IN January (2024), I blogged about our Kitchen Renovation Project, describing it as having been “10 years in the making” because we’d first considered it in 2013. The first thing to say is that now, obviously, I have to say it was “11 years in the making”, which doesn’t sound so neat so I’ll drop all references to just how long it’s taken us to get round to this. The second thing to say is that the hilarious abbreviation I came up with (“KERP: The Kitchen Extension & Replacement Project”) isn’t, in hindsight, that funny (or memorable, as it happens), so that too shall be ditched. Instead I shall refer simply to “the renovation project”.

The third thing to say is that in the intervening four months we finally appointed a builder, an electrician and a kitchen designer. Building starts in late May. Hooray.

Alarm bells

There are several reasons why it’s taken so long to get to this point. First, we had a false start with the builder we’d been hopeful about. We were hopeful because his company could design and fit kitchens as well as doing the building work; I’d been unsure how to approach this, knowing that there had to be some co-ordination between the two aspects. Anyway, he gave us a quote for the building work (which, in hindsight, was way over the top) and just an estimate for the kitchen. It was when we started talking payment terms that the alarm bells rang; he wanted £10,000 upfront just for us to accept his quote and get added to his schedule. We fully expected to be asked for an initial deposit of some sort, but given that the build wouldn’t have started for many weeks we knew this was a bad idea. It smacked of someone desperate for cash.

When we told him his terms were unacceptable he immediately tried to backtrack and asked what terms we’d be happy with – but I didn’t reply to that email. A few days ago I discovered that his showroom was up for sale and his web site had disappeared.

I approached other builders I’d found online. One came to quote and started telling us how he could save us some VAT by taking cash payments. He could tell we didn’t feel good about that and also tried to backtrack, but the damage was done; he never sent a quote. Another company seemed interested, came to look, seemed professional but, after several weeks eventually told me they couldn’t quote as they were too busy. We eventually found the right builder by posting a job on MyBuilder. He has an electrician he frequently works with, who quoted us separately and has already done one of the preliminary jobs for us.

Annoying

Meanwhile, we also had a false start with a kitchen design company who were amicable and seemed competent but left us feeling we wanted to explore another option. They were also based several miles out of town, making visits to their showroom inconvenient.

The kitchen we’ve ended up buying from a local design company incorporates some of the same ideas. Arriving at the final design has been a long process, but we’re finally there, with a fitter booked, and dates that should work with the build and the lead time for the kitchen.

It was also annoying to be held up by a mistake on the original architect’s drawing, which the kitchen had been designed to. It made us realise the value of critical points being checked and double-checked. There’s since been quite a bit more double-checking of drawings, CAD images and quotes along the way.

Preliminaries

To maximise the space in the new bit of kitchen (and to enable one of the internal walls to be taken down) we’ve already relocated the gas meter, the electricity meter (both to external meter boxes) the boiler (to the airing cupboard) and the solar panel inverter (to the loft).

Moving the meters called for quite a bit of reading and administration (not to mention paying quite a bit of money) but it’s all gone well. I ordered the new meter boxes online, and one of them arrived damaged. They sent a replacement and didn’t want the damaged one back so I suspect it’ll end up as a planter in our garden. Our builder did the first actual bit of building by making suitable holes in the wall to fit the boxes in.

We should soon finalise the order for the kitchen and then there should be an interlude with no admin to do. The main job we’ll be doing is preparing for several weeks of disruption to “normal service” and figuring out where to put the mountain of stuff that normally lives in the kitchen and utility room.

My best estimate is that, accounting for flooring and decorating, we’re looking at a mid-July finish. We shall see 🙂