Category Archives: postage stamp kitchen

here it is, the moment you’ve been waiting for

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Here is our finished kitchen, well apart from a few little annoying jobs. I am so happy with it. We were worried it would feel too much like a corridor but it’s light and airy and works really well as a space. The only problem we’ve had is the bathroom couldn’t wait it’s turn and has started leaking into the new kitchen ceiling! We have reluctantly re-plumbed, resealed and retiled the bath temporarily until we can afford a new bathroom, it’s still leaking from somewhere though. It’s driving me mad!! Anyway back to our lovely kitchen which I can’t believe is the same size room as before and it feel so much bigger, just goes to show how much difference you can make by changing to layout as opposed to extending. 

new kitchen view of left side

new kitchen view of right side

 

I’m so glad we went for the tallest cupboards, again we were worried about the corridor effect, but the storage space is amazing. We still have some empty shelves as we had to really cut back to make sure everything fit into our last kitchen. The two taller units by the door house the boiler on the right, and then the fridge and freezer on the left. There is also a washing machine and dishwasher hidden away on the right and a handy drawer under the sink for the bins.

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bins under sink

 

My mum kindly made us the blind out of some fabric from Ashley Wilde called Tabitha spring, that I found on ebay much cheaper then buying in store. I have the matching stripe fabric to make a door curtain out of, the track has been up a while and I need to get on with it!! I have based the colours around the blind. We were going to keep the walls white and only put a splash guard behind the cooker but it was all looking a bit plain so I got the tiles from B&Q and love them. They draw your eye out to the sides so make the room seem wider. 

window over sink

 

You can see the leak from the shower in this picture, it breaks my heart after all the blood, sweat and tears we put into building the kitchen. Not long though and we can repaint it and cover the stains. I’m holding off until the bathroom is done as we will only end up repainting again I’m sure.

view of kitchen from garden

 

view of kitchen from from back door

 

One of our big regrets is not spending more on the extractor fan. We actually thought it looked nicer than the more expensive ones, but it sounds like there is a lawnmower in the kitchen. It can be easily changed in the future though. Looks like it needs a clean already from this photo. Might do that today!! We had considered a fitted microwave but in the end it came down to cost, it was more expensive than the oven. When ours dies we will replace it with a stainless steel one but for now it does the trick. The glass cupboards are lit from inside and there is lighting under all the cupboards. It looks great at night and I’m so happy we did this as it makes the whole thing look more expensive. 

 

So there you have it, our very nearly finished kitchen. Now time to get saving and sort that bathroom out before it ruins the kitchen!! 

Blogger gone AWOL

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The following photos might explain my lack of blogging. There are only so many hours in the day and mine have mostly been spent working on project kitchen, in between working to pay towards it, whilst also trying to maintain my social life and relationship!

First some before photos, please note lack of cupboards (do not be fooled by large cupboard on right this housed the boiler), and lack of worktop space. What you cant see is how cold the original tiled floor is as this is straight on top of the earth below. No footings on this part of house. This photo was taken from the original door way in the corner of the room.

kitchen before

kitchen before

The stable door was sweet but dark, cold and impractical.

the old stable door

First job involved moving the door into the kitchen which had been done a few months before when we did the dining room. This was our temporary step, treacherous in slippers following a glass of wine.

temporary kitchen step

Once the kitchen had arrived and the builders were ready to start work on raising and insulating the floor and swapping the back door and window over, Jus and I began packing away what we didn’t need for the few weeks (under the ever watchful eyes of the dogs). The rest had to move into our temporary kitchen/storage room aka the dining room. Always one to love bashing things up Tom got the fun job of breaking the old cabinets up.

