Okay, so as of yesterday work on the long-discussed new kitchen has officially begun. I'm going to try and keep an illustrated diary on the progress, and would be delighted if you joined us in this journey!
Wednesday 2nd March 2011
Day 1: Goodbye to a really-quite-nice dining room! Luckily, we have a large enough lounge to incorporate a dining area, but it's a shame to lose the dining room really ... still, the end results will be worth it, I have no doubt. This is how the room looked at the beginning of Day One.
Looking through the doorway in the middle photo, you can see our current "functional but basic" kitchen. This will become a study/office and occasional guest bedroom (with a double sofa bed); it was the only way we could incorporate a third bedroom into this property, but it will have its own facilities, because there is already a loo just off it, which we hope to remodel to include a shower.
Thursday 3rd March
Day 2: Yesterday was mostly about moving the furniture out of the dining room (including the laborious task of completely emptying that large dresser, then re-filling it in its new position!) and clearing out the cupboards. We achieved this pretty well, as we completely stripped the room and managed to find a temporary home for everything, while still not feeling completely overwhelmed by furniture and effects in the other rooms!
Today, however, we started making some mess! We finished emptying the built-in cupboards, pulled up the carpet, stripped one wall, removed the fire (complete with its huge back-boiler!!) and filled in the hole, removed the long window (which you can't see in yesterday's photos) and filled in that space, too! Here's how it looks now.
Oh yeah ... we also put up temporary doors to stop too much dust getting into the existing kitchen. There IS going to be a lot of dust, for a while ... one day in and I already feel like I've smoked five packs of Capstan Full Strength!!
Friday 4th March
Day 3: More stripping (I have donkeys' years worth of experience in this, yet after just a few short years of not doing it, I had forgotten what a sticky, stinky, horrible job this is!!) and the cupboards removed from the alcoves.
Saturday 5th March
Day 4: Almost finished the stripping (just a few somewhat inaccessible places left) and Warren had some floorboards up to have a look at/make a start on the plumbing and electrics. Floorboards and joists turned out to be in much better condition than he feared and the run for the waste pipes shouldn't be too bad, either. Both positive things, but we still felt drained and knackered when we went to bed.
Sunday 6th March
Day 5: Both woke up feeling a bit despondent this morning, so decided to have a day of not working physically on the kitchen; instead, we went out for lunch then went to B&Q to look for flooring. We found some "random stone effect" laminate that we both really liked, but would have cost almost £300 for the whole floor (this kitchen's already costing a lot, so we didn't feel prepared to part with that much) but we found another light "stone effect" laminate we quite liked (that also matched well with the new units we've ordered) which was reduced for clearance. They only had seven packs left, which was a little more than we needed, so we bought the lot for £136 ... bargain!
Monday 7th March
Day 6: I haven't done much in the kitchen today, as there was a fair bit of general housework to do; I managed to a bit more stripping with the steamer (almost there now!!) and a bit of tidying up, but that was all. Warren, however, did very well ... pretty much all the plumbing is done, with hot & cold pipes running to the sink area, cold to the dishwasher area and waste running from both! Here's how we're looking at the end of Day 6:
Tuesday 8th March
Day 7: I did the last bit of wallpaper stripping that I could get to (just a bit left behind the radiator, now) and Pete (our son who's visiting and helping) tidied up the lower edge of the cornice, where the old paper/paint was stuck to it, with a Stanley knife. That looks much better!
Hubby cracked on with the electrics: pulling through wires, chasing cables into the walls and fixing inset boxes for the sockets. At the moment, it all seems to be going remarkably well ... why do I get the feeling that it won't all go this smoothly? Years of experience, probably!!
Wednesday 9th - Friday 11th March
Days 8-10: Having Pete here has been a great help; as well as running errands and driving us around, fixing computer glitches and being a depression counsellor for me, he has also given a lot of support (both moral and physical) in the construction of our "perfect kitchen". What a guy!
Here he is having a break from building the stud partition to blank off the pipes in the alcove:
(*sits back and waits for smart-ass "stud" comments from his mates!*)
WORK TEMPORARILY HALTED ... Warren's back to work for a couple of weeks, so the only progress made will be at the weekend, plus whatever I can do (very little at this stage, unfortunately).
