Nice People 13: Nice Save

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

PN, are any of the residents where you live original? Do you know who the developers are? Your place isn't very old so it may be that your original kitchen is still in production and could be tweaked. It's just a matter of knowing make and model.

They are mostly rented. Developers are local/small. I could see a way to tweak the kitchen if I could tile match the floor tiles, or close to .... I tried to tile match the other week and failed really, came home with four cheap beige ones (kitchen's brown) ... just to "fill a hole". But, I think I need to have another go at matching the floor tiles.

If I match the floor tiles then take a unit out, put the fridge freezer somewhere else, cut a unit in half, replace the worktop containing the gas hob and extend that, remove a base unit and put in a double with pan drawers..... it's doable.

That'd give me: stable floor for the washing machine, long/usable stretch of work space.... usable pan drawers for all the stuff and food.

But is it worth tweaking it. Only a quote would tell ... and I cba to try to get quotes right now.

I would like to go to their offices and say "Your kitchen kiddie .... tell them to put the crayons away as it's time for mummy to take them home from playgroup". Units are wrong and a bodge; colour chosen is wrong colour for any sane person's kitchen .... and why oh why they didn't just lay a floor before fitting the units, god only knows. Then, why the first people didn't think "Ah, tiles not sensible really .... better do something else" is only known to them.

Nikkster

PasturesNew wrote: »

No I'm not ... I'm strange, awkward and challenging

I strongly disagree. Or maybe I'm just as strange, awkward and challenging as you are

vivatifosi

Don't worry about the floor tiles too much, compared to kitchens you can get them replaced relatively cheaply. Mine are basic B&Q ceramic ones, they've been down about 5 years and still look great. Mine are like these, they also do them in brown:
http://www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/catrangetiles/anti-slip-floor-tiles/kuala/kuala-black-7508/11853/

If you know who the developers are, give them a call or pop in and see them and ask them which kitchen range they used. they should know about tiles too, but sometimes the batches wont match as well.

silvercar

How would you go about selling to people a plan along the lines of 'Stay at home, and don't infect others. Do the decent thing.'?

If you were struck down in the middle of a country without basic sanitation and running water, wouldn't the first thing you do is jump on a plane and find your way to somewhere with better treatment?

If we expect to stop the spread we need to get the treatment and care to the people who need it, to avoid them travelling and spreading.

tom9980

PasturesNew wrote: »

Re kitchens.... mine is still doing my head in as I struggle to think what to do with it..........

We moved into this house 5 months ago our kitchen is a homebase fitted kitchen done about 6 years ago and its not well thought out either.

Problems include;

1. Dishwasher when open blocks two cupboards from opening and access to the 3 overhead cupboards above those making it hard to put things away.
   
2. Only one set of drawers at the top of the base unit and even this is directly below the built in hob so it gets a bit warm/hot in the cutlery drawer for my liking.
   
3. Its also Black far too black in so has no character or warmth to it and it shows up any dirt from a mile away, or worse you clean and can see streaks.
   
4. No where to hang up hand towels etc.
   
5. Most of the appliances are built in cheap Candy rubbish.

Its too new and in good shape for it to be ripped out at this point though. Yours sounds much worse.

PasturesNew

For IvyLeaf - I had a spare 10 minutes, so (badly) adjusted the ivy image to remove all the cacky background.
http://i62.tinypic.com/16arv3d.jpg

vivatifosi

Hmmmmm..... re floor. When I had my new floor fitted it was a bl**dy nightmare. Should have been a half day job, but turned into a three and a half day job. Bear in mind my dad can do this stuff so no labour cost and he does it properly.

Anyhow, took up old flooring here. There had clearly been a flood (probably from their washing machine). This had warped the chipboard. But rather than relaying new chipboard they had tried to sand the top off of it, meaning that it was really thin and you could almost put your foot through.

So he laid a new marine ply floor. We also discovered that I have floating floors. Putting tiles over a floating floor is not ideal, but put down a thick enough ply and it is ok (there is more to explain than that, but for basics, that will do).

He was however able to re-lay the floor without taking the cupboards out. What he did to leave them in situ is took off the front kick boards, tiled a bit at a time while the rest of the unit was propped up elsewhere (eg under a different tile position), so he screwed the feet up so that that wasn't where the weight was taken up. So when this was finally done and the tiles were all in, he could grout the floor. Then, finally, the kick boards were put back on (they also needed cutting down as they were no longer the right height, but that was easy enough, it was less than 1cm.

I guess my point is, if it's worth doing it may be possible, but obviously that depends on whether it's better to start over. Personally I'm a tightwad and would never start over.

silvercar

We were similarly annoyed with our kitchen. Lots of niggles but not enough to rip out and start again. Changing the cheap-plastic-falling-apart work tops for granite wasn't messy and changed the kitchen from something unbearable to something I can live with. I've also repaired the holes in the grouting. But major grouts are now:

not enough draws
deep drawers are not quite deep enough to be useful
too many open display units
run with built in dishwasher doesn't align properly on each side.
lighting is expensive (19 x 35w on 1 switch) and weak.

lostinrates

Sink has arrived and I don't know if I can wait for fir to come home to have a look inside wrapping.


Still no tap decision though. .

vivatifosi

Pastures, forgot to mention, these are brilliant for reaching cupboards. I'm a bit taller, so can reach mine ok, but I have one of these so that I can put things on top of mine:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Small-folding-Step-Stool-Colours/dp/B002UYPZ04