New kitchen: must haves or what to avoid?

*~Zephyr~*

rosie383 wrote: »

No way will we be using their delivery service. We have had awful service from them just getting bedroom furniture and wouldn't trust them!

Oh no! How awful! We have no complaints over our delivery, they were brilliant and nothing seems to be missing. Yet!

Only day 3 and all thirteen wall cabinets are on the wall. Lights below cabinet are fitted, lights in the cabinets are fitted and the doors and handles are on. Just the crown and base trims to be fitted and they are done.

The Frankencupboard hiding the boiler hasn't been done yet, but that's going to be a tricky job.

Base cabinets are all assembled. Hoping by the time I get home today that all the drawers will be assembled and the dishwasher is in. With any luck the whirligigs in the corner cupboards will be done too

These fitters really motor once all the snags have been sorted!

Worktops tomorrow!

usernameisvalid

Have to say we had excellent delivery service from Ikea. Nothing missing, all delivered on the day and time stated

We did get a few doubles which were easy eanough to ring through and get collected and credited

Four years on and I'm more then happy with my kitchen. We had to ' butcher' one cupboard to fit but you really can't tell

Easy cleaned. Easy access to everything. There's not one thing I'd change if starting again

Enjoy your kitchen xx

rosie383

We ordered two lots of bedroom furniture on two different occasions and both times we ended up with many bits missing. It was so frustrating and we can't afford that with the kitchen.
Still love Ikea stuff though. Just not the delivery.

*~Zephyr~*

Talking of poor deliveries, I've been let down badly by Currys PC world today.

Everything has been going wonderfully in the kitchen installation - all the wall cabinets were up last night, with the lights in. The base units were all built except the integral dishwasher cupboard. Those were finished off this morning and they start to fit the worktops just before lunch.

Currys were supposed to deliver the range cooker today so that the gas fitter could be in at 7am tomorrow morning to connect the pipwork, fit the bayonet fitting and connect the cooker up. It was his only chance to do it before going off to a new bathroom install. I got a text from Currys last night saying the cooker would be delivered this afternoon between 12:20 and 16:20. Perfect. Happy days.

Then I got bored whilst on hold this morning and decided to check the tracker to see if it was as good as AO's where you can see where the van is in real time. But the tracker said the cooker hadn't been dispatched! I was straight on the phone and found out that, despite the text sent last night, they forgot to load the cooker on the van. And they best they can do is deliver it tomorrow morning instead.

I'm SO angry and disappointed. I'm hoping that the kitchen fitter can get hold of his other gas fitter colleague and persuade him to come in on Saturday morning. Otherwise, I'm looking at a whole week without a cooker

rosie383

I'm sure you're gutted Zephyr. I would be. We have had a few too many episodes like that, but because we weren't anywhere near finished, a week or two was frustrating but just added in to the long time everything was taking anyway.

We are now I think about six and a half weeks without a kitchen. The end is starting to come into view. The build started on 7 April so we are four months and counting.
I feel for the kids and dh as they should be enjoying their summer holidays instead of sitting upstairs for so many hours in a dusty house. Well, dh isn't sitting upstairs; he is mainly chasing our now very, very slow builder and working his socks off trying to hurry things along, getting stuck in to whatever he can do.
I do get little one out to the park when possible, but when we have to be here to do stuff it isn't always possible.
Electrician comes tomorrow to finish the bits and pieces and we need to paint as much as possible. We will be going to Ikea to get the kitchen on Monday. Are ready this weekend, but we know from experience that Ikea is rammed to the gills at the weekend so would prefer a quiet Monday morning.

bossymoo

Oh no! Another week? That's a shame.

We did really well - old kitchen ripped out on June 30th. I was only a week without washer / cooker / sink and it took just over 4 weeks including new flooring, electrics and painting.

The only hiccups were that the wrong extractor was delivered, and one piece of glass splashback caused a few problems. Firstly it only had a hole for one socket when there should have been one for a switch as well, they cut another hole but managed to crack it while loading into the van. Then the new piece was sprayed the wrong colour! But it was all sorted without any real hassle.

Really pleased with my kitchen - I could probably have done it for a couple of £k cheaper but I don't think the finish would have been the same, plus it would have been more stressful, so it feels like great value to me!

rosie383

Sounds good Bossymoo. Apart from the problems!
What colour splashbacks did those of you who have them, go for?
We were going for orange with dark grey units and light grey worktop, but have decided now that as it is the colour in my gym, B&Q, EasyJet and Luton Town FC (we live in Luton, so orange everywhere!) that we will go for another colour.
Lime is nice but I may hate it after six months. Just painted aubergine on feature wall in the living room which adjoins it, so that is off the colour menu.
Any suggestions? Neutral with a bright dining area wall?

bossymoo

I went for the bright lime green. I have gloss white cabinets, white marble counters with grey veining and grey wood floor. The green sets its off brilliantly. It's very fresh and bright.

I did have a wobble and almost changed my mind to a heather shade but I'm glad I didn't. The glass fitter said if I change my mind down the line, they can usually remove the glass, strip the paint and recolour- at a fraction of the cost of new panes. I don't know how practical this is, but as I say, I'm very happy with my original choice

rosie383

Sounds much better than having to live with a colour that you don't like for years! Yours sounds like a lovely combination. Really fresh and zingy. Still can't make our minds up so we are painting everything in a neutral colour (jasmine white), fitting the kitchen and then hopefully by then we will have made a decision!
Van booked to go to Ikea tomorrow so it is actually going to happen at last!

VfM4meplse

*~Zephyr~* wrote: »

Talking of poor deliveries, I've been let down badly by Currys PC world today.

Everything has been going wonderfully in the kitchen installation - all the wall cabinets were up last night, with the lights in. The base units were all built except the integral dishwasher cupboard. Those were finished off this morning and they start to fit the worktops just before lunch.

Currys were supposed to deliver the range cooker today so that the gas fitter could be in at 7am tomorrow morning to connect the pipwork, fit the bayonet fitting and connect the cooker up. It was his only chance to do it before going off to a new bathroom install. I got a text from Currys last night saying the cooker would be delivered this afternoon between 12:20 and 16:20. Perfect. Happy days.

Then I got bored whilst on hold this morning and decided to check the tracker to see if it was as good as AO's where you can see where the van is in real time. But the tracker said the cooker hadn't been dispatched! I was straight on the phone and found out that, despite the text sent last night, they forgot to load the cooker on the van. And they best they can do is deliver it tomorrow morning instead.

I'm SO angry and disappointed.

I really feel for you! I've been badly stung by Curry's not once, but twice (mine is post #38). You will find that you are far from alone.

rosie383 wrote: »

We are now I think about six and a half weeks without a kitchen. The end is starting to come into view. The build started on 7 April so we are four months and counting.
I feel for the kids and dh as they should be enjoying their summer holidays instead of sitting upstairs for so many hours in a dusty house.

I have no idea how you have coped thus far, you must all have the patience of a saints! It's horrible when you can't treat your home like the sanctuary it should be. Hopefully it will be over soon and by Christmas all the disruption will have been consigned to the rosy-tinted memory bin.