National Kitchen? And advice on garage conversion please!

RX-78

Hi everyone, I know there are many experts and experiences on this forum, I wonder what people think?

We are in a process of buying a house - hopefully we can exchange & complete in the next 5-6 weeks. The house we are buying is 70s house which looks like it still should be standing in the 70s - woodchip wall paper, artex ceiling, patterned carpet, etc etc. It also has a tiny (3.4x2.6m) kitchen. We are hoping to rip this out and extend the kitchen into double garage to convert part of the garage. I know from survey it needs electrician's survey & upgrade of the breakers or even a re-wire. Luckily the valuation is to the agreed price & retention has not been imposed

Should I;
1) Get the conversion done than get electrician to do survey & upgrade as the electrics around the kitchen needs to be re-wired anyway, and as the breaker is in the garage, this may have to be moved also.

or

2) Get the survey done first but do upgrade after the conversion - but if it fails the survey, will the house deemed unsuitable for habitation till upgrade is done?

I'm also thinking of which kitchen units/appliances to get. Reading on this forum, several kitchens (budget of 4-5k exc appliance) seems to be recommended;

Howdens seem the favourite
Ikea - but dont like their non standard parts
B&Q L&C range - also like it but heard few bad stories about deliveries
Wren - I know it was slated by some of the members but the quality seems good in their showroom
National Kitchen - I heard they supply John Lewis. The picture on web & parts do look very similar. Has anyone used them?

Most importantly when should I order the kitchen? Should I spec & order it based on the architec's plans or wait till the conversion is done? Doing the first will minimize the time we are going to be without the kitchen but risk the units not fitting well if the build isn't done to few mm of the plan. The later could mean we'll be without kitchen for upto 2 months:eek:

Any adivce/past experience would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

spirit

Hi,

i'm pretty much in the same boat as you. Exchanging on my sale/purchase this week;1970s untouched since new house etc etc.

I was told that a 70s house doesn't need rewiring, but since you like me are doing other building work, you may as well do it now and get the messy stuff out of the way. I'm told that what the house has now is not illegal and therefore habitable so I guess yours must be the same. I got my electrical advice from the diynot forum as you get sparkys on there (and plumbers, builders etc on other threads) the sparkys told me that as long as you have pvc cable it is current (no pun intended) and that rewires now, only need doing every 50 years. So your house like mine, may well be within that now, but in the next 10-15 years it will need doing so might as well do it now.

I don't know the layout of your house, but is it possible to knock through your kitchen into dining room? that would save having to nick some of your garage space. I went to the Ideal Home show last weekend and George Clarke said in his little talk in the theatre, that this is usually the best course of action for most people.

hope this helps

Edit to say, went to John Lewis yesterday and in their brochure it says they won't fit kitchens until any building work has been done, floor flat and laid and any plastering done and completly dry. ( I like the kitchens they had on display, nice quality) I too can't decide between Howdens and John Lewis. I'd have liked Schuller that someone on here recommended but can't find anyone who fits them!

RX-78

Thanks Spirit, and good luck on your purchase. Exciting times!

Its good to know I probably dont need to budget for re-wire right now. As you said, ideally I should get it dine now but the budget is on a tight side - we only have 15k and all of that's probably going to be consumed by conversion + new kitchen. Will probably get the fusebox upgarde if thats the most important bit.

We did think of knocking the wall to dining room but unfortunately its the weight bearing wall. I heard its not impossible to do but given the need for plinth, calculations for what's needed and possible scope for things going wrong, we thought this would be risky & expensive thing to do. We went to home building & renovation show last week, and the seminar showed a collapsed cottage after the owner decided to make the house roomier by knocking out all of the wall! They also said losing garage space could potentially loose value, as much as 15% in some area. We are only converting double into single garage, and the driveway can take 2 cars as well - so it shouldn't really devalue too much, and hope the added value of bigger kitchen will off set the loss.

I guess the whole plaster drying & floor getting done will take 2-4 weeks to dry completely? In which case I might as well order it once the conversion is done. Howden kitchen I heard can be delivered fairly quickly. JL kitchen looks nice but expensive! National kitchen looks interesting as some say they supply JL - but dont quote me on it though!

p.s. are you going for under floor heating inthe kitchen?

madget_2

I'm beginning to sound like an advert for Mereway and Wentworth, sorry! (That might change if they mess up my kitchen - but they're currently doing a smashing job.)

