Category: The archive (Bradford house)

Ode to a kitchen (oven remix)

3 Comments

I have been informed by a friend (hello, Jaye!) that it is completely couth to love inanimate objects (see: Ode to an oven), so let me say it now: I love our new kitchen units. They’re not even fully unpacked yet and I love them! It’s like Christmas (well, a sight better than this Christmas actually).

The purple is richer than I remembered, and the white looks sharp and clean (it was displayed with cream in the showroom, so we hadn’t actually seen it with white).  It will be great when we get the doors on.

I think getting the worktop cut will be an extra for which we may actually have to pay, but it’ll be worth it to get it right. It would be very expensive to get wrong!  I can’t wait to get the guy round to do this so that we can start using our sink.  We do have a functioning dishwasher, but larger items are currently being washed in the bath!

Dressing up

1 Comment

The hunt for the perfect dressing table is an impossible task.  Actually, it doesn’t even have to be perfect, it can simply be cheap.  I’ve had an eBay alert set to tell me every time something appropriate in my area is listed, but then nothing ever comes of it.  I feel like I’m destined to forever do my makeup on my bed with my legs crossed like a schoolgirl.

Actually, when I was a schoolgirl, I did have a dressing table.  Ironic, non?

I really like this glass table top from Ikea (where else?), and have liked it for a few years.  You can buy different legs for it, so you could set it on drawers.  I like that it’s huge, has a nice pattern and I can’t stain it like wood if something leaks, or more likely, I knock something over.  It’s just we’ve never had the spare £100 to say, yes!  This month we shall buy the dressing table!

We’ll definitely have to get one when we do out our bedroom, and we’ve also had a couple of quotes for fitted wardrobes.  At the moment we have a solid wood double bed (our fancy spare bed is actually bigger than our own!), and then Ikea Aspelund wardrobe, bedside tables and drawers (only “wood” coloured, although loving the white!).  I’ve sadly pushed Barry out of our triple wardrobe, and he is currently hanging his clothes in the dressing area on a clothing rail.

Decorating begets decorating

2 Comments

Since we started decorating, we’ve found quite a few of our friends have decided to pick up a paintbrush. Do you think that decorating begets more decorating? Do you think we could use the word beget more?

Not only does revitalising one part of your house give yourself a nudge to keep going, but it seems to have a domino effect around you. The friends whose coat hooks Barry put up last weekend have decided to repaint, and I’ve even noticed that, by posting this as a blog, we’ve even influenced old school friends on facebook. That’s social media for you! I have to add a note that my old school friend somehow managed to paint her entire kitchen before 10.30am one day, but she maintains it’s a very small kitchen.

On a side note, Barry got a wall cupboard up yesterday, as well as fixing most of the end panels to the other ones. Apparently wall units are much easier; he just ran out of supplies so had to stop!

In my dream-addled brain, I actually thought our bed was in the kitchen when I woke up this morning!

Progress

Leave a comment

Barry started building cabinets yesterday, it’s very exciting because there’s visible evidence that we’re making progress (unlike painting the ceiling white).  We did come across some problems though – the B&Q designer seems to have taken a little liberty with the measurements Barry provided so we’re having to “make do” with some elements, which isn’t ideal.  We also put the double cabinet together for the sink to go in, only to find the sink won’t fit!

Anyway, for those of you who watch Project Runway, we’ll “make it work”.  Photos of the progress below!

Rant

Leave a comment

After we discovered that B&Q had missed some items yesterday, Barry gave them a call. Their reasons were many and varied:

  • They had the wrong barcode for the cream door pack, so it was still correct as far as the call centre was concerned, so Barry had to ring the store to ask them to call the call centre and change it to white;
  • The taps aren’t coming in from the suppliers, so we have to pick another. But we like our tap! I can’t believe they didn’t let us know about this in advance – we can’t fit the sink without the tap! They said it wasn’t in stock anywhere, but it is in Romford! After some furious internet searching, I told Barry to ask them to courier it from another store, but he wouldn’t;
  • The wooden maintenance kit had the wrong barcode on our quote, so wasn’t ordered, it was put down with the barcode for an upstand so that’s why we ended up with three of those;
  • Hood filters are waiting in store. Of course. Our mistake. Except nobody ever said that. Why didn’t they give them to Barry when he placed the order?

My work colleagues said they could actually feel me seething.

Barry waited for B&Q to call him back, they said they would change the door, the lady also had the presence of mind to notice that the cornice and pelmet were coming in cream, so she changed those as well. Maybe those would have come on time if they’d got the right colour. They’ve just confirmed that they can deliver on 5 March.

What we didn’t mention was the fact that designer hadn’t listened to Barry with regards to the drawers. We think it’s a bit late to notice now, so we’ll just live with it, but she was obsessed with pan drawers and we kept saying that we didn’t have space – we needed a four-drawer unit to put all our stuff in. She’s given us pan drawers anyway.

