Need Help With New House Kitchen

JC1988

Hello everyone,

My Fiance and I have had an offer accepted on our first home. It's a 1950s semi in a superb area but is very basic and needs lots of modernising (this is what we wanted, something to add value to). The Kitchen is the biggest priority for us both as it is microscopic at the minute and the fittings are right on the border of being liveable for us.

Our ideal solution would be to knock through into the dining room to create a kitchen/diner and extend the house several m back into the garden. The trouble is all of our savings have gone towards the deposit so an extension is off the table for several years (unless we try and take additional loan which scares me too much as mortgage is already 225k).

The difficulty is that not having a kitchen/diner at very good standard close to when we move in is a deal breaker for my other half. I'm trying to think of ways that we could have the kitchen of her dreams without taking on additional debt before we've even moved in.

We could knock through kitchen/diner and put the bells and whistles kitchen in there. However, even with combined kitchen/diner the shape/size of the space is not ideal and knowing that we want to extend in the next 2-4 years, we don't want to pay for a kitchen in an odd space only to have to gut it in a few years.

One option which seems a good idea to me is to knock through kitchen/diner and bring to good decorative standard. We can buy free standing kitchen units to have a very nice kitchen to see us through until we can afford extension. Then we either, sell the free standing units, or adapt into the new extended kitchen diner.

Just trying to see if anyone has been in a similar situation as us, or if anyone has any ideas on what we can do.?

Thanks

phill99

Or find a different house.

Davesnave

JC1988 wrote: »

My Fiance and I have had an offer accepted on our first home.
The difficulty is that not having a kitchen/diner at very good standard close to when we move in is a deal breaker for my other half.

I'm trying to think of ways that we could have the kitchen of her dreams s

phill99 wrote: »

Or find a different house.

....Or a different OH.;)

Being serious for a moment, if you are thinking of taking-on a doer-upper, it's very important you both enjoy the journey. There are excellent reasons for buying an older property, but a true appreciation of what's involved in refurbishment is vital, as is a love of doing the work and learning along the way.

Debbie_Savard

Woah! Sounds like too high maintenance. Now, onto the house...

VfM4meplse

Davesnave wrote: »

....Or a different OH.;)

Being serious for a moment, if you are thinking of taking-on a doer-upper, it's very important you both enjoy the journey. There are excellent reasons for buying an older property, but a true appreciation of what's involved in refurbishment is vital, as is a love of doing the work and learning along the way.

Perhaps aim to have your compromise option for a little longer? It's amazing what you can put up with if it's well-designed and functional.

However a small kitchen that you can't actually use would be a dealbreaker for me, and I'm not even an active cook. Don't underestimate how miserable a minute kitchen will have on your life, each and every day. Most people look forward to a nice meal in the evening, that's off the table if it's too big a chore.