SNAGGING LISTS

I’m sure tradespeople must hate OCD clients like me who insist on micro-managing their projects by leaving daily post-its and snagging lists filled with detailed instructions that then largely get ignored. In their shoes I’d be screwing up that note and flicking it behind the kick-boards, treating it with the same feeling of contempt generally reserved for punters who insist on chomping their way through a bag of Walkers during a performance of Shakespeare or other theatrical piece. (Food should not be allowed in auditoriums!!!)

Snagging and other lists, however, are a vital part of my existence and now that our project is coming to a close then it’s only fair I should expect perfection in even the smallest detail hence the daily list left on the worktop each morning for our builder’s perusal. (He must think I’m bonkers).

With only a day to go before our project ends, the kitchen has already more than exceeded my wildest expectations and this is all thanks to our marvellous (and extremely patient) builders. They plucked our dreams and schemes out of thin air then magically shaped them into this wonderful room. It’s amazing!

Almost finished and already looking amazing

The room looks longer and wider than before

Just look at the way they’ve cleverly disguised all those awful pipes around the gas boiler, converting an ugly looking corner into a more stylish, visibly pleasing area.

The 'undressed' boiler corner

Same corner after a makeover

And with a bit of coir matting edged in chrome, the untiled floor space in front of the new French doors has been given a new lease of life without the need to find matching tiles.

Coir matting to disguise missing floor tiles

Polished chrome sockets, gunmetal trims and the jade metro tiles have helped to give the kitchen a slightly retro feel but with a modern twist.

Hob area with lovely retro feel

A large vintage style clock and some industrial style hanging lights will complete the picture. I’m already on the look-out for these which means plenty of visits to my favourite store – TKMaxx.

Left hand side of the kitchen

Right hand side of the kitchen

Strangely feeling a sense of disappointment thinking about coming home from work next week but having no more kitchen ‘surprises’ to look forward to. Yet, at the same time, there’s an immense sense of relief at the thought of moving all the clutter out of the dining room back into the kitchen and getting life back on a culinary track. To celebrate, a tasty weekend meal is planned along with some of our home grown veggies.

Carrots have gone mad this year

Fat and round on the outside

But short and stubby on the inside

WHEN LAWNS GO ROGUE

Attention! This is an important announcement. Our sources have reported rogue lawns in the Charminster area. Be alert!

With all focus being given to household interiors it was only a matter of time before the garden exterior got totally out of hand. This is not a wild meadow, it’s our lawn gone rogue. 

 

I think we need a goat

Knee high grasses and dandelions abound in place of a smooth, manicured patch of greenery. Shelby approves but I’m sure even the local coppers circling Charminster’s skies in the police helicopter have issued a bulletin on the unkempt state of our back garden. It’s a gardening disgrace!

It's a jungle out there

Hard-core mowing and picking stones out of the decking has been our weekend task in a desperate bid to get our garden looking respectable again. I can now find my way to the rotary dryer without a machete.

Ahhh - much better!

Lawn and order restored

Back in the kitchen, things are looking fabulous. Carcasses are now firmly in place on the left hand wall, with doors fitted. Only shelves and handles are outstanding on all the units.

All units fitted along left hand wall

Nice big larder in the corner

Work has begun to box in the boiler and unsightly gas pipes that run along the corner wall. A cleverly constructed unit with a removable lid will be built under the boiler itself to give access to pipes for servicing. Once painted and tiled, I’m hoping this will just look like a shaped part of the wall.

Boxing up the boiler

So by the time I get home tomorrow, I expect Project Nouvelle Cuisine to be at the point of ‘snagging’ and this is usually where projects can disintegrate into chaos as customer expectations of a finished room tend to differ from that of builders/tradesmen. Being at work all day long makes it difficult for me to check with the builders that all those niggly little things that will no doubt bug me for years have been dealt with before they charge off to their next job. Many of you out there will agree that getting tradesmen back to complete remedial work is almost as tough as getting a refund out of the taxman.

Almost finished

CREATIVE SOLUTIONS

Necessity is the mother of invention and it seems our builders have found a few creative solutions to get round the hob horrors of yesterday. 

 

Plugging the gap with a handy shelf behind the hob

A small tiled shelf has been built to plug the gap between the end of the worktop and the back wall. Genius idea! This shelf will definitely come in handy for all those bottles of olive oil and other condiments used when cooking and is a great way to fill a hole but in a functional fashion.

