Kitchen Update

I don’t know if you remember, but I shared my new kitchen space with you last year (here)…

Well, over Christmas we had a change of heart and decided to get a new kitchen sooner rather than later.

 

I think I mentioned before that our kitchen, although a good size, is totally impractical. I have no idea why whoever designed it thought it would be a good idea. On the face of it, there’s loads of cupboard space, and lots of worktop space. In reality? A lot of it as actually unusable. There’s not a single cupboard that I can stand a cereal box in. Nor is there any spot on the worktop where I can keep my stand mixer as the ceiling cupboards are so low, I can’t lift the arm up, and the only space with no cupboard above it doesn’t have a socket close by. And it’s REALLY hard to keep clean, with all the grooves in the cupboard doors, uneven floor tiles and a ridiculous amount of unnecessary crevices around the sink.

I know it might sound petty, but for a couple who spend a lot of time in the kitchen, it was really bugging us. We cook dinner together nearly every night, James makes amazing brunches at weekends, and I love baking. Just after Christmas we went to talk to someone at B&Q about what we were looking for and to get an initial quote. We went in with the intention of just getting an idea of what we needed to save so that we could set ourselves a proper target and have something to work towards.

The guy we saw, Adam, was really helpful and drew us up exactly what we wanted. He explained the difference in worktop materials, the finishes on the doors, the integrated appliances available and we designed our dream kitchen together. We got our quote, which was actually not far from what we were expecting, and he explained that B&Q were currently offering interest free credit. He didn’t push for a sale, just gave us the options if we did want to order it soon and we went away with a lot to talk about.

When it came down to it, after seeing the computer generated images of our dream kitchen, we both decided that we wanted it as soon as we could get it. We talked through the pros and cons of the interest free credit and looked at the fine print before deciding that we should just go for it now. In short, there’s not really any difference between paying B&Q monthly than there is putting money into a savings account monthly – it’s not like interest rates are really anything to shout about at the moment, and it means we can start enjoying our kitchen as soon as possible.

We met with Adam again a couple of weeks later, he took all the measurements needed and we signed all the paperwork. Our kitchen was ordered and we were excited!

The kitchen is being delivered on Wednesday, so we have spent the last couple of days ripping out the old kitchen ready so we can prep the walls, sort the electrics and do any other little jobs that need doing before the fitters come on Wednesday. So this is what our kitchen currently looks like, a building site. After taking the cupboards down though, a few unforeseen problems have arisen… the previous owners decided just plaster upto and around the cupboards, meaning that we now have to re-skim literally the whole room. The floor tiles were laid so badly, there’s no chance of us getting them up in one piece, so we’re also going to have to fork out for an entirely new floor.

It’s been a stressful weekend, and the entire house is a mess, but work starts on the electrics today and the plasterer is coming on Wednesday, so hopefully by the weekend, we will have a properly finished blank canvas ready to fit the kitchen. We’re going to be cooking everything in the slow-cooker until we get the new oven in, and we have to do all our washing up in the bath, which isn’t fun either, but we know that it’ll all be worth it when we can cook an amazing first meal in our new kitchen and with our new cooker! I’ll share photos with you once it’s all finished, which may be some time, but I’m excited!