New k1tchens

[veggiechicken]

Tiles, marble, solid wood..............?

[Scarlet]

^^^^...corian, concrete

[Bigmallly]

Quartz?.................lovely.

[Jay22]

Janie, your kitchen, you are paying...don't let anyone bully you out of what you want. The only thing is you have to be willing to live with your decisions!

[JanieB]

I've gone for oak worktops. The floor will be oak boards so it ties in. The units will be "aubergine" with a "cranberry" cooker. They look the same colour to me whatever the manufacturers call it!

I'm going out in a mo, they are, at last, taking out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. The house is full of dust and even using the laptop feels gritty. I've got the door shut but there's already a thick layer of dust everywhere and I keep sneezing. I'll take the dogs with me 'cos they've probably got trouble breathing as well.

I'll sit in the corner of the local with my Ipad. I have some work to do but I can't cope with the noise and dust.

[Jay22]

Sounds lovely Janie!

[veggiechicken]

I have a Howden's kitchen but I chose oak cupboards with a tiled floor to keep it easy to clean with the dogs. The cooker's black, as are the worktops (speckled black). Three walls are cream, the 4th is raspberry red. I wanted to keep the room as light as possible, even though it has windows on 2 sides.
I'm pleased with the quality of the units.

[Bigmallly]

One highlighted wall sounds good VC.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Janie,

From what you said about the lads not turning up rings bells with me, I think you were right in your assessment.

If you take my advice you will hold a 10/15% retention bond when the jobs finished until you are completely happy. This is a perfectly normal thing and the bond is usually paid after a month.

[JanieB]

I could have said this in the Chatback thread but have decided to keep to this one. How is your kitchen coming on Nicos. Is it finished or are you going on with it when you get back from the UK?

I've ended up with a grey kitchen with a "Cranberry" cooker. I could get virtually the same kitchen from one of the main retailers for a lot less than Howdens. Unfortunately they have given up on stocking coloured kitchens as there isn't enough demand for them. I put this down to the silly do your house up programs on TV where people are told their houses are worth more if they are colourless and bland. The day after I paid for it Howdens rang me to see if I was buying their kitchen. When I told them where and for how much I was buying it they said they would have matched it. I think after 2 weeks of haggling and telling them the score they had ample opportunity to do just that. Nevertheless, I'm a little peeved as I really wanted a blue or aubergine country style kitchen.

Other than that, we're through the worst and everything is now being put back together.

[Nicos]

Glad to hear yours is coming on!

Our walls are nearly ready for building the units, so once we're back from the UK we should be able to make a start.
Collecting a radiator and extractor fan from the UK.
Already got enough to tiles, and collected the rest of the flooring earlier on in the week.
We chickened out of the flooring we liked cos of the poor reviews!...even though it had a 10 year warranty.
The one we got was better quality but a bit darker and had good reviews.
Exciting!

[JanieB]

I think this should, realistically, go in the rant thread. Everything is sailing along fine, the shell's up, the roof's on, the floor screed is done, we're ready to put on the ceiling and plaster the walls. The finished kitchen has been designed, ordered and paid for ......... along comes Mr Building Control. The cooker hood has to be vented to the outside. The only way this can be done without lowering the ceiling (already lower than he was happy with) is to vent it out into the void between myself and my neighbour. And the exit is right next to her inlet vent.

We have the choice of putting in the vent where he says but never turning it on or redesigning the whole kitchen. Why leave it until now. Really not happy.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Janie what the distance between the two opposed vents?

[Tripmeup]

Can you not use a recirculating hood Janie?

[JanieB]

Pots
About 6"

TMU
That's what's in the design (and arrived today) but Building Control want an external vent.

The cooker's designed to be in an island in the middle of the kitchen and the ducting can only go left or right. If I put it on the right it will cause enormous problems with relocation of gas and water pipes because that is where the new boiler is going.