Anyway, Mereway supply John Lewis with many of their kitchens, and their units can be bought from the internet (perhaps National Kitchens is the site - I'm not sure - for people who either have their own fitter or who can put it together themselves). Otherwise, Wentworth Kitchens are part of Mereway and have a fitting service. I visited a couple of their previous customers when I was making my choice, and they both had building work done. I think some of the work was done by builders recommended by Wentworth, but they can do plastering, electrical and plumbing work, etc.

My kitchen is not finished yet, but I'm very pleased with it so far, and the standard of work.

RX-78

That sounds great Madget - will certainly have a look. Its always good to be able to see their previous work.

Give us a picky when you are done! It'd be great to get some ideas

spirit

Someone else on here told me that Mereway supply JL kitchens too, don't know if it was Leveller or CK_designer off hand.

I'm veering towards Schuller Kitchens at the mo since one of the above members brought them to my attention. Been doing a bit of research on them. If as some say that they are better quality than Howdens and yet not more expensive, then I shall have theirs.

Re your kitchen/dining room wall. Mine is a load bearing wall and am having a steel put up there, making good, plastering etc etc for £850.

Howdens claim to have all their items in stock which is a bonus. My problem is, that i't a bit like buying a dress from a well-known chain store - you see someone else with the same thing and I would prefer something a little different.

I'm not having underfloor heating. I did look at it last week, again george clarke said that soon no one will have rads and that it frees up space to put furniture etc. After having looked at it, electric is cheap enough to install but expensive to run. So I'd go for gas water pipes under the floor. At the moment, the jury is out on that question.

madget_2

RX-78 wrote: »

That sounds great Madget - will certainly have a look. Its always good to be able to see their previous work.

Give us a picky when you are done! It'd be great to get some ideas

I certainly will do! Unfortunately, my Karndean flooring is out of stock until 23rd April (the carpet shop offered me to choose something else, but the Weathered Elm is definitely the one I want - so they'll be fitting some temporary cloth flooring in the meantime). Hopefully, that will give me a chance also to finally choose my wall tiles, which I'm having an awful job doing!

I've chosen the cream painted Shaker called Virginia, but the other Mereway kitchens I saw in the other customers' kitchens were absolutely stunning. One had white gloss with integral handles, and the other had cherry wood (I think) with integral handles.

Have a look at as many brochures as you can - not just the one of the kitchen company you've chosen. You can pick up loads of ideas by doing that. Also, search for kitchen images on the internet - again, some fantastic designs.

Most of all, though, have fun choosing!

RX-78

Just been looking for Schuller kitchens but I cant find their own website - could you post a link? There are several fitters with pics and they look nice! I like the choice of colour, good to see a variation form usual white/cream/black. Mind you, my partner is typical unadventourous colour blind so I bet we'll end up with white units!

The supporting bean doesn't sound too bad. I like the idea of open diner (we got open plan kitchen living in current place) but my partner doesn't. We've settled on conversion in the end - it will give us a small breakfast area with (hopefully) view to the garden when we extend the exit door into large single glass door. We were delighted to see the surveyer's report also recommends garage conversion to add value & extend kitchen!

We are thinking of large ceramic tiles in the kitchen - I tend to splash every where when I wash up and we didn't want wood/laminate. Kind of concerned with the coldness of the tile in the winter (we tend to walk barefoot/slippers) and thought underfloor might be a good idea. But expensive though.....

RX-78

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=534748

Just found this link about mereway kitchen - did you see any problem with their previous installations Spirit?

spirit

I wonder why that poster only made that 1 post about it in 2007 and no-one answered them?

I don't know who this company is so am not promoting them, but they do have both Mereway and schuller kitchens you can look at on the site.


http://www.kitchenfinesse.co.uk/about_kitchen_finesse.htm I like the Romana, Firenze and Marino styles. I thought about a white one but since it's going to be a bit more open and possibly with a breakfast bar, that something more 'furniture-like would look better.

if you search for schuller on here you should find the thread.

RX-78

Thanks Spirit, thats the site I came across when I was looking.

I agree about the poster although sometimes its difficult to tell if they are spammers or genuinely disgruntled person who's come to vent their anger.