So we’ve barely finished our own kitchen renovation (reveal and final details coming soon!) and we’re already beginning another. I won’t lie – I’m not exactly jumping for joy at the prospect of doing another kitchen. BUT, I do love the planning and designing aspect of a renovation, so it is getting me kinda excited. What am I even talking about? So, we’re beginning another kitchen renovation – this time at Grants parents. Their house has featured on here before when we did their bathroom renovation and now we’re doing it all again for them. In the kitchen.
They’ve basically left almost everything down to us, some of the designing, the arranging tradespeople and the managing of money – so it really feels very much like our own in some ways. The plan for this renovation is going to be a tad different from our own, as we’re phasing it into numbers and tackling it one phase at a time over the coming months. Since we’re not living there and we do have actual jobs as well, this will make it a whole lot easier to do. And we really didn’t want to repeat the “5 day” bathroom renovation nightmare, which yes – was a NIGHTMARE.
So here’s some snaps of the current kitchen and the plan to go along with it…
PHASE 1 – Replace Sliding Doors
If you can’t tell by the photo, these doors are a security nightmare. Like, seriously – there is no lock. Just these makeshift bars which I’m going to say would probably invalidate the insurance should the worst ever happen. These are going to be replaced for some nice new uPVC french doors. It means they can make the most of a full opening to bring the outdoors in and I think they’ll work much better in this space.
PHASE 2 – Replacing the Boiler
The second phase is the boiler. It’s a very very old floor standing machine that is so far beyond it’s sell-by-date it’s unreal. The separate water tanks in a cupboard upstairs have collapsed and are causing one hell of a leak every couple of days if it’s not constantly emptied. We’ll be swapping this all out for a nice new modern combi-boiler, which also means we can gain one of the spaces back.
PHASE 3 – Updating the Pantry
The room the current boiler is in, is a strange off-shoot cupboard in the kitchen. We’ll be taking this room back and turning it into a kind-of pantry. It’ll have open shelving for all the cupboard type kitchen foods and a built-in cupboard at the end to store pots and pans. It means we can have less cupboards in the actual kitchen (particularly wall cabinets!) and will hopefully make the small kitchen feel a little bigger.
PHASE 4 (or maybe 5) – Creating a Laundry Room
We’ll also be making a bit more room in the kitchen by moving the washing machine into yet another cupboard (there’s a lot of them in this house! It’s on the left just through this arch shown below). It’ll be a very very small laundry room, but will hopefully house both the washing machine and tumble dryer and make for a slightly less cluttered kitchen. The water plumbing already runs through this room so it shouldn’t be too difficult to do, fingers crossed!
PHASE 5 (or maybe 4) – Installing a Range Cooker
The next big job is the range cooker. It’s quite a small kitchen, but this was something on the “Must-Have” list, so we’re happy to provide. Depending on what type of cooker we manage to find, the fuse board may need updating first. But we’ll be ripping out all the units on this side and installing the cooker before the rest of the kitchen. It’ll allow them to still cook and eat whilst the rest of the room is under renovation.
PHASE 6 – Everything Else
The last phase is going to be the biggest and basically consist of everything else. They won’t be buying a kitchen at this moment just yet – but it’s always good to have a proper plan in mind from the get-go. Grants parents will still have a fully usable kitchen even after phases 1-5, so the painting and floor tiling can then be done in a more casual fashion. The final kitchen replacement should be just a nice straight switch with no major complications. It’s a small space, the plasterwork is perfectly fine and hopefully the electrics are too – So fingers crossed we’re hoping for a nice smooth kitchen renovation so that by the end of phase 6, the rest can really be done in just a few long days.
Watch this space for some updates in this house over the next several months! 😉
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