Cheery's country living adventure

Chiglepig

Kitchen quote seems reasonable - a whole morning with the dentist, less so.

Cheery_Daff

Yes, that was my feeling too 🙄 Oddly enough he suggested putting the two appointments next to each other originally. I did, but then he cancelled his, then I was late for the hygienist so she wouldn't see me. Rearranged her for next week, him for later in the year, and now bizarrely they're both back on the same day again 😂

So. Windows people are coming on Wednesday morning to repair the cracked render, so hopefully that will be the end of that and we can pay and move on.

Other kitchen woman is coming tomorrow morning to measure - I suspect they'll be more expensive, but at least do wood cupboards and granite worktops. Although she'd best be a bit more forthcoming than she was the other day! 

Off to eat the last bit of cake and look and some cars and kitchens that Mr Cheery has identified. Feels like a full time project management job at the minute!

rtandon27

Cheery_Daff said:

...Feels like a full time project management job at the minute!

Aww Cheery - I totally get where you are coming from!  Project management on top of working full time is a big ask.

I've been juggling builders, plumber, boiler serviceman & electrician for the past three weeks, in between working full time - why we have a property manager I don't know!?! Am getting impatient really impatient for the exchange so we can move!

Karmacat

You have an awful lot on your plate between the dentist and the kitchen.  And I'd have had a heart attack in your place, if the dentist had rung when I knew Mr Cheery was there, horrendous!

You know, I never thought of a second hand kitchen when I had mine done a couple of years ago.  I wish I had, even though I'm happy with what I've got, I just love the concept of re-using perfectly good, natural, hard wearing material.

Cheery_Daff

My heart did leap into my mouth KC! 😮

How long til exchange now RT?! Can't be too long, surely?? 

I confess I wouldn't have thought of a second hand kitchen either if the builder hadn't mentioned he was taking one out of someone else's house and we might be able to have it. Never occurred to me there would be a roaring trade in kitchens! It seems it's possible to get a right bargain because people need them removing often at quite short notice, or on a specific day to fit with their new one coming, so if you're in the right place at the right time you might get something proper cheap - one we were looking at the other day just went for £104 on ebay 😮

My mum was telling me when she was here yesterday that she actually had a friend's mother's kitchen installed in her old house - which i did know but had clearly completely forgotten 😂

It is a bit of a faff though, messing about working out how many cupboards there are, whether there's enough work surface etc. 

This evening I think we're leaning towards a howdens one (with its curved corner cupboards) and sourcing granite worktops elsewhere. It'd work out about £7k in total I think which is pretty much what we'd budgeted. But let's see what this woman tomorrow says - we might be able to get the whole thing from one place...

greenbee

Wait till you get a price for the granite… and the templating. My kitchen was a lot more expensive than yours will be (though very good value for solid wood units and compared to local suppliers) but granite worktops for the three runs of roughly 3m, 1.5m an 0.5m plus cut-out for the sink would have cost nearly as much as the kitchen… If your fitter will do it then it may be cheaper, but do your research. 

I got oak from worktop express, and used the howdens resin to seal it.

Cheery_Daff

 We've done a quick online quote (including curved corners, cut outs for sink and hob), delivery, fitting etc and it comes to just under £3000, so along with the kitchen quote that doesn't include worktops, that's about £7300. We just picked a granite colour at random though and would expect them to be different costs. We've got four runs - roughly 2m, 1.5m, 1.2m, plus a breakfast bar of about 1.4 which is much wider. That was a local supplier though who only do fittings within 30 miles (which we are) - I'd imagine there's quite a variation across the country.

Anyway, not bad for a starting point (don't worry, there will be plenty of research before we actually shell out any money!) The people who are measuring tomorrow do have granite worktop options so we'll see what their overall quote works out as (probably more expensive given we'd also be having solid wood doors if we went with them).

We'll see...

MatyMoo

Another comment re second hand units…….

my sister bought two small kitchens that toned together but it meant that she had more units than needed. Her carpenter used one with open shelves to fashion a dresser for another room and I had then best fitted out shed from another 😂 Total cost £200 plus fitting for all of it.

don’t get too hung up on the number of units 😉

With granite, which I love too, could you have it on an island, which reduces the cost? Local suppliers/fitters are definitely cheaper than kitchen suppliers. I ended up going for a man made material that looks, feels and acts like granite (can’t remember it’s name) in this house as granite needed too many joins on the long run at one side. Do ask about the number of joins needed, I expected two and ended up with 5 ( 4 are around the hob, 2 front, 2 back). With granite it would have been 3 more 😱

Cheery_Daff

Useful, thanks MatyMoo!

Another nice day today 😊 Mr Cheery was up early to ring the docs, so we ended up nipping out for breakfast - not to our usual cafe, which doesn't open til 9.30, but to a little place up the road, where you sit outside at the back, basically in a field, but with the most amazing views. They also have a cheerful old dog that comes and pathers round the tables. Most jolly. I could have sat there all day, but got work to do so instead I'm sat on my swing seat with the chickens pathering around. Kitchen woman will be here in a bit. 

Cheery_Daff

Looks like kitchen woman won't be here for a while... 🙄 Her colleague rang to say she'd set off a bit late - and she herself has just rung from the office, saying she'd put the wrong postcode in the satnav, but couldn't check it when she realised as she' dleft her phone in the office so has had to go back there 🙄 Poor woman - I've told her to sit and have a cup of tea before she tries to set off again! 😂

We've all had days like that 😂 although I confess after not being particularly helpful the other day I'm not holding out much hope! But we'll see. Not like I'm going anywhere else anyway 🙄