Diary of a Fitted Kitchen installation: Part 3
Follow us as we take a journey following our own new kitchen installation from start to finish, giving you a bird’s eye view of the kitchen design and fitting process.
Behind the scenes!
Once we had agreed the basic layout of the fitted kitchen and we knew we wanted a Genoa door, we had to take into account the manufacturing time, which is 6-8 weeks, the availability of our builders and the kitchen fitters.
We had a very old and in my opinion very ugly dark wood conservatory on the back of the lounge which we felt was blocking the light in to the lounge and was unlikely to last another winter. The builders have come in – in advance of the kitchen building works being done and removed the conservatory, allowing so much light to flood through, we cannot quite believe it! We were thinking of installing a veranda in its place, but have decided against it in favour of a simple table and chairs we can enjoy when the sun shines.
Things don’t always run smoothly and our works was no exception. We had problems with a previous extension not having the right pad-stones (foundation) and was therefore not properly supported. As a result we couldn’t knock the 2 rooms through without seeking advice from the Architect and obtaining Building Regulation approvals.
It feels like waiting for people to sort problems you didn’t anticipate will go on forever, but we found people are happy to help, coming out and see you as soon as possible and offer their expertise to solve any problems quickly. It has put us back a bit but the builders are working flat out to ensure the room is ready for our kitchen installation date. I’ve found that keeping them filled up with tea and coffee definitely helps.
It is in this period that we have had to decamp to the utility room, we cannot use the old kitchen at all and the utility although well kitted out with cupboards does not have much worktop space to cook and certainly doesn’t have cooking facilities although there is a fridge. I have removed all non necessary items from the cupboards and put a couple of each, dinner plates, bowls, side plates, mugs etc in their temporary home!
We have been lent a wonderful plug in ceramic hob with one burner that has been a godsend, when used with my slow cooker and a saucepan you can create some half decent dinners, especially when there’s only 2 of us – admittedly!
Washing up is lots of fun, no dishwasher in here, we have to wash up, dry up and put away or its chaos, the washing can end up dangerously close to the chicken in the pan and it could all go horribly wrong at any time.
The poor old dog is not coping well, she dislikes any disruption to her comfy lifestyle and the intrusion of all these people in what was her domain is she feels very unacceptable. I have started to take her to work with me; with all the open doors and people in and out it’s not really safe anyway!