikea kitchen.