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The new kitchen

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chrismpw said:
"We* could just paint the cupboard doors" she said.

"I'm in the middle of rebuilding the decking"

Despite having no replacement in mind, she had asked me to tear the decking up in March to turn into raised beds, even though nobody has timber stocks and prices were sky high. When she'd finally made up her mind as to the exact type and colour of wood she wanted it was May. The Swedish wood finally turned up in August, we were told, via the blocked suez canal and we'd had 5 months of having to negotiate a quagmire and building site where the decking had been to access the back garden.

I managed to defer the kitchen project to "early next summer" ie 2022 - so that we could at least cook and wash up outside or eat salads.

*the word we is frequently misused when it comes to doing DIY- as "we have made a new bathroom." Its not "we" unless you want to include an unasked for and DIY incapable "foreman" as part of the labouring team.
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You should make a documentary, compelling viewing.
 
chrismpw said:
To be fair to Mrs chrismpw, by this stage I'm on board with the improvements. Our kitchen was badly laid out and involved a lot of walking between cooker, sink and fridge. The dining area floor was an old laminate and badly faded by the light from the south facing window. It could have been sanded and refinished but at the end of the day it was still laminate and looked like laminate.

Back in February I spotted a fella flogging off his solid oak flooring. 70 square metres of it. It wasn't going cheap exactly, but was much cheaper than buying new. It took me a week to sort it, quality check it and pass all of it through my planer thicknesser to remove the finish once. It took three passes and at least a fortnight just to get a uniform surface that had removed varnish, sanding marks, new varnish, wear marks and stiletto damage.

All this wood filled my workshop. Every 5 minute job from then on meant half an hour of moving timber to get to a tool I needed for the job. Not to worry I thought. Soon there will be a design, I can lay the floor, free the workshop and get on with the kitchen.

As if.

By this stage it had been decided that .*we* may as well replace all the kitchen cabinets too. Oh and the range cooker. And the fridge.

So dreams turned into more dreams. I had nothing to go on - nowhere to start. I drew a scale plan of the ground floor and encouraged her to sketch her ideas.

February turned into May. I was finally shown a plan. "One cannot simply move a sink to the opposite wall of the kitchen" was my first comment. My second was along the lines of not being qualified or licenced to move the central heating boiler to the adjacent wall to make space for a cupboard. My third was we actually need the back door to get access to the bins. When I pointed out that to open the clever spice cupboard she had designed one would first have to remove a pan from the stove and possibly extinguish the burner, things started to get terse.*

*Mrs Chrismpw does not handle even gentle, constructive criticism very well but on the flip side in her time she has provided me with a welcome series of opportunities to improve my diplomacy skills.
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Brilliant!! Well written
The message im getting is she likes a bit of wood!


@Bungle
 
chrismpw said:
Of course, over winter I realised that her idea to paint the cupboards was just the thin end of the wedge. In agreeing, like a total rookie I had opened the door and allowed a foot in. Before long there were talks of re-tiling (I like the tiles). At this point its worth mentioning that this is a large kitchen, the size of most people's lounge, with half an acre of beautiful (and clearly expensive) black granite workspace, so it's a large project.

"I don't think painting the cupboard doors is a good idea - they're plastic coated," I said like a total idiot come February this year.

"How about new doors then?" she said.

"Expensive to replace all 20 of them ... as really there's only one that's damaged and delaminating because of the steam from the kettle" (or as Mrs chrismpw put it "is absolutely disgusting")

The dream developed and snowballed in Mrs Chrismpw's grey matter over the following weeks. I really should have distracted her from those tv makeover programmes where some designer comes in and turns a house upside down with a kitchen diner upstairs, in the space of an hour, while two failed arts students wear "I'm artsy" clothes as they simper and discuss design ideas with the householder. What these tv shows NEVER show my wife is the team of builders, plumbers, electricians, plasterers, decorators and the several months it takes this army to bring about the change. Nor the bill.

Before long I was told the ceiling would need redoing thanks to a slight bow from a (before we moved in) leaking shower (oh persuing and fixing historic leak and new shower tray in the ensuite that was 2019). Oh and a new solid oak floor - and WHY NOT EXTEND THE FLOOR INTO THE DINING AREA (this is the biggest room in the house - double length, linking the kitchen to our relatively small north facing lounge). Oh and the down lighters- they'll need changing. And obviously if I'm putting a new floor in the dining area the radiators will need replacing, that blocked off window should have a cabinet built into it and the whole room repainted. Oh and change the wall lights.

The idea was escalating faster than covid escaped Wutan.
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Im also getting the message that if you spent less time telling us all about it, you may well get finished sooner, just a thought like!
 

Way more patience than I've got. The occasional entre of reality is sometimes required to wake someone from the sepia tones of the dream and the jackanory of realising it. good on you for recycling the flooring though and i'm well jealous of a workshop (with a planer) that can hold 70m sq of solid flooring.

a sketch from february to may... a 3 month delay on a sketch, if you cant conjure with that...
"we need the door", "moving the gas boiler"(corgi registered* - steady!), "moving the sink", be brutal, be blunt, enabling a childs mentality only invites more. She must make a wicked bolognese, or Sunday roast.

Contract it out, and dont have a holiday for a couple of years. Ying and yang innit.
 

Look at doing something a bit different than putting everything round the edges. Is it possible to put in a Kitchen Island?

I live in an old 30's house that had a Pantry instead of more kitchen cupboards. We put the fridge and oven either side of the Pantry door and with a bit of stud work, had kitchen cupboard doors opening to allow us into the Pantry. People expect there to be a cupboard with tinned foods etc but its a walk in pantry now. Its a nice quirk and one I'm still chuffed with.
 
Pootsy said:
Look at doing something a bit different than putting everything round the edges. Is it possible to put in a Kitchen Island?

I live in an old 30's house that had a Pantry instead of more kitchen cupboards. We put the fridge and oven either side of the Pantry door and with a bit of stud work, had kitchen cupboard doors opening to allow us into the Pantry. People expect there to be a cupboard with tinned foods etc but its a walk in pantry now. Its a nice quirk and one I've still chuffed with.
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'Butchers block' I believe. Nice pantry usage, so your kitchen proper only has a sink in it from the classic triangle?
 
Rita_Poon said:
'Butchers block' I believe. Nice pantry usage, so your kitchen proper only has a sink in it from the classic triangle?
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I've my hob and about 4ft of worktop in the Island so its not big but allows me to cook while looking at my TV. Good for Sport. The working triangle is put out a bit by this as the triangle is over the island from the fridge to the sink to the pantry/cupboard.
 
Pootsy said:
I've my hob and about 4ft of worktop in the Island so its not big but allows me to cook while looking at my TV. Good for Sport. The working triangle is put out a bit by this as the triangle is over the island from the fridge to the sink to the pantry/cupboard.
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Sounds a bit dangerous for the fingers whilst chopping veg and cursing a poor ball out from CB...
 

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