Disguising the extractor canopy

To disguise the protruding extractor canopy, a wooden frame has been constructed around the extractor opening. Once painted in minty green, it will help detract the eye from what might have been a bit of an extractor eyesore. I’m keen to see the final finish with the canopy in place just to see how well disguised it will be.

Cooking facilities connected

Now that the oven has been fitted you can begin to see how much more effectively the space in the old fireplace has been used, both the recessed gap and the area in front of the side pillars. It also heralds the end of microwave dinners – about time too!

Fireplace and recesses before 

Making better use of the available space

As the second week of phase 2 draws to an end, it’s a race against time to finish the remaining work. I can’t imagine the builders will want to run into a third week but then again you can never tell with these large jobs exactly how long they’ll take.

It's all too much for a little puss like me

CURRANT AFFAIRS

Sunshine and rain in the wrong proportions can be a lethal combination for gardens but this year’s hot, dry spells punctuated with scattered showers have been perfect for our fruit and veg emporium which is bursting with peas, carrots and currants.

Blackcurrants ripening nicely in the sun

The currants especially appear to have gone into fruity overdrive. The 2 bushes are groaning with shiny black bunches of currants. There are so many fruits that the sheer weight of them has forced branches to topple forward across the smaller redcurrant plants. It’s a berry bonanza!

You're gonna need a bigger punnet

Below is the first batch harvested which filled a 500g ice cream tub and is now safely stored away in the freezer ready for jam making. Believe me when I say there is probably double that quantity still to be picked.

Half a kilo of currants picked in one go

Back in the kitchen, Project Nouvelle Cuisine is also heading to a ripe conclusion. The right hand side of the room is pretty much finished. All units have been fitted, tiling grouted and water supply dug into a trench that runs round the edge of the room to the waste water pipe outside, concealed by the flooring tiles and coir matting once laid.

Right hand side of kitchen almost finished

Jade metro tiles look stunning with white grouting

Speedy progress is being made on the left hand side of the room. All units are now assembled with worktops expertly cut round all the fiddly brickwork of the old fireplace. The builders have certainly demonstrated their expertise in this area as none of the walls run straight in old houses. It must have been a bit of a pig to cut and shape but they’ve done a quality job.

Fitting together the tall larder unit

Tall larder and ironing board storage

But projects never run perfectly and we’ve hit a couple of minor snags around the old fireplace enclosure which is now home to a new Neff hob and soon to house our stand alone oven. 

 

Left hand side of kitchen coming along nicely

To achieve a nice flush run along the length of this side of the kitchen, the units had to be positioned a way out from the wall. Unfortunately this has left a chimney recess space that is much deeper than the oven housing cabinet so now there’s a large gap between the wall and back of the worktop. Sod’s law that the section of leftover worktop is too short to fill the gap otherwise we could have used that as an infill.

Hob horrors - how to plug the gap?

Second fly in the ointment is the extractor canopy. Originally meant to be completely concealed within the chimney, it’s such a deep unit that it touches the concrete lintel bracing the chimney thus visibly protruding down over the hob.

Extractor canopy too deep to fit flush

In true management style, I’ve delegated the creative solutioning of these two issues to the builders so it’ll be interesting to see how they get round these horrors without compromising the overall look and kitchen design.

Boiler corner lots to box in

Tiling begun in the boiler corner

CUPBOARD LOVE

One of the few benefits of living in an old Victorian pile aside from all those quirky features such as architrave or wrought iron fireplaces is generously sized rooms with ample floor space and high ceilings. These wonderfully spacious rooms mean that with clever interior design you can achieve maximum storage and as everyone knows, you can never have enough cupboards to fill with clutter.

Tall wall hung cabinets of approx. 90 cm height mean we can capitalise on the extra high ceilings to get more bang out of our cupboard bucks. The first of the glass door display cabinets have been hung next to the window and by the look of things, the next batch have been marked out on the wall ready to hang tomorrow.

Glass door display cabinets fitted

Meanwhile on the other side of the room, base units have been assembled and positioned around the old fireplace.

