The kitchen is the room that saw the most dramatic transformation early on in the year because there was no kitchen in here at all when we moved it so it was priority number one to get this sorted.
Here are the before and now photos, sometimes I forget how different it was and its mad to see it so much improved!
Excuse the state of the garden and the floor in the after photos, we are having work done on the large oak tree and the hedges all trimmed so the garden was a mess and I didn't hoover as we were traipsing in sawdust etc all day. I wanted to take the opportunity to get some photos as current as possible (and while the kitchen was clean) though.
The kitchen started as this, just a cabinet and a sink within this little archway and then a large empty room which probably would have been the dining area. The sink wasn't even in there when we viewed the house but in order to get a mortgage a property has to be habitable and needs to have some sort of "kitchen" and running water so a cabinet and sink was installed by the sellers, you could then say that all other appliances like an oven, fridge etc would be brought with us when we moved in to make it a full kitchen.
We saw potential in here though to have a really good size kitchen and open up the room. Luckily my dad is a builder and could fit a support beam for us and take the walls down.
We chose to take down the archway and took the wall it was attached to back to the left of the living room door so that we could keep the downstairs toilet and have a door going out to that and the utility room. The utility also get quite cold so its nice to have two doors between that and the living space.
We did consider opening the kitchen into the living room but personally we aren't keen on open kitchen and living areas and prefer to have the kitchen separate from the living room. We just prefer a cosy living room, a kitchen diner would be nice though.
We got the kitchen ordered on day 3 of owning the house, after we had measured it all up and decided what we were going to do about the walls. We ordered it through B&Q and it was all relatively straightforward. It helped that we had already decided on the kitchen we wanted and just had to sort out the layout. We took all the measurements and then designed it on their system in store. We just went for the basic cabinets inside and figured we could add in pull out bins, rotating corner shelves etc etc down the line.
In a way a home visit design visit might have been helpful though as I did make one mistake with the measurements in that I forgot about a bump out in a corner which meant we couldn't have our original layout for the upper cabinets (a corner unit following on around the worktop) but it wasn't the end of the world we just slightly adjusted and had two rows of cabinets instead. We also had to rejig where the small pull out cabinet next to the oven went, it was originally going to go between the sink and dishwasher (I thought it would be handy for cleaning products and dishwasher tablets) but it didn't fit and our kitchen fitter suggested moving it there instead for oils and sauces. It works well and we don't actually use a lot of bottles of cleaning products anyway so the small amount we do have just go under the sink.
The kitchen was thankfully in before we moved in as it was delivered much quicker than we thought, we had lots of extra plugs fitted by my brother and put in the sockets for the fridge and dishwasher.
There is underfloor heating under the tiles, which means that we don't have to have a radiator and could have units on all of the walls. It was surprisingly cheap to fit (comparable to getting a new radiator fitted) and I covered the process here. We still haven't replaced the boiler so no further update yet on whether it is more efficient or not than gas heating as our gas is likely very inefficient but we just can't afford to do the boiler yet as that's mega bucks.
I added the table and benches which we had at our rented flat, I think they fit well and its a nice bright spot to sit and have breakfast and look out at the garden in the morning (when its not full of chainsaws and bits of tree).
In here the to do list is really just lots of finishing off little things;
Skirting boards, door trims and boarding off the top of the new door (there is a bit of plasterboard there as a placeholder to stop the draught but it need properly doing and then painting)
Probably repaint and some point as the paint is still patchy in some areas and I'm not 100% happy with it.
Fit a windowsill
Fit out the inside of the large cupboard when the boiler has been replaced, the new boiler will be much smaller and also be moved over to the left so its in front of the cupboard door. I then want to fit some wire racking shelves in here so everything isn't just piled in on the floor! When the utility room is done this will also help as the hoover, mop, iron and counter top ironing board etc can live out there and this cupboard can be used for other storage like table cloths, tea towels, larger or lesser used kitchen items (the glass punch bowl, larger baking trays, ice lolly moulds, Christmas table settings etc) or larger stocks of food like sacks of potatoes or bulk bought products.
Add open shelving to the bare wall by the sink. The plug here doesn't work so we need to get that sorted then I'd like to add shelving and move the kettle over here. I can put all my loose teas in pretty jars and have them on the shelves with the nicer mugs and teapot etc. We can then also have either my other loose products which are in larger jars like flour, pasta, cereal on the shelves or put some of our nicer looking glassware and crockery out. I will probably just fiddle about with it when the shelves are up and decide.
Add some corner shelving by the sink and on the side of the boxed in pipes, we can put herbs and plants on them as they will get a good amount of light there.
Accessories and artwork, I have a canvas that I was given for my birthday I'd like to put up in here and some other little ornaments and things that can go on the shelves when they are up.
Possibly make or buy some cushions for the benches.
So far we haven't felt the need to look at add ons for inside the cabinets, we have a pull out bin inside the cabinet next to the sink with three compartments (food, recycling and landfill) but that's it so far. I may look at these down the road.
Put up the extractor over the hob (its been sat in the utility for a year).
Replace a few appliances like the kettle and microwave as they are quite old and inefficient now.
Sort out the last bit of untidy grout, there are a few areas that need touching up or scrubbing off the tiles.
