The Ongoing Saga of Ruby Trying to Own A Home

ruby_eskimo

Happy New Year everyone! 🥳

Quick update on the end of the year:

- Christmas was busy, lots of social and family time which was equally nice and draining.  Received some lovely gifts and think the ones I gave went down very well too.

- House stuff is ongoing.  The bathroom still isn't finished, just needs to have the mastic guy out to finally seal the rest of the tiles.  He couldn't do it before Christmas as DH hadn't finished the painting.  But that should happen next week and then I can finally have a bath again 🤣  The next two things on the list are our bedroom which needs painting and carpet, and the kitchen...

- Work is work, no idea what's happening but hoping for an update next week.

So on to the plans for the start of 2025.  As mentioned before, the theme of the year is RESTORE which after ruminating on it seems to be very appropriate for multiple areas of my life.  One of the main things is to get back on my no-buy / low-buy nonsense in a bid to get my finances under control.  I've definitely been trying in December to curb the impulse spending and it meant I actually had some money left over before pay day (which was only 2 days before my regular one) 👍  

I haven't really thought through the rest of it yet so this weekend after I've de-Christmas-ed the house, I'm going to sit down and make a plan on what I want to achieve and how I'm going to try and do it.

debtfreewannabe321

Happy New Year Ruby 🎉 

VintageHistorian

Happy New Year Ruby!

ruby_eskimo

Thank you both @debtfreewannabe321 and @VintageHistorian - must get round to catching up with both of your diaries soon!

I hate making decisions seems to be the theme of the weekend.  We took a trip up to the new DIY Kitchens showroom in Oxford to go over our plans and make sure we're happy with the choices we've made as the builder should be giving us a quote for fitting etc. this week so we need to be ready to order before the sale period ends just in case it is feasible to start the ball rolling sooner rather than later.  I'm pretty happy with the kitchen part of the plan but the utility room is a whole other story!  So please excuse me while I write all this down and ask for some advice:

Problem 1 - It's very accessible: the hallway leads directly into the utility room, you can see through it from the front door all the way to the back door.  It appears to be the natural place that people flow into when they come into the house I've observed over Christmas. It also has no windows so we need to have a glazed door from the hallway and then there is no door from it to the kitchen diner.  The downstairs shower room also leads off of it so again, guests will be going through it to use the toilet etc.

Problem 2 - It's not square in layout and has 4 different doorways: there's the door from the hallway, the opening through to the kitchen, the door to the shower room as mentioned and then there's a doorway through to my office space so there's limited blank wall space.  There's also the old pantry cupboard (it was the old kitchen originally) which takes a chunk out so it's like an L shape but without any real empty walls.  The pantry cupboard houses the big things like ironing board, vacuum, mops etc. but we could do with sorting out some shelving on the walls too.

Problem 3 - We need to have the washing machine, tumble dryer and the massive fridge-freezer in there:  Currently there's the space for all of them, but we also need some storage options for all those random things like light bulbs, cleaning stuff etc. which leads me on to...

Problem 4 - There are too many combinations of options that we could do!: and I can't make a decision.  I could just have the washing machine, tumbler dryer and a small low cabinet with a worktop over the top and be done with it, but then will I regret not having more storage space?  Even when I'm trying to declutter and be more minimal?  I also kind of want space to hide things away - I've realised I like clean sight lines, but then the idea of having some open shelving looks nice, but is it practical?!?

I know I want:

- Some worktop space so I can fold washing properly, possibly do all my baking out there etc.
- Some storage for cleaning supplies (and I have been making my own so less stuff to store but still need somewhere for bottles and cloths)
- Things to be open and airy: we have the rather imposing fridge freezer which can be hidden, but I don't want it to seem like walls of floor to ceiling cupboards that you see as soon as you walk through the front door or that it's just a corridor to walk through when it's actually a useful space.


So our options are:

Solution 1 - washing machine, tumble dryer and one low cupboard with work top over them = 1 x 600mm width cupboard - don't think this is enough storage space but has the clean lines I'm looking for

Solution 2 - same as option 1, but with open shelving on the wall above = 1 x 600mm width cupboard + ?? mm shelving - gives more storage options but then "pressure" to have it always looking "good" due to high traffic.  Also what would I put on the shelves?  

Solution 3 - same as option 1, but with 3 wall cabinets above = 1 x 600mm cupboard + 3 x (600x300) wall cupboards - gives lot more storage, matches the cabinets underneath, will it look too imposing with cabinets all along the wall?  But could have under cabinet lighting to make it seem more "cosy"?