Preparing units for the other side of the room

Perhaps one of the strangest things I’ve noticed about buying a kitchen is that although we purchased an oak look kitchen only some of the carcasses are actually finished in a wood coloured veneer. In a way, I feel this is a bit of an industry con as you spend all that cash only to end up with oak coloured units above the worktop and off-white coloured base units underneath when what you really expect to see is oak coloured units both inside and out.

All that glitters is not gold and all that is described as an ‘oak’ coloured kitchen is definitely not all oak although Wickes reassured me that once the doors and fascias were fitted, I’d probably not see any white bits. Little do they know that this is the type of thing guaranteed to give fusspots like me sleepless nights.

SINK OR SWIM

We have plumbing! Not only do we have a functional washing machine but the kitchen sink and new mixer tap is also fully plumbed in. No more trips to the upstairs bathroom to fill the kettle or to rinse out crockery in the bath tub. Our new sink is even larger than the old one so lots more space to soak all those dirty pots and pans.

Kumai Chrome Monobloc tap

I was a little concerned about the positioning of the new tap particularly as it's quite tall and this might have affected our ability to open the window.  However as the sink is not fully centred under the window this turned out OK but something to bear in mind for those of you out there buying new kitchen taps, height could be an issue.   

Sink and tap fully plumbed in

 

The Kumai Chrome Monobloc tap is polished chrome, simple and sleek in design with side control levers. Don't be fooled into thinking this tap is rubbish as I know most product reviewers gave it the cyber thumbs down on the Wickes web site due to issues with water pressure.  This tap works perfectly well in areas of good water pressure, with an ample fast gush of water being released.

First of the wall hung cabinets 

Tiling continues on the other side of the window

The new outside garden tap has also been plumbed in and probably in the nick of time too as some of the patio plants had almost reached the point of no return. A few have now gone to that great compost heap in the sky due to the prolonged dry spell.

At last I can water the patio plants

This was a variegated rhododendron

As the forecast rain has so far not materialised, it’s time to catch up on the mountain of washing that’s built up over the past month. Whilst the smalls are tumbling round in the washer, my four legged friends and I are chilling out in the garden.

All this kitchen work is so tiresome

These moggies are invading my personal space

I don't think that tortoise has spotted me yet

Was it something I said?

PHASE TWO BEGINS

And now for all those fiddly bits! It’s been 2 days since the builders returned to begin phase two of project Nouvelle Cuisine and to be honest I’m more than relieved. I’ve come to loathe microwave dinners, some of which taste less appetising than a bowl of Pedigree Chum. There is more nutritional value in the packaging than in the meals themselves. I really miss not being able to cook proper food.

Installing a kitchen is no easy task. For a desk jockey like me, it looks a logistical nightmare. For starters, there are so many different component parts to co-ordinate. There’s the assembly of the carcasses, wall and floor tiling, worktops, plumbing, gas and electrics, fitting of all the appliances and then a million minor snagging bits and pieces to tidy up once everything else has been done. Watching it all come together over the next week or two will be strangely fascinating.

Our chaps have begun with the right hand side of the kitchen as this is likely to be the easiest part of the installation having less fiddly bits and existing utilities (water and electrics). 

 

Assembling the carcasses

Tuesday – most of the base units and wall hung units have been assembled and positioned according to the detailed plan drawn up by the Wickes kitchen designer. Everything appears to fit where it should although getting the fridge and freezer into the gap at the end of the worktop might be a tight squeeze.

Positioning the base units

Will they all fit in according to the plan?

Wednesday – first length of worktop laid across the base units and hole cut out for the stainless steel sink. A black granite worktop would have been fabulous but in a kitchen the size of mine, would have cost a small fortune so I’ve gone with a smart black laminate one called High Definition Lunar Night. These high definition laminates are hard wearing for the money – just as well as I expect this kitchen to see me well into retirement.

Worktops 3 m long so will need a join on the end

Already the room looks longer

Thursday – tiling has begun. A section of jade metro tiles has been pegged out as a splashback across the wall where the back door once stood. The tiles are a good match for the Soft Fauna painted walls and will look lovely once edged with the gunmetal grey tiling strips.

Tiling between worktop and wall hung cabinets

Jade metro tiles pegged and ready to grout

Hurrah the washing machine has been plumbed in again! No need to pop round to mum’s this weekend for a cup of tea with a basketful of smelly washing.