Clean those patio doors! We need to get a window cleaner on a regular schedule now that we are a bit more settled.
I think this is my favourite room in the house so far, its very sad how much I enjoy polishing it and making sure the sink is nice and shiny. It actually makes me sad when its messy in here haha!
Here are the before and now photos, sometimes I forget how different it was and its mad to see it so much improved!
The kitchen started as this, just a cabinet and a sink within this little archway and then a large empty room which probably would have been the dining area. The sink wasn't even in there when we viewed the house but in order to get a mortgage a property has to be habitable and needs to have some sort of "kitchen" and running water so a cabinet and sink was installed by the sellers, you could then say that all other appliances like an oven, fridge etc would be brought with us when we moved in to make it a full kitchen.
We saw potential in here though to have a really good size kitchen and open up the room. Luckily my dad is a builder and could fit a support beam for us and take the walls down.
We chose to take down the archway and took the wall it was attached to back to the left of the living room door so that we could keep the downstairs toilet and have a door going out to that and the utility room. The utility also get quite cold so its nice to have two doors between that and the living space.
We did consider opening the kitchen into the living room but personally we aren't keen on open kitchen and living areas and prefer to have the kitchen separate from the living room. We just prefer a cosy living room, a kitchen diner would be nice though.
We got the kitchen ordered on day 3 of owning the house, after we had measured it all up and decided what we were going to do about the walls. We ordered it through B&Q and it was all relatively straightforward. It helped that we had already decided on the kitchen we wanted and just had to sort out the layout. We took all the measurements and then designed it on their system in store. We just went for the basic cabinets inside and figured we could add in pull out bins, rotating corner shelves etc etc down the line.
In a way a home visit design visit might have been helpful though as I did make one mistake with the measurements in that I forgot about a bump out in a corner which meant we couldn't have our original layout for the upper cabinets (a corner unit following on around the worktop) but it wasn't the end of the world we just slightly adjusted and had two rows of cabinets instead. We also had to rejig where the small pull out cabinet next to the oven went, it was originally going to go between the sink and dishwasher (I thought it would be handy for cleaning products and dishwasher tablets) but it didn't fit and our kitchen fitter suggested moving it there instead for oils and sauces. It works well and we don't actually use a lot of bottles of cleaning products anyway so the small amount we do have just go under the sink.
The kitchen was thankfully in before we moved in as it was delivered much quicker than we thought, we had lots of extra plugs fitted by my brother and put in the sockets for the fridge and dishwasher.
There is underfloor heating under the tiles, which means that we don't have to have a radiator and could have units on all of the walls. It was surprisingly cheap to fit (comparable to getting a new radiator fitted) and I covered the process here. We still haven't replaced the boiler so no further update yet on whether it is more efficient or not than gas heating as our gas is likely very inefficient but we just can't afford to do the boiler yet as that's mega bucks.
I added the table and benches which we had at our rented flat, I think they fit well and its a nice bright spot to sit and have breakfast and look out at the garden in the morning (when its not full of chainsaws and bits of tree).
In here the to do list is really just lots of finishing off little things;
Skirting boards, door trims and boarding off the top of the new door (there is a bit of plasterboard there as a placeholder to stop the draught but it need properly doing and then painting)
Probably repaint and some point as the paint is still patchy in some areas and I'm not 100% happy with it.
Fit a windowsill
Fit out the inside of the large cupboard when the boiler has been replaced, the new boiler will be much smaller and also be moved over to the left so its in front of the cupboard door. I then want to fit some wire racking shelves in here so everything isn't just piled in on the floor! When the utility room is done this will also help as the hoover, mop, iron and counter top ironing board etc can live out there and this cupboard can be used for other storage like table cloths, tea towels, larger or lesser used kitchen items (the glass punch bowl, larger baking trays, ice lolly moulds, Christmas table settings etc) or larger stocks of food like sacks of potatoes or bulk bought products.
Add open shelving to the bare wall by the sink. The plug here doesn't work so we need to get that sorted then I'd like to add shelving and move the kettle over here. I can put all my loose teas in pretty jars and have them on the shelves with the nicer mugs and teapot etc. We can then also have either my other loose products which are in larger jars like flour, pasta, cereal on the shelves or put some of our nicer looking glassware and crockery out. I will probably just fiddle about with it when the shelves are up and decide.
Add some corner shelving by the sink and on the side of the boxed in pipes, we can put herbs and plants on them as they will get a good amount of light there.
Accessories and artwork, I have a canvas that I was given for my birthday I'd like to put up in here and some other little ornaments and things that can go on the shelves when they are up.
Possibly make or buy some cushions for the benches.
So far we haven't felt the need to look at add ons for inside the cabinets, we have a pull out bin inside the cabinet next to the sink with three compartments (food, recycling and landfill) but that's it so far. I may look at these down the road.
Put up the extractor over the hob (its been sat in the utility for a year).
Replace a few appliances like the kettle and microwave as they are quite old and inefficient now.
Sort out the last bit of untidy grout, there are a few areas that need touching up or scrubbing off the tiles.
Clean those patio doors! We need to get a window cleaner on a regular schedule now that we are a bit more settled.
I think this is my favourite room in the house so far, its very sad how much I enjoy polishing it and making sure the sink is nice and shiny. It actually makes me sad when its messy in here haha!
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