Saturday 19th - Sunday 20th March
Days 11-12: Warren had a good weekend on the kitchen; the electrics are almost finished now (that's been a BIG job, as it always is when building a kitchen from scratch in an "ordinary" room), the stud partitions have been put into the alcoves (thereby hiding pipework and cables) and the new extractor has been connected (just the working part).
Monday 21st March - Friday 1st April
Days 13-24: Movement has been a bit slow over the last couple of weeks, mostly because there is SO MUCH work involved when forming a kitchen out of a previously "ordinary" room - cooker cables and numerous worktop-height sockets, gas pipes, hot & cold water pipes for sink and dishwasher, drainage pipes for sink and dishwasher, etc, etc ...) - and partly because Warren is doing it all single-handedly and finding it not quite as easy as it was a few decades ago!!
We've also had the odd day out, here and there, to look at appliances and pick out flooring, etc. One day this week, for example, we went to buy wall tiles (which took about an hour to decide on!) and then on to buy worktops for the units and the extra wide breakfast bar ... which probably took over an hour to decide on! Anyway, we think we're happy with what we've chosen, but that remains to be seen when it's all finished ... yikes! I hope it all looks ok together!
Anyway - Warren has now finished all of the service re-routing and provision (including moving the Internet modem wire from the old dining room to the future study); he's filled in with cornice where he removed two built-in cupboard in the alcoves; he's done all the plastering and plaster-boarding where necessary; he's given the ceiling a coat of paint and sized the walls ready for papering (where they will show). Now that the "groundwork" is done, things should start looking different quite quickly ... watch this space!
Here's a run round the kitchen as it stands at the beginning of this weekend:
Saturday 2nd - Sunday 10th April
Days 25-33: This week started off well - with walls getting a couple of coats of paint and the tiling going up nicely - but when it came to laying the floor on Saturday, disaster struck! Well, ok ... not actually disaster, but severe frustration and disappointment. The laminate sheets we had bought, that were such a bargain (see Day 5), turned out to be a complete nightmare to lay ... even for someone with Warren's extensive skills and experience. After about 3 hours of struggling and cussing, he still hadn't managed to lay two full rows of laminate and decided then that enough was enough.
We put on "outdoor clothes" (we really aren't fit to be seen in our "renovating clothes"!!) and headed back to B&Q with all the useless laminate in the car boot, including the cut bits ... we didn't want any of it! Needless to say, the customer service staff were full of "we've never had any complaints about this laminate before" - in spite of my telling them that every website review of the product had been negative (I know, I know ... why didn't we listen to them!!) - but they did agree that it was not a good locking system when they tried it themselves, and refunded our money in full straight away.
After some lengthy deliberation and carting laminate backwards and forwards to their kitchen department to see how it would look next to our new cupboards, we finally agreed that a "travertine tile-effect" laminate would be our best option and duly loaded up the trolley with 9 packs! (Good job it was B&Q's 20% off day, which we hadn't realised until we got there - serendipity!)
This took up most of Saturday, so we had the evening off and Warren laid the floor on Sunday instead ... and it looks fab! So, here's how we're looking at the end of the weekend:
And here's the lush new floor:
Monday 11th April
Day 34: A few cupboards put together today, as we need to start working out spacing, etc, down to the last millimetre! There are a couple of places where Warren needs to make a framework to support the worktops, or add a piece of wood to cover up a gap ... such are the problems when you make a kitchen (in an old house, especially) out of a dining room!
Exciting news, though ... late in the evening we actually ordered our new cooker and fridge/freezer. Woo-hoo!! Can't wait! (Will have to, though, as delivery is about a week.)
Tuesday 12th - Thursday 14th April
Days 35-37: More and more cupboards being put together, one or two fixed in place ... ready for the cooker which is arriving (we have now heard) on FRIDAY - woohoo!! Still loads to do, but it's moving forward, thank goodness ... the mess everywhere is beginning to really get to me, now.
Friday 15th - Sunday 17th April
Days 36-38: Cooker arrived at 8.45am on Friday (even though I'd been up since 6.45am, in case it arrived at 7.00), manhandled in by two very grumpy delivery men, who kept mumbling that they were "not supposed to do steps" ... how many people, I ask you, live in a house where there are NO steps at all to the front door? In England, relatively few, I reckon!
