Kitchen squee

[iainjclark]

So as I've mentioned before we've been getting our kitchen redone. It's one of our long-standing goals to get rid of our cramped and cluttered kitchen but we dithered for so long over whether to get a house extension that we've only now got around to doing it.

Once we actually got started (and finally found a builder) it's gone incredibly quickly. We pulled up the floor about a week and a half ago, and then the contractors came in. Within the next five days we had one window bricked up, one replaced, and the room was stripped clean, wired and fully plastered.

This week they've installed the units and the remainder of the electrical wiring and plumbing, leaving just the self-indulgent granite worktops to go before the last touches can go in like the hob and the kitchen tap. Then we just need to paint the walls and tile the floor.

I have to say, even with the walls and floor still bare and the worktops missing we're over-the-moon with the transformation. There's now actual space to move around. It feels like a real kitchen for the first time in the five years we've lived here. It feels strangely like a kitchen showroom in fact, but once we get stuff in the cupboards and the worktops fitted it'll be more like ours.

Those averse to before and after pictures should avert their eyes now.

Before, showing the horrible decor and cramped layout with units opposite one another. And then the lack of the above. We went with a very simple design with real wooden doors.



Hideousness.


Now with significantly less hideousness.


It's cost us a heap and a half of money, of course. But it's worth it. The cats approve too. Today we found Charcy asleep on top of the unit above the oven.

More pics will of course follow once it's actually finished. I just had to squee.

Comments

[majuran.livejournal.com]

Oooh purdy :D

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

This is the correct response. :-)

[abigail-n.livejournal.com]

Looks fantastic. My mother redid her kitchen a couple of years ago, after putting it off - like you, due to the horrendous cost - for more than ten years. The transformation was so complete, and the new kitchen such a joy to use and be in, that none of us can believe she waited so long. You're going to have a blast.

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

Thanks. We've been cooking so much more since we've had a healthier diet that we'd really started to notice all the annoying things abot our old kitchen. This one should be so much nicer.

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

Shiny :-)

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

:-) I'm feeling surprisingly chuffed with it. More than I expected.

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

So you should - it's a good job :-)

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

Well we didn't actually do most of it ourselves. But still. We have a kitchen. Squee!

[ajp.livejournal.com]

Nice...

[tinimaus.livejournal.com]

Lovely. Are you going to have the walls tiled, or are you tiling them yourself?

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

We're going to start with just a wipeable kitchen paint on the walls and see how it goes (there'll also be a granite splashback behind the hob). If it's a disaster we'll be tiling a strip above the worktop at a future date.

We're also going to get the floor tiled, but I think getting a level floor may require someone a bit more skilled than me!

[predictivememo.livejournal.com]

Oooooh.

That is, indeed, a vast improvement.

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

It's already hard to believe that our kitchen used to look that bad! Of course, once all our clutter goes back in...