Home is where....

Following a tip off from my colleague Sarah, Phil got me this print for Christmas!

Bye Bye Egg Box Doors

The perfectly functional sapele effect eggbox doors are now in the wood-to-be-recycled skip at the tip - thanks to Mum & Dad for helping us get them there!
Instead, we have 9 oak veneered doors (FSC full CoC of course) with stainless steel furniture & heavy duty hinges.  We've owned them since December as I bought them when on offer.  I talked Phil out of fitting them himself - he is perfectly capable, but it would take him about 1 day per door with lots of swearing & frustration.  Found a chippy who gave a great quote, but his order book was full - hence only just fitted!  It took him 2 days to do all 9.
We then varnished them all with a satin clear varnish.  "We" was mostly Phil - I only managed to do 1 due to time constraints.
Very pleased with Mel & Tony's suggestion to put a glazed door on the kitchen which gives a weird dark corner in the hallway a little bit of natural light.
One more to sort out - the carpenter found out that although B&Q don't do the 2' width version, the manufacturer does, so we can get the airing cupboard done too.

We have a kitchen - finally!

We have a kitchen!  And that means being able to use a hob for the first time since late October & a dishwasher for the first time since August.


Units are gloss white, worktops are solid beech & floor is tile effect laminate.  The pull out larder units are not quite as easy to pull out as we'd hoped, but that's a minor niggle.  Hob is gas, oven is a pyrolytic electric fan version.  Tony's done a fantastic job.

I'm surprised that we have filled all the units given that this kitchen is so much bigger than our old one.  I'm a bit freaked out that as 2 people, we seem to own more glasses than the average wine bar!


Although we had the space for an island unit, we've gone for a trolley/island unit from IKEA instead as it gives a bit more flexibility.  And we treated ourselves to a new kettle & toaster.



I also got to enjoy the breakfast view I've been aiming for since we first viewed the house this weekend - over looking the fields.  The view will be improved further when the rusted metal shed moves out of the garden...


Many thanks to Debs for the clock - it fits really well.

The only bits needing more sorting is a noticeboard &the bin corner.  Husband has square pedal bins in mind - but finding one at an appropriate price seems to be challenging!

Kitchen - Progress

Thought a few update photos on our kitchen's progress were due.  As you can see, it really is looking less like a ubiquitous room in a state of being done & more like an unfinished kitchen!
We do now have use of the oven which is making a positive difference to the quality of our diet!
And yes, the lighting is LED not energy hungry, light-fitting-heating halogen...
Still to do:

• Tiles - completion
• Flooring
• Plinths
• Painting the whitework (my least favourite painting job!)

Kitchen - getting there. Kind of.

Well, the kitchen is progressing.  Not finished - or anything like finished, but at least it's starting to look a bit less like a gutted shell & more like a room.
A few hiccups - a broken elbow, electrical shuffling & a predictable amount of glaring at the plans vs reality!
The oven does work - but we've been too chicken to try it out.

Kitchen is ordered

Not quite the 3 week lead time I was expecting, but as it's not due until the 19th November, at least we'll be able to get the room ready!  

We had to choose the tiles and flooring in minutes in order to add them to the interest free credit deal - which was surprisingly amenable and squabble free.  For both, we ended up switching from what we'd chosen from the brochures.


I have also decided that I'm going to salvage what I can from the current tiles - I do like them in a very 70s way  but there really aren't enough in good condition to keep as the main kitchen tiles.  I do have some ideas though.

We have a possible home for the worktops - a friend has been eying them up for his workshop.


The current flooring though is beyond recycling - much as I approve of cork!

Kitchen Quote

Kitchen was measured up yesterday by Mark from B&Q.  I haven't seen the latest iteration of the kitchen CAD software and it's impressive!  He took minutes whereas I would have taken hours to measure & plot the units and the finished visuals are very helpful.  

I've put up the "before" photos here so you can see what we are working with.  It's a good sized room with a u shaped layout that we are not planning to change significantly.  We are reducing the number of wall units on the left side to give a more open look.

Quote was predictably more than I'd budgeted for - but there is an IFC deal at the moment which will certainly help!