The turtle moves.... slowly

redofromstart

Good to see you posting. When you say you can't stand the colour is it really awful but the cupboards themselves are sound? I was looking at a house online recently and they had purple cabinets with banana yellow walls, gave me a headache just looking at the photo and it was a very open plan layout so you couldn't avoid them. 'You could always put a wrap on it' was the suggestion I got which was a new idea to me, but I had also thought of just replacing the doors if they are standard sized cabinets,

Baileys_Babe

Lovely to see you back posting @astrocytic_kitten and great news on remaining debt free.

Great idea on kitchen wrapping @redofromstart it's a new one on me, I had a quick search online and their seemed to be a wide range of finishes.

edinburgher

We had our old kitchen spray painted, they did the tiles as well and then we got a painter in and some fresh vinyl. About £2,000 all in, we'd been quoted £7k+ just to replace unit doors and change a few other small things. They accidentally spray painted a few dishes, but small beer, all things considered

South_coast

Lovely to see you back. No hospital admissions sounds like a result 👍

astrocytic_kitten

Hi all! So lovely to hear from you! Even if you're all terrible influences as far as the kitchen goes 😅

It's not quite as bad as purple and banana yellow (!!!) redo, but along those lines. The cabinets themselves are solid, and the layout is good. But I can't stand basically everything about it, it needs a new worktop, some pipes need boxed in, and there's some other little bits. I was looking at kitchen respraying (Ed I actually started looking at this a few years back on your example!), which I got quoted 2-2.5k for, but then once you add in the worktop etc it all sort of adds up.

I was getting really tempted to wipe out some pots to just get it done, but with mortgage soon to increase and energy bills likely to go up I'd rather not wipe out savings till I know what I'm working with each month to refill them. I can't pick a new mortgage fix yet so it's all a bit up in the air. But it's definitely the next big savings target.

greenbee

Good to see you back, and VERY good news on no hospital appointments.

Re. the kitchen it might be worth pricing up the most annoying things as separate jobs, and then pricing up the whole lot, as well as getting a quote for a complete replacement. Also get prices for respray vs. door replacement - the labour on replacement vs. respray may be considerably less so pricing might be comparable.

You may find that getting the little bits done by a handyman is a manageable cost and can be done soon. Then maybe replace the worktops when you've saved up a bit more. You may find that with the irritating things done and new worktops, the units themselves don't bother you. Or that just painting the lower or upper cabinet doors would do the job. Sometimes doing things a bit at a time has benefits!

savingholmes

I repainted the doors at my last house and it made a big difference. Good luck whichever you decide.

I feel you on the mortgage rate. I'm due to remortgage at the end of the year and it is a concern as I too am on a lovely low rate. Really wished I'd done a 10 year fix now!

astrocytic_kitten

That’s a great breakdown greenbee! I’m partway through it already, started with a list and rough costs of getting it done in stages, and this morning I’ve asked a couple of places to quote for the whole lot. And I should drop my usual joiner a message to see if he’d be interested. There’s still a lot of different options to try though.

I’ve temporarily moved onto the fun part of trying to decide exactly what colour I’d want it, I’m terrible at visualising colours so it’s a painful process 😂

greenbee

You might find that if you break it down you can cashflow at least part of it, so you don't feel that you're dipping into savings. I find even if I'm not adding to savings, not spending them makes me feel that I'm managing well.

astrocytic_kitten

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81953717#Comment_81953717

This basically describes the last couple of years of getting work done. I also have a savings account where I've decided it doesn't count if money comes out of it because it's more of a pot than a savings. Though I've slightly lost enthusiasm for the project after sticking possible colour samples all over the kitchen cupboards and realising I can't decide because nothing is quite what I have in mind, so will let it take some time until I settle on a colour.

My other spending this month has been books, dentist, and supermarket bunches of daffodils. All very cheering!