Jus packing kitchen away

temporary kitchen in dining room

Tom removing old kitchenthe view into the old kitchen mid renovation

Meanwhile the new kitchen kept on arriving and was taking over the whole house. As we had to get some of the kitchen on interest free finance we didn’t dare start any building work until it had arrived. Typically it then arrived really quickly from Ikea and we were tripping over it for weeks before the builders could start!

the new kitchen spread all over house

new kitchen appliances stacked up

Once the builders and plumber were ready the real ripping out could begin. We did this to save paying someone else to do it and we also took it all to the tip ourselves. The first job to do involved moving the boiler, so we could centralise new doorway to enable a galley kitchen with cabinets either side. Not as easy as you would think and we did end up needing to buy a new boiler. Ours was cheap and about 5 years old, but still going strong. We were hoping to just move it onto the adjoining wall it but as it was cheap, no one really stocks it or it’s parts anymore so a new sideways flue plus refitting was almost as expensive in the end as a new one. We decided to bite the bullet and get a new one rather then risk having to fit a new one anyway in 1-2 years. This did delay things slightly though as it meant scraping together more cash that we didn’t have! Fortunately the kitchen came in at a good price due to a 3 for 2 appliance offer on when we bought it.

the new boiler

the new boiler and old window

the new window

The new door couldn’t be ordered until the hole had been made so we did go for about a week with the new back door boarded up and no access to the back garden. Words cannot describe how dusty the rest of the house was at this time but this image may help give you an idea. Whilst we were waiting for the door the electrician then put all the wiring in before the plasterboard went up. 

dusty sofa

the new back door and plastered wallsnew door new window new plaster

The new wiring meant we required a new fuse box as ours was old, so this along with plumbing in the boiler (oh yeah I forgot to mention most of the gas pipe to old boiler was dangerously narrow), meant most of the floorboards were up upstairs. There was no escape from it!! And it did feel like no matter how hard we had budgeted the costs were spiralling, an old house is like a can of worms and once you open it you just can’t ignore it.

looking in from the new back door

So now we had two door ways opposite each other and a blank canvas to build our kitchen in. First we had to paint it. Then build the cupboards. Word of warning do not do this alone, tired, in a dark house as a I did and have a huge fridge freezer cabinet collapse on top of you! 

first coat of paint and dogs banished to garden

I next needed to fit the underfloor heating so we could tile it. First you have to seal the floor, which had insulation under it already, with a reflective latex type paint that comes in the kit. Then you just roll the heating out on top. I had to trust it would work as there was no electricity to this room at this point so no way of testing it before tiling eek! The electrician had put a power point in ready to hook it up once the entire kitchen was in.

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The after photos will be on the next post!

The calm and then the storm

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The almighty job of renovating our kitchen has begun. This is the room we have wanted to do the most, but it’s the most expensive so far so we have had to wait. Here’s how the kitchen was before we started work. This picture makes it look a lot wider then it is! And cleaner! And less shabby!!

The cupboard under the sink housed dog paraphernalia (it’s amazing how much stuff two dogs can collect) and various house cleaning products. Oh and some salad and mixing bowls, and some vases! The corner cupboard to the left was where all our crockery was stored. It was treacherous opening it as most stuff was precariously balanced. If you ever felt like baking all crockery needed to be removed first before you could get anywhere need the baking trays!! It was usually enough to put you off any spontaneous baking. We also kept our pots and pans in here too. The wall cupboard to the right housed our boiler. The wall cupboard on the left housed glasses and food. It was a tight squeeze so we also ended up with a shelving unit from the shed in there too for more food and drink storage.

On the floor there were the original tiles however as the kitchen is in the old extension on the back of the house, it doesn’t have proper foundations and the tiles are pretty much straight on top of the ground. It got very cold in there in the winter, you could feel the cold creeping up your shins. The fact there was no heating didn’t help either! Jus and I would take it in turns to run in there to make a cuppa when we first moved in! We did have lino down when when we rented the house, until my Dad’s dog Mimi came for a holiday. She took it upon herself to remove the lino one day and tear it up into little pieces in her bed. We aren’t sure if Bramble and Holly were also involved but the fact that Mimi collected all the little pieces in her bed didn’t help her defence! We had to buy the house after that!

The original layout of doors and windows in the kitchen meant it was difficult to make good use of the already small space. It measures 2m 90cm by about 2m 20, and has two doors and window. To make better use of the space Jus and I had the doorway into the room moved to the centre of the wall, when we had work done on the dining room. Click here to see that post. 

