Living it up by the sea

louby40

Looks lovely. 

Ours is a very small kitchen but still going to cost about £10k

Organgrinder

Very similar size and number of units!

Savvy_Sue

uralmaid said:

Hope it all goes well @louby40.  Our kitchen and utility could really do with a refit but I can't face the thought of the disruption.

Me too. Several of the drawers are falling apart, and I'm not sure how sound the carcases are, or I'd go for doors, drawers and worksurfaces. We had to have a new sink last year, which was bad enough. 

We have three kitchen areas, all badly done originally and not quite finished.

• Main kitchen: HATE the finish which is just designed to gather dust, drawers all falling apart, inconvenient layout, poor lighting, kickboards never properly installed, flooring really horrid.
• Galley: doors don't close properly, end never finished off so some nasty pipework at the end which is VERY attractive to spiders. 
• Utility room: in an poorly built extension with a half-replaced raised floor since it started rotting after various water leaks, no kickboards ever fitted, no flooring except mats, nasty plasterwork not improved by leaking roof etc etc etc. 

And DH found a 'blown' tin of fruit in the cupboard the other day ... I can't access the top of that cupboard without standing on something, and my balance is all to pot ATM. 

But I come from the Peg Bracken school of cookery (I hate to cook, I still hate to cook ...) so it's hard to justify anyway! 

And I still remember doing a minimal amount of work in our previous kitchen: knocking an alcove wall down to open things up a bit, replacing sink and new cupboard doors. Knew I'd need new flooring, and found the ideal pattern for small children - impossible to tell if it was clean or not! Did not occur to me that we'd need to re-tile around the sink, AND paint the area where the wall had been. Interior decor is not my strong suit. 

uralmaid

Don't know if I mentioned it previously but I have arthritis in my hands and find it hard to grip sometimes.  We previously have always had fitted bottom sheets on our beds but I have found it really difficult over the last 18 months, when changing the sheets to be able to grip and pull the sheet over the mattress.  Well no more!  I did some research into zipped sheets and they are a game changer for me.  Not particularly cheap but you get the part which fits onto/around the mattress plus 2 top sheets for £60.  The premise being that when you change the sheet you just unzip the sheet from the base part and zip on the new one and dont have to change the "base" part every time. So impressed I ordered another 2 sets for other beds in the house. Might not be MSE but definitely worth it.

louby40

Zipped sheets! That's an amazing, I've never heard of those. If it helps I reckon it's money well spent.

Organgrinder

I've never thought MSE is always about saving or making money. It's about spending money wisely or using your assets wisely. Finding new ways that benefit you.

At least that's my take on it. 

That's the great thing about a forum like this. The chance to find out new ideas and see if they could benefit you in some way.

uralmaid

@louby40 they are a game changer.  They only do them in 3 colours but I just went for white. Cotton too and so easy to iron the washed one rather than wrestling with a full sized sheet.

uralmaid

Well that was a good start to the morning!  We are having our bathroom furniture replaced tomorrow and after building up the cabinets it says you should wipe them over with warm soapy water, then dry with a soft cloth.  Did the first one, then kicked the bucket over so after copious amounts of soaking up with towels we have now had to take the dehumidifier upstairs to dry out the large rug.  I could see it happening like it was in slow motion. Luckily the bucket wasn't full but still not something I was anticipating doing before 8am.  

Organgrinder

Accidents often seem to happen in slow motion - I remember getting run over at a busy junction in Bangkok. I was crossing the street when three mopeds came around the corner and I was caught halfway across the street. One of them hit me and I flew through the air very slowly (or so it seemed). It's amazing what the brain can do at times. I was all set to hit the ground with a thud when I thought "relax" and I landed without too much bruising before beating a swift exit and hailing a taxi to my hotel!!

uralmaid

wow @Organgrinder - a bit more dramatic than my bucket. lol.