Anyway, they got it in eventually and it looks (and cooks) great. We've also now grouted the tiling, which I love the look of, and put the cooker hood up properly. Cupboards are beginning to be put in their correct places, but there is still quite a bit of fiddling around to do, in order to get standard-sized units into our very un-standard size (and shape) kitchen! Never mind, it's really beginning to look like a kitchen now ... and the fridge-freezer is arriving on Tuesday.
Monday 18th - Thursday 21st April
Days 39-42: Big news this week was the arrival of our fabulous new fridge/freezer. We wanted an "American-style" side-by-side, but chose one of the smaller models and one without an ice dispenser; I'm sure they are great for families, or those who use a lot of ice, but we don't and we wanted the extra space in the freezer ... besides, this one comes with a surprisingly good ice maker inside!
The freezer would be a tad small for a family, probably, but there are only two of us and we don't use a huge amount of frozen food. What we do use a lot of, however, is chilled food ... so the vast amount of space in the fridge side is wonderful and means we will be able to keep all our fruit, salad and vegetables chilled and fresh. We are totally delighted with it!
As for the rest of the week, that has been mostly fixing the cabinets to the walls and to each other; there are a few places (because of the size/shape of the room) where cabinets don't exactly meet, so quite a bit of time has been spent trying to decide the best way of filling those spaces, both to maximise the usefulness of the units and to look as good as possible. We both feel it's worth taking our time over these decisions, as we think the end result will be worth it. Here's how we're looking midway through Thursday:
Oh yeah ... we also moved the dishwasher up from the old kitchen, so that's in place and working now, too, The worktops and last cupboard/door are arriving next Thursday, so we really are on the home stretch now - hurrah!!
Friday 22nd April - Tuesday 3rd May
Days 43-55: On Saturday 23rd April, it was my lovely Warren's 60th birthday, so nothing was done in the kitchen (other than a bit of tidying up) for the whole weekend ... which was a long weekend, as it was Easter as well. Following a lunchtime meal out with most of our family, everyone came back to the house and sat in the garden with coffee and/or Pimm's (or, in the children's case, ran around the house shrieking!). The following weekend was also a "long" one, with a Friday bank holiday for the royal wedding (Wills and Kate) and a Monday bank holiday for May Day.
Pete was here for the duration, so was able to give a hand with carrying the (huge) breakfast bar and worktops down from the garage to the kitchen, as well as helping to manoeuvre and turn them for Warren to cut and join. We did have a bit of a stressy time over the second weekend, when we discovered that our measurements had been affected by something unforeseen, which meant the units (and therefore the worktops) were much higher than was comfortable for me to work at ... so they all had to be dropped about 3 centimetres, which now means we have a gap between the tiling and worktops, so we are working on finding the best solution to fix that.
In the meantime, this is how it's looking with the breakfast bar fixed, most of the doors on ... and a few bits of crockery creeping in already!!
Weds 4th May - Sunday 15th May
Days 56-67: Nothing much happened in the kitchen over this 12-day period - during part of it, we went away for our weekend in Topsham, to celebrate Warren's 60th birthday; then he spent just over a week doing some pressing paperwork (which is now finished and sent off, thank goodness!). So still looking the same as the above photo.
Monday 16th May
Day 68: Woo-hoo! Our beautiful new sink arrived - lovely shiny stainless steel, 2-bowl, single drainer sink, with stainless steel draining basket and wooden chopping board! Warren can now cut out the hole for it in the long worktop and connect the plumbing - hurrah!
I love to see how you create your dream kitchen! Wish we could share a meal...
ReplyDeleteWell Well Well. Look who came cralling in
ReplyDelete*Crawling
DeleteKitchen looks great hun and so does the Hubby. Should put him to work and make you some delicious Curly-Whirly Cumberlands! LISTEN HERE SUE YOU RAT! Your kitchen is tragic...food all over the floor and dogs running around. If I were you I'd call the vermin squad and ask them to eradicate you too!
DeleteHi Phillip, this is John. I would recommend taking two steps back before I have to use you to mop the floor of my "tragic" kitchen.
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