Barry started painting the kitchen last night; some of the plaster is coming away with the paint, and some of the paint we used had dried bits in it and went all bobbly, so he had to keep going over it and may need to sand and repaint it later.

Rant over.

Up and running

2 Comments

The oven is now functional! As evidenced, we plastered the last wall and had pizza last night. I can honestly say, it’s the nicest meal I think I’ve ever made in that oven.

It’s so satisfying, removing the plastic wrapping that’s around the oven. It will have to be popped back in its box while we sand and paint, but soon it will be free.

We spent last night checking we had what we thought we had from B&Q. Sadly, we don’t have what we thought. We’re missing:

  • 2 x cornice/ pelmet
  • 2 x pelmet

Fair enough, we knew about these. However, we’re also missing:

  • 2 x cooker hood filters
  • 1 x tap
  • 1 x wooden maintenance kit
  • 1 cupboard door (they sent us cream instead of white)

So our jobs list for this weekend is thus:

  • Ring B&Q to sort the above ASAP.
  • Sand.
  • Paint the ceiling and some walls (the important ones).
  • Start putting units together!

 

Old fashioned couple

6 Comments

I was cooking tea the other night while Barry was plastering the very same room, when I realised that we were fulfilling stereotypical gender roles without even thinking about it.  When I pointed this out to Barry, he asked me to get him a beer from the fridge.  I did.

Is DIY divided into boy jobs and girl jobs?  I’ve been doing some jobs like painting, following Barry around after he’s done the manly rollering with the little brush to do the edges.  When he ripped the walls down, I was tasked with sanding the bits of skirting board that came off.  I made curtains for the spare room, but I’ve never been in our loft.

I’m fine with being the ideas person and wandering around with tester pots and a camera.  I’m not saying I want to do the heavy work, I’m just wondering whether it’s implied that I shouldn’t.  Is it just us?

Kitchen update: preparing a special three-course Valentine’s meal was fun with everything in boxes in the living room. We’re going to have a few days of having to get water from the bathroom, but Barry thinks he should have the shiny new oven up and running shortly, and the washing machine and dishwasher have just been moved into their new homes.  Photos of the practically empty kitchen below; we haven’t unpacked any of the new one yet.

It’s here!

1 Comment

I’ve been sent this very exciting picture from Barry, who is working from home today and has just accepted the delivery of our B&Q kitchen.

We’ve been told the cornices are missing due to a quality issue – they’re going to be delivered in a couple of weeks.

Barry’s going to take the oven, sink and parts of the old kitchen out this evening, so it looks like it’s takeaway for tea.  Hard life.

Island living

3 Comments

I’ve always wanted an island in the kitchen.  It’s the dream.  That’s when you know your kitchen is amazing.  As an example, our friend Sarah has an amazing kitchen.  She has an island.

When we were planning our kitchen, I originally didn’t think we could have one because the fridge will now be at the other side of the room, and I thought it would be annoying to have to walk round something if I was cooking.  Now the walls are down, we’re thinking we might fit a cheeky slim one in by the front door.  It may have to take the form of a breakfast bar, more of a peninsula, but it would still count!

Obviously, this is further down the line.  We have a butcher’s block at the moment which could go there (but I maintain it doesn’t go and will spoil the effect of the new kitchen).  Not sure what Barry would do if I just listed it on eBay…

The new kitchen arrives today!  It will probably be less exciting when everything’s boxed up and we’ve still got to paint and rip out the old kitchen, but until then, I’ll be excited!  Photos to follow.

In the meantime, you’ll have to make do with photos of the progress.  Left is the hole where a cupboard used to be, and below shows no upstand or cupboard for the boiler.

As a side note, why do you think builders place boilers a silly distance from the wall?

The tile of my life

1 Comment

Many of my posts include the words I can’t decide, or something to that effect.  I hadn’t realised I was so indecisive!  Because we’re spending a lot of money on the kitchen especially (and will continue to do so for, oh, the next three years), we want it to be perfect.

I’m going to continue with affirmative phrases.  I like kitchen tiles.  We’re having an upstand made of the same wood as the worktop (walnut), but I believe that we need something above that to protect the walls.  We will be getting tiles of some description.  I like the tiles that are rectangular, like bricks.  I like these ones from Wickes (pictured).

But!  Is it boring to have white tiles, or is it chic?  Do we have enough colour with the purple units on the bottom?  What shall we have for tea?

Decisions, decisions…

Barry and I made a little trip to a friend’s this weekend so Barry could put a coat hook in their solid wall because he’s got a fancy drill.  We were talking about how nice it was to do a job and it having a definite ending!  We were also instructed to take a photo for the blog.

He’s spent the weekend here plastering and sanding – I can’t even help at this stage, which is frustrating for me, but probably more so for him.

We’ve had our first visits from friends to see the new space (and have a cup of tea, of course!), and the items we were selling on eBay have all sold, which is good.  Money is now being automatically translated into its equivalent value in DIY or household materials.  But would you pay £26 for a used loo (= a tin of paint)?