Solution 4 - one tall "larder" style unit in the corner, with washing machine and tumble dryer on the floor next to it with work top over them = 1 600 x 2130 mm tall cupboard - gives the storage but less counter space (1200mm compared to 1800mm).  Would it look too imposing having a solid unit in sight line?

Solution 5 - stack the washing machine and tumble dryer in the corner and then a low double door unit next to them with a worktop across the top = 1 x 1200 mm cupboard - same concerns as option 4 re: sight line, and less worktop and less storage, this is probably a no automatically.

In all of the above the fridge freezer is on the opposite wall, tucked next to the pantry cupboard, out of the line of sight when you walk into the house.  

Solution 6 - swap the fridge freezer to the opposite wall and have the washing machine and tumble dryer next to the pantry cupboard, worktop over them and then 2 wall units above = 2 x (600x300) wall cupboards - would look random to have the fridge right there when you walk in and limited counter space and limited cupboard space compared to other options.


I think after writing all that out, I'm leaning towards Option 3 the most, but still not sure.  We kind of have to decide on this bit first as it's going to be the first bit done before the main kitchen as needs to have water waste and feeds reinstated for the washing machine which might mean ripping apart the shower room at the same time.  I spent 5 years living without a washing machine and it was a pain so I'd rather avoid that if possible - I can always live without a proper kitchen, we have the space to set up a temporary one, but you can't really do that with a washing machine!

First world problems I know but I've never had to redesign a kitchen space before and I want to get it right!

South_coast

I feel your pain! I had so many issues with the design for my kitchen, as it's such a tiny room and I wanted every possible appliance in there (plus the worktops as clear as possible). Without seeing it, it's tricky to picture, but option 3 sounds like the most practical. Open shelving is fine in a kitchen, where you could put pretty jars of stuff out, but in a utility I'd want things tucked out of sight

ruby_eskimo

Glad I'm not the only one @South_coast!  I'm also a someone who wants all the surfaces as clear as possible.  I went through all the options with DH again and he thinks Option 3 is the best too.  Here's my annotated drawing - now you might get a bit more of an idea why the lack of wall space for cabinets was driving me a little mad.





ETA: THE MASTIC GUY IS HERE!  That means we've finally finished the bathroom and I can actually have a bath at some point this week!  Oh and now I have 2 bathrooms to keep clean 😳🤣🤣🤣

beanielou

Woohoo to the bathroom being finished. 

Option 3 sounds good. 

debtfreewannabe321

YAY to the bathroom being finished!!
Is there access to all of these other spaces aside from through the utility- I am guessing no to the shower room..but if it were me I think I would get rid of a door- possibly the one from the hallway and have access via the kitchen and/or office? That way you have more space to play with for cupboards. Otherwise solution 3 sounds okay- and you can buy the cupboards that have less depth for the top so that it feels less claustrophobic. 

Pollie

I second blocking up the hall doorway or part blocking with a window added. As DFW says, this allows another area for storage. Is there a room above the utility room or is it an extension? If an extension, a skylight could be added and the whole wall bricked up

ruby_eskimo

Think my excitement was a little premature about the mastic guy being here - there's still two little bits round the door that he hasn't sealed because DH hadn't finished painting the new door frame.  But that's not enough to stop me from HAVING A BATH this weekend 🥳  Will try and get a picture once I've cleaned the last of the dust (the builders did a great job of cleaning up after themselves but there's just a little dust layer where we haven't been using it for weeks 😏

Thanks for the suggestions @debtfreewannabe321 and @Pollie - DH is very anti-blocking up any of the doorways as the room has no natural light source of it's own and the doorways help to give it some light (also I think he's lazy when it comes to putting the shopping away and wants to just walk straight in and put the food away rather than having to walk around through the living room and my office).  The bathroom is directly above so no way to put a sky light in unfortunately 🙁

We went through all the stuff that's in the utility room currently and it turns out that most of the boxes are things that DH had forgotten to put in the garage so I think we're going to be ok if we go for option 3 as it still gives us 3 more cupboards than we already have!

Now that's all sorted (I hope), today's task is to map out with masking tape the new kitchen peninsular just to make sure I have got the measurements correct.  We did have the placed measured by a national kitchen company but they messed up where the door was, so I want to just make doubly sure that what we want is actually going to fit!