LAURENCE JOSEPH
Kitchen Update
Bringing an old kitchen up to date without investing in new kitchen units.
Kitchen UPDATE
Work is still in progress…
This kitchen was a very good size, and the cabinets were in a pretty good condition (being a Neptune kitchen) although the colour was a bit insipid.
There were tall units either side of the island, we felt these would be much better suited next to each other.
There was a floor unit mounted on the wall, so after moving the units around and organising the drawers under the island we found a way of putting this unit on the floor where the tall unit had been. We threw away the bin unit because it was beyond cleaning and repair, and shuffled the units together and refit the worktops.
We threw away two fridges that were facing away at either end of the island, got a new matching pair of fridge and freezer and turned these to face the oven, and boxed in the island properly as the granite worktop was wobbling.
The only problem we couldn’t overcome is the position of the sink, as being on the other side of the island from the fridge and cooker, it is outside the working triangle.
If we were to start from scratch we wouldn’t have an island where it is, as it’s quite tight getting around each other on both sides. A peninsula would have been a nice idea.
The gas AGA was turned off, as it isn’t used, and was expensive to run, but we have left it in place as it’s a great focal point.
One side of the kitchen was a little too short and didn’t cover the flooring, (as the flooring had unusually been laid after the kitchen was fitted) so we built a small unit to cover the gap and cookbooks are kept in there now.
A glass dresser had been placed around the corner into the living area, so we moved this back into the kitchen and is the first thing you see when you enter the kitchen.
This kitchen extension had previously been carried out at the rear of the bungalow, and in an effort to save money, the previous owners fit a glass roof. It was never water-tight, was freezing in winter and blistering hot in summer. It had to go. However, we did install a huge lantern above the island and added recessed lighting.
The oak and melamine worktops will be replaced with granite worktops when funds allow, as well as glass splashbacks, tiling and more finishing touches.
We were left with two corner units with a space between, so we built a wine rack in this. One of the corner units didn’t have a door on, so we got a deal on an ex-demo unit at the Neptune showroom in Bournemouth.
We painted the units by hand, as they had already been painted by hand. We chose a charcoal grey from Neptune themselves, and got a lighter grey from B&Q. We used Zinsser as the undercoat to make it stick. It took a few days to do enough coats to hide the sage green colour.
We fit shiny new handles to the units, as the brass handles were dull and tarnished. The final touch was to wrap two of the worktops so they more closely matched the enginneered worktops on the other side.
Summary of work carried out:
- Structural engineers report on supporting the new roof
- Glass roof removed and recycled
- New warm roof fitted with huge lantern over the island
- Fibreglass roof professionally fitted
- New lighting and sockets
- Kitchen rearranged and painted
Obviously the roof was the main expenditure, but the total cost of this so was around £16,000.
The estimated increase to the house value is between £36,000 to £40,000. The addition of new worktops and splashbacks would increase this to around £52,000.
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