I ditched my old Kitchen, £1000 later & what a difference!!

Wise-Sel

Hi Guys

As this forum is widley used by savvy moneysavers you may not find this useful, but here goes anyway!

Sadly i had a flood which wrote off my kitchen but my stingy insurance company would only pay for a couple of carcasses :mad: .

This left me faced with having to sort the mess out for £1000 or less.

Some people don't realise the second hand bargains that can be had from local classifieds and online versions as well as auction sites. I live in rural Wales so finding things on my doorstep is nearly impossible...

...but for once my luck was in, I found a couple who had had an extension and new kitchen selling their solid oak kitchen. It was advertised for £600 but a bit of bartering and promising to get it out of their way quickly closed the deal at £400 - INCLUDING all of the appliances (which i donated to a good cause)!

My partner and I are definatley non DIY-ers but managed ourselves (and roping in a couple of friends). The only paid labour has been to get the worktops and plinth cut and fixing a leaky mains tap that we found along the way!:o

Singing eBays praises, I found a retailer selling quality cushioned vinyl flooring with a 5 year gaurentee for about 70% less than the local shops (same make of floor with free adhesive and cheap delivery). So flooring cost just under £55 (3m x 3m) delivered to my door.

Ebay heralded another bargain with a funky round sink, tap and all the fixtures, fittings and plumbing bits & bobs for another £55 delivered.

Anyway, i'll stop yabbering on and say this - £964.05 later i'm a happy bunny who's done away with the soggy chipboard mulch kitchen and ended up with a lovely limed oak, solid wood kitchen that i can't wait to start using (still gotta seal the worktops!) - I almost feel like i've acheived what only two weeks ago i thought to be impossible, only sorry i didn't take a "before" picture! lol

So, motto of the story is don't get stuck in the "must buy new" rut 'cause "new to you" can be better and cheaper!

PS - the slowcooker thread is FAB, gonna be trying some of your recipies soon, thanks guys.

latecomer

trouble with second hand/ex demo kithens is that the units available might not be compatible with your kitchen. If they are then great, if not then you'll either waste a lot of time/money getting it to fit (buying additional units etc) or end up buying a new one anyway.

ema_o

Wow, that sounds so nice, can't believe you managed to do it all for under £1000. I'm going to have to remember that for when we do our kitchen!
latecomer - how do you mean not compatible, do you mean it might not fit the shape of your kitchen??

latecomer

Yup thats exactly what I meant, perhaps I should have be clearer.

Wise-Sel

latecomer wrote: »

trouble with second hand/ex demo kithens is that the units available might not be compatible with your kitchen. If they are then great, if not then you'll either waste a lot of time/money getting it to fit (buying additional units etc) or end up buying a new one anyway.

Maybe we were lucky, the units we took out wern't standard but with a bit of trial and error we've got a good fit, we purposley brought a kitchen with more units than we needed so that we could be sure of our options! lol

Once we have done the final bits i will try and post a piccy, like i said - for two DIY-phobics it's not bad :T

latecomer

sounds to me that you're not really DIY-phobics

Optimisticpair

The secondhand kitchen unit is the route I intend to go down. It is a sunny but narrow kitchen 7' wide x 16' long and badly laid out. The fridge is currently in a space next to an electric cooker which is next to the back door and there is a lack of working surfaces.

I need a traditional style but I can't decide whether to look for wood or painted doors. The floor needs something doing with it as well so I'm tempted to stone / quarry tile and run that through to the loo and into the bathroom.

Wise-Sel

Hiya

I brought my floor from the eBay seller mobilefloorshop. The vinyl is good quality, easy to lay and looks like tiles - RESULT! lol (if you want i can send you an offcut as i've got odds & ends left)

I had a rubbish, neon blue laminate / chipboard kitchen before and I couldn't wait to get some wood in there and we've managed to combine a country and modern look, like i said as soon as it's finished i'll take a pic.

Most modern units are standard sizes, we had a mixture of 3 x 1000mm, 2 x 400mm & a 500mm base unit and 2 x 400mm, 2 x 600mm & 1 x 800mm wall units. 1000mm & 500/600mm seem the most popular so you can get an idea of what you'll need beforehand.

I had a big problem myself with a lack of work surface so i have arranged everything so that we now have plenty of space! - it's much better!

Factor a good couple of hundred quid for fixtures, fittings, sealant, blah, blah because i was quite amazed at how much we managed to spend in our local DIY store. Also, make sure to keep all your receipts! apart from anything else, if you don't use something then you can simply get a refund.

Look at eBay, Friday-Ad, Trade-it, Free Ad's, Loot, exchange and mart, freecycle and get in touch with local kitchen fitters to see what they are doing with the kitchens they are replacing. Give yourself plenty of time and i'm sure it will all go to plan!

We are becoming a little more DIY savvy, but only through being thrown in at the deep end! If we can help or advise then will be happy to!