Kitchen remodel and building work - Advice needed

onfirealot

Hi there,

I've been in my current house for a while and there are a number things that I need to sort (kinda want to move away from the area, but still undecided, so need to actually make my current house a bit better).

One thing that needs to be done, is the kitchen needs some work. It's a bit damp, maybe due to the house age and what's been done internally (1903) or moisture from cooking building up, or a bit of both. So, with that in mind if I am going to tackle it, I figured that I might as well make the most of the space, and knock down the wall between the kitchen and outhouse. As this bit of the house is not being used and most of the other houses have had this done and makes a huge difference in terms of space and light. So that's going to need someone to knock through the wall, but in a new window (outhouse has a tiny one, but thinking of bigger window in it's place), then bricking up the old outhouse door. Would then need a new kitchen, not looking for anything fancy or super feature rich, but enough to be functional and be nice (help when selling)

At the same time, I am thinking of getting the patio doors at the back taken out and put back to how it was (partly because there is the kitchen door there already and also, they were put on incorrectly and are a bit of a mess).

Is this the kind of work that you would go to a single company to come out and quote on, or do you approach builders, then someone to do plumbing, electrical and fitting? I feel like I'm a bit out of my depth, but need to actually make some progress, otherwise I'll be sitting on it for another 7 years (along with the shed roof felt over the front room roof ). I also keep going down the road of getting a side return, but I think that would be way too much money and not actually add that much value to the house, if I do sell soon.

Current:

Ending up with something like this, although I have no idea what the kitchen would look like tbh:

Any and all advice welcome.

silvercar

We’ve just done similar.

We started with kitchen people. Found one whose design we liked, thought we could work with and a price we found reasonable. For all the 3 kitchen people we spoke to, we asked them to recommend builders they have worked with. We actually used a builder from a kitchen person we didn’t use. The builder recommended a structural engineer. The builder brought in his own plumber, electrician and decorators and recommended the window people. The kitchen people brought in their own kitchen fitter and recommended a worktop company and flooring guy. Effectively we only had the builder and kitchen guy to deal with, they dealt with everyone else for us.

victor2

We had an internal supporting wall removed and whole new kitchen in the now larger space. Used a local builder for all the construction (including building a powered kitchen island), putting in an RSJ and getting building regs sign-off. Used a local kitchen company for all the kitchen units, fixtures and worktops. That was about 10 years ago and we still love the kitchen. 

Edit: cost around 16K, but we're convinced it added more than that to the house value, and we've really enjoyed it. Would cost considerably more at today's prices!

FreeBear

If you are gutting the space completely, Can I nudge you in the direction of internal wall insulation.

Use cork or woodfibre topped off with a skim of lime plaster and that will reduce the amount of condensation on the walls.

I used a polished lime finish in my kitchen rather than tiling walls, and it has stood up surprisingly well over the last 6/7 years. Also did away with wall units which makes the space look quite a bit larger (3.4mx2.4m) at the expense of reduced storage space. A price I'm willing to pay.

gzoom

silvercar said:

Effectively we only had the builder and kitchen guy to deal with, they dealt with everyone else for us.

Essentially the same for us. I doubt we could have sourced electrican, plumber etc any cheaper than the builder, and the headache of chasing the trades ourselves versus just chasing the builder.....No chance would we try and deal with all the trades ourselves.

silvercar

FreeBear said:

If you are gutting the space completely, Can I nudge you in the direction of internal wall insulation.

Use cork or woodfibre topped off with a skim of lime plaster and that will reduce the amount of condensation on the walls.

I used a polished lime finish in my kitchen rather than tiling walls, and it has stood up surprisingly well over the last 6/7 years. Also did away with wall units which makes the space look quite a bit larger (3.4mx2.4m) at the expense of reduced storage space. A price I'm willing to pay.

Think this through carefully. Are you the sort of person that doesn’t mind compromising on storage, or does a dream kitchen mean loads of storage space to you? I have vast amounts of storage, I’ll even admit to a couple of empty cupboards. I don’t regret it for a minute. 

FreeBear

silvercar said:

FreeBear said:

If you are gutting the space completely, Can I nudge you in the direction of internal wall insulation.

Use cork or woodfibre topped off with a skim of lime plaster and that will reduce the amount of condensation on the walls.

I used a polished lime finish in my kitchen rather than tiling walls, and it has stood up surprisingly well over the last 6/7 years. Also did away with wall units which makes the space look quite a bit larger (3.4mx2.4m) at the expense of reduced storage space. A price I'm willing to pay.

Think this through carefully. Are you the sort of person that doesn’t mind compromising on storage, or does a dream kitchen mean loads of storage space to you? I have vast amounts of storage, I’ll even admit to a couple of empty cupboards. I don’t regret it for a minute. 

On the plus side, limited storage space reduces the ability to hoard tat'n'crap. That said, the OP has a pair of corner units on the plan where junk will accumulate.

MysteryMe

If you are thinking of moving then perhaps talk to an estate agent to give advice on how much value the works you are considering will add to the house. You can then decide whether the cost is worth the effort.  Some people may prefer to buy a house needing a project and having it done to their preferences.