We have now gone from the picture above to this…

and then from that to this…

We removed the kitchen and the plumber has replaced and moved the boiler. Our original plan had been to simply move the original boiler as it worked fine, however finding a new flue for our cheap boiler was proving expensive. The boiler was about 5-6 years old already so would possibly have needed replacing in the next couple of years. It worked OK, but at the moment we have an electric shower, which will be going. Running a bath off it had never been great so running a shower off it as we plan to would have been difficult. So we reluctantly had to pay out for a new boiler much sooner then expected, and this added a significant amount to our kitchen budget. However it is done now, and there was always the potential that moving the old boiler may have damaged it anyway. The pipes running to and from the boiler have also been moved to allow for the building work we are currently having done.

Today the builders and Tom have raised the floor so it is suspended and insulated and therefore hopefully much warmer. They have also bricked up the old back door and put a window in, and removed all the old plaster off the walls. Tomorrow they will be knocking the wall out under the old window, and turning it into a door. The brickwork is also being changed so the back door is opposite the entrance into the ktiichen to allow 60cm of kitchen cabinets either side. Hopefully turning our postage stamp kitchen into a much more user friendly galley kitchen! Hooray!

Meanwhile the rest of our house looks like this…

We didn’t dare start the work without knowing we were able to buy the kitchen on interest free finance first from Ikea, and then it was delivered far quicker then we imagined. So that is in the dining room, along with all our food, crockery and other kitchen things, plus the builder’s tools and materials, and all the stuff that was already in the dining room. Lets hope we aren’t living like this for too long. And yes that last picture is the silhouette of Toms keys marked out by the dust that escaped through the dust sheets and into our living room. It is everywhere!!

worlds worst washerupperer

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I am not known for my love of washing up. I am however known for my poor quality of washing up. Not through laziness, but through years of practice, the worse you are at something the less people ask you to do it for them! The same applies to making tea and coffee, hehe. Of course these are things I am great at selfishly doing for myself. I have a lovely cup of tea sat just to my left right now! I am also the worlds biggest hater of dirty cups, dishes and most of all forks! What a contradiction hey! The thing is when you have a postage stamp kitchen with no worktop space there is no room to let it build up for someone else to tackle, although I do try. I am always pleased to find something could benefit with a good 2 or 3 day soak. Tom is a great washerupperer. I like to think he really enjoys it ;) Jus is great at the art of tower of pisa like dish stacking. Must be in the genes. The good news is we are getting a dishwasher in the new kitchen. Hooray! Bit of a random post but I am so excited!

Exciting times

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The projects are starting to build up and I can’t wait to finish this set of night shifts to get on with some of them. The garden walls are so close to being finished now. Then work on the garden will stop until the kitchen is done as we are having french doors fitted so no point painting that wall yet. Mother Goose is in the process of moving house from 3 hours away to the same town, hooray, and she is planning to off load some of her excess plants and pots onto us for those lovely finishing touches. She is also soft furnishing producer extraordinaire, having had her own curtain business in the past and currently working for an interior designer. Skills that will no doubt come in handy. I keep saying it but I need to get hold of a decent camera to get some before shots of the kitchen and blog our plans to turn a postage stamp kitchen into a domestic goddess heaven! Wish us luck on that one! The builder is ready and waiting, as is the plumber, now just need to arrange an electrician. I have managed to convince the lovely plumber to move the boiler, enabling better use of the small space, whilst overseeing me plumb in the sink, dishwasher, washing machine and outdoor tap, therefore saving him time and me lots of money. I also get a free plumbing lesson out of it. Bonus. The builder is going to do the bare minimum and leave any jobs that we are capable of (eg taking stuff to tip, ripping out old kitchen, painting window frames etc) again saving him time and us money. Both the plumber and builder are renovating old houses at the moment so they have completely understood our desire to do it on a budget and do as much work as we can. The builder has come up with lots of ways for us to save money and given lots of handy advice. Really looking forward to getting this project started.