The Next Step...

The next stage of our refurbishment of our flat is now getting underway. It always amazes people that we've lived here for 13 years and had not done anything major to it until the bathroom was ripped out and replaced last year. I guess that to an extent, we felt that we ought to "really" own the place before we started sorting out the inside to any great extent. Although we were still a few months away from paying off the mortgage altogether when we had the bathroom done, that really had reached the point where getting it sorted out was a need rather than a want, and as we had the money to do it saved, we chose to go ahead at that stage.


While "liveable" - we'd be the first to agree that it's not necessarily been the easiest of choices to actually live with some of it. The kitchen is now starting to tip across to becoming a "need" rather than a "want" to have done. It's sometimes colder than it might be in the place because we've got a number of blown double-glazing units.  The carpets - particularly the hallway - are showing serious signs of wear. We're heartily fed up with the rather 1980's feel to the hallway - think artex and a pine dado rail...  BUT - having waited to get all these things done now means we'll be able to do them as we want, and hopefully buy a quality that will last for a good long while. We will also not be taking on any debt to get the works done now, as a result of having waited.

So - the first part of the plan was to get the kitchen window and door replaced - the double glazing was blown in the door, and the window was single glazed meaning that that the room was freezing and the window was running with water pretty much permanently. So on Friday they were ripped out and replaced with a brand new super-insulated door and window. we've chosen a window with 2 openers on one pane for the simple reason that this brings opening windows into my reach - the old unit was a devil to reach to open for a shorty like me! The door opens outward making it easier to access the balcony to read the gas meter, water plants etc.  At the same time we have had our old wooden framed aluminium front door replaced as well - really the only change we are able to make to the direct "kerb appeal" of the place. That is already making the place warmer, and more secure.

Plans for the kitchen are also going forwards - we've had a measuring & planning meeting, and are now waiting for a plan and a drawing to come through. We've found a paint colour we like for the walls - a soft fresh green. We've chosen our units - slab style cream gloss - and the handles that will go on them. We've decided to go with the same tiles on the floor that we used in the bathroom - not only will it give continuity through the flat but we really like them! The splashback behind the worktop is going to be done in cream subway-style tiles. We think we've found the oven and dishwasher we want. We've learned that integrated fridge/freezers only seem to come as a 55cm wide option. Which is somewhat annoying. I have to admit though we're finding the process quite difficult - and until last night I couldn't quite work out why. The bathroom was easy by comparison - we felt confident about both the design and working out what would fit. The layout for that was prescribed - it's a small room, the bath will only fit one way, and the rest kind of followed on from there - the layout we had previously worked, and so we stuck with it. The kitchen has left us feeling baffled though - seemingly whatever we tried to make work, wouldn't. We're tremendously limited for worktop space currently - so doing anything that would reduce this further is not an option. The sink can only go in one place. We want to stick with gas for cooking. And suddenly last night the blindingly obvious hit us. The layout we have in the kitchen at the moment works superbly - cooking is a pleasure as everything flows from my worktop position - the tap is just to my right, my knives are in the block right in front of me, the hob and oven just to my left, and the fridge just a couple of steps away behind me. So why do we feel we "have" to change it? If it ain't broke, why try to fix it? And, at the end of the day, in a small space you do have to work with what you have. I'd LOVE a fabby range style cooker - in fact I'd possibly love it slightly more than I do MrEH, so it may be a good thing that we don't have room for one. ;-) Now all that has sunk in, it all feels slightly less daunting and scary, slightly more manageable. The one small tweak to layout will be to switch the positions of the dishwasher and a base unit so that the dishwasher is slightly closer to the plumbing, giving less of a run on the drainage.

Now it's all about the small stuff - thinking about any ways we can increase storage, checking everything is accurate on the plan, seeing if there is any way at all of increasing the space available. A good friend is also going to look over the plans for us - to see if he can think of anything that we've missed, or that might work better. An extremely keen cook, not only has he fitted kitchens for himself in the past he's done a fair few for other people too so he's a great person to have on-side. Our builder (you may remember him from the bathroom exploits) Dave is also ace - not a lot phases him and we're leaving things like suggestions for clever lighting to him to come up with as he's great on stuff like that. Rather as with the bathroom we'll be learning as we go along to a degree - but also learning from mistakes we made there. The next few weeks will be focusing on using up as much in the way of food items as can from fridge, freezer, cupboards and larder - in fact look out for a Frugal friday post on that subject soon. The additional freezer space created will then be filled with home made "ready meals" which can quickly and easily be heated up using just the microwave - we don't intend to spend the time the kitchen takes to do living off takeaways and meals out!

Watch this space for updates on how we get on!

Robyn