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The new kitchen

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chrismpw said:
Come August and Mrs chrismpw presents me with a drawing. It even has a couple of measurements on. I'm delighted, even if summer is almost over and in the meantime since seeing the last drawing, I'd entirely re-roofed the carport and workshop, installed a 14 panel solar array and EV charging point (no mean feat given the obstacles the government put in the way of you saving money).

I approve the plan, she orders some bloke in Sheffield to make some pine kitchen units (saves me a job ... did i mention that by this stage, just changing the cupboard doors wasn't good enough?). They'd be here by early September and jn fact as promised they're here now, filling the part of my workshop that was just cleared of oak flooring.

Part of the plan was for me to build an enormous floor to ceiling, wall long kitchen unit. I put an order in for £600 worth of oak faced ply and set to work pulling out that part of the kitchen. I spent the first two weeks of September measuring calculating and cutting the ply into the exact sizes if board i wanted. I routed channels and cut supports that would hold shelves and drawers.

Within a week "we" had a carcass of this big unit in place ... I would trim with solid oak and make drawers and doors later on. In the meantime we can empty our existing cupboards into it.

I re-routed electrics and tore down coving and skirting boards to expose the wall from top to bottom. We ordered a pelmet heater to replace the radiator in the kitchen that was "in the way" and I sourced yet more reducers to accommodate the different pipe sizes. She ordered an oven and hob (I contributed to this so that we wouldn't replace the good quality stuff we were discarding with cheap rubbish)

Things were moving at last, all was set. I'd sold the cooker on fb marketplace and have had interest in our existing units. Things were looking great apart from I couldn't fry bacon anymore.

It was the day I'd put the last piece of this kitchen unit in that she aired the idea*....

"Why don't 'we' put the kitchen in the dining area instead?"

*there's no such thing as an idea in this context. Perhaps now you can see I'm writing this chronicle as a therapy
Click to expand...
If you were LOR, youd have walked off site by now, get the unions in!

In all seriousness, fair play to you for taking on some of these tasks, they are in no way the simplest. Whil i may jest about a snatch in plumbing, I did one and drenched the entire dining room when the stop cock(I should have tested beforehand)Was totally jammed open, we live and learn.

I too, am very jealous of your "thicknesser tool" just not enough capacity in my gaff to have one but our neighbour converted his garage into a sublime workshop and sadly he passed a few years back but his Wife always lets me avail myself to his equipment, there are defo no double entendre here lol

Just finished redoing our ensuite, I'm no plumber but christ on a bike those guys deserve the hourly rate, some of the positions you have to get into to attach stuff is beyond my 55 years. Old one out, new one in took 4 months due to delays etc but worth it, until there is a leak, then im leaving home as I buried all the pipework in walls etc under my good ladies instruction!

You see we all have one of "them" at home lol
 
kev said:
Which Hospital is Mrs chrismpw in now?
Click to expand...
As I said... I can't resist a challenge. In fact it makes sense. In other fact it was MY idea last year before it was dismissed out of hand by Mrs chrismpw because it was "bad feng shui" to have a kitchen centrally in the house.

You see, here's the thing. Our existing kitchen is too big. Our lounge is tiny. Its great in the winter with a fire and the telly, but it's cold, north facing and just looks up the street. The kitchen gets the sun, looks out into a large garden. My thinking is - with the kitchen area and garden room we voukx have an enormous lounge (for me read hifi room) looking out onto our south facing garden.

So "we" are going ahead with this plan now. Of course there are implications:

Mrs chrismpw has to replan where all these kitchen units are going.

The wall long unit I've made is now redundant and has been taken down today.

I don't quite have enough oak flooring to finish the entire area of the old kitchen into lounge so

I'm pulling up newly laid oak flooring in the areas the units are going to go so the re-used timber can be re-re-used.

I have to figure a way of plumbing in a waste pipe, bringing in hot and cold water, wiring in a new ring main into the dining area that currently has just 2 sockets and on the wrong wall, install a 32A spur for an oven (thank god I have a sparky mate who can test my work and commission it) and figure a way of getting a gas point in for the hob.

Did I mention that the plan requires the lounge partition wall (and associated electrics) to be removed so that the lounge can become part if the new kitchen diner? Which means I'll be having to take apart the inbuilt alcove book case she asked me to build just three years ago.

Oh and we'll need a new fireplace and chimney on the new lounge where the kitchen used to be.

Also ... I'm having to work around all the existing furniture dining suite and a piano.

"One does not simply move a sink, gas cooker and electric oven into another room."

.
 
chrismpw said:
As I said... I can't resist a challenge. In fact it makes sense. In other fact it was MY idea last year before it was dismissed out of hand by Mrs chrismpw because it was "bad feng shui" to have a kitchen centrally in the house.

You see, here's the thing. Our existing kitchen is too big. Our lounge is tiny. Its great in the winter with a fire and the telly, but it's cold, north facing and just looks up the street. The kitchen gets the sun, looks out into a large garden. My thinking is - with the kitchen area and garden room we voukx have an enormous lounge (for me read hifi room) looking out onto our south facing garden.

So "we" are going ahead with this plan now. Of course there are implications:

Mrs chrismpw has to replan where all these kitchen units are going.

The wall long unit I've made is now redundant and has been taken down today.

I don't quite have enough oak flooring to finish the entire area of the old kitchen into lounge so

I'm pulling up newly laid oak flooring in the areas the units are going to go so the re-used timber can be re-re-used.

I have to figure a way of plumbing in a waste pipe, bringing in hot and cold water, wiring in a new ring main into the dining area that currently has just 2 sockets and on the wrong wall, install a 32A spur for an oven (thank god I have a sparky mate who can test my work and commission it) and figure a way of getting a gas point in for the hob.

Did I mention that the plan requires the lounge partition wall (and associated electrics) to be removed so that the lounge can become part if the new kitchen diner? Which means I'll be having to take apart the inbuilt alcove book case she asked me to build just three years ago.

Oh and we'll need a new fireplace and chimney on the new lounge where the kitchen used to be.

Also ... I'm having to work around all the existing furniture dining suite and a piano.

"One does not simply move a sink, gas cooker and electric oven into another room."

.
Click to expand...
Well I changed a light bulb earlier. ?
I'm now recovering with a a well earned cuppa. :coffee:
 

Workshop with top flight toys - check
All solid oak floors - check
South facing living diner into the large back garden - check
New fridge, cooker-oven, extractor, rads, whatever else - check
Bespoke bookcase - check
Hifi room (I bet its vinyl...) - check
Piano (P I A N O !) - check

I dare not ask what other treats she is accustomed to (autumn cruise?) but is she Imelda Marcos?
 

Rita_Poon said:
Workshop with top flight toys - check
All solid oak floors - check
South facing living diner into the large back garden - check
New fridge, cooker-oven, extractor, rads, whatever else - check
Bespoke bookcase - check
Hifi room (I bet its vinyl...) - check
Piano (P I A N O !) - check

I dare not ask what other treats she is accustomed to (autumn cruise?) but is she Imelda Marcos?
Click to expand...
One of the reasons I like her is that she's closer to Barbara Good than she is Imelda Marcos. Not vain or in the slightest bit glamorous and only owns two or three pairs of shoes.
 

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