canalsiderenovation

We purchased a kitchen - oops! I've been set on handless, but haven't been keen on the J handles I'd seen and I wanted a mixture of wood handleless and another colour though the other half wasn't keen on handleless. I had in my head orange but I couldn't quite get the shade I wanted without customising it (so decided something neutral and paint the walls would be cheaper) and then DIY kitchens didn't do wood effect handleless although the quality of the base units was better than some we had seen. We had seen a couple on the used kitchen site recommended on here, mainly German kitchens and then we saw one eBay as part of the Cucina Colore collection https://mereway.co.uk/kitchens/cucina-colore-collection/ which was advertised with a cost price of £21k which I take with a pinch of salt) and a mix of both handles and handleless which pleased the other half. We knew it had the ovens, hob and sink/tap but didn't know much about the quality so went to the showroom. We were both impressed with the quality, seemed better than DIY kitchens and surprised to find it actually included all Siemens integrated appliances, which includes two ovens (one a steam oven), coffee machine, tall fridge, dishwasher and hob. And then to top it all a Quooker tap and boiler as well, none of which had they advertised! I was mentally trying to tally up the cost of the appliances not to mention the fancy metal pull out bits and bobs in the units and cupboard accessories. Agreeing they would dismantle and then we can inspect again and check they haven't damaged anything (and they will replace anything they do damage), and store and deliver it too, price negotiation started. The other half again was cringing. Have to say, very pleased with the final result! We need to work out where we will put the wall units/shelf as we have a window above the sink so probably on the opposite wall. We also need to add on a cupboard on the end next to the fridge for a similar sized tall freezer (I think it's technically a 3/4 size to match the fridge) and possibly another tall unit next to it just to add on extra space (currently the stretch with the appliances is 3m but we have just over 5m available) but we are made up with what we have. I'm not sure yet if we will keep the worktop or look at quartz or similar (we can always use the existing worktop in our utility). Depends on budget but I don't dislike the worktops that are on to be honest. The flooring you can see is a sample of flooring we carry everywhere we fell in love with a while ago (a worn concrete appearance LVT). So, we are only two weeks in and we have a bath, kitchen, footings and brickwork! No messing around here... Here are some pics.

We have seen an ex display kitchen we are interested in and it's from the Mereway Cucina Colore range. Has anyone had the any experience of them and can comment on quality? https://mereway.co.uk/kitchens/cucina-colore-collection/

Unfortunately not! In true fashion it was not quite where they expected it and almost double backed on itself as the house must have had a water feed in the garage at some point although there was no evidence of there ever being water in the garage when it was demolished! At least we know where it is now!

Drama broke out earlier today with the discovery of our water pipe. Discovered by the digger going though it.... A few months ago in the absence of locating our internal stop tap (likely because it's somewhere behind the fitted kitchen units) the water company came out to try and locate the external one. Three house after they arrived.... No.such.luck They did say it's somewhere between the houses the other side of the bridge and us - but there is a canal and bridge in between us and them and they couldn't locate it. Strange but true. They did say if the builders found it they could then come out and try and track it from the pipe so Severn Trent are back again Friday. So just over a week in and we have partly dug out footings for the kitchen extension, office and Airbnb bedroom/ensuite. After 2 years of seeing everything on plans it's all very exciting actually seeing the space.

Oh I've had a new phone ? didn't even notice the typos my precious ?

Thanks @ryder72 off the top of your head any idea who are the cheapest?

It doesn't have to be Farrow and Ball just the ability to either customise or have a larger ranger of colours than normal. Do you have any suggestions of which German manufacturers to consider?

@nod what make is that kitchen? @Simplysimon thanks I'll check it out.

Having purchased a bath which was one of my particular obsessions, we are looking into kitchens and we really like the handless kitchens but I'm not particularly fussed on the J style ones and these are the only type I can see on DIY Kitchens. DIY kitchens appealed due to the fact you could custom colour the doors (using any Farrow and Ball colour or alternative). Any other kitchen within similar pricing of DIY kitchens doesn't have the ability to custom colour doors and we can't find a colour we like. Couple of questions: 1. Does anyone have any suggestions of somewhere that allows you to customise door colours at a reasonable cost? 2. Are painted doors and handlesss a recipe for disaster in terms of fingerprints etc?

Today was our four year wedding anniversary. It was also Day 1 of the builders starting promptly at 730am and as we got the day off work we decided to leave them to it and escape. Since the cancelled Ideal Home show and home associated birthday plans in March I've been online adding things to my ever growing Pinterest board and my particular obsession has been a bath and although we had done some browsing before lockdown I hadn't seen anything that really caught my eye. My wife concerned with the ever growing board of bath pictures offered today to go and look at some. So heading north commenced our bathroom shopping with a list of places to visit, mainly ex display showroom baths. No posh anniversary meals, stopping for cheese and beetroot sandwiches I'd made to take with us (who said romance was dead)? Lots of baths later and still not fully decided and the threat of with 'we aren't coming back again' we get to our final stop in Bradford. I'd had a notification en route from eBay saying it had been reduced further and 'you are not haggling' resulted in me haggling a bit more discount too and the tap thrown in as well (the wife had walked out at this point leaving me to it). Managed to get it in the Jeep with about 10mm spare (I'm sure there is a joke somewhere a out how many people it takes to fit a bath into a Jeep). So, Happy Anniversary - we bought each other a bath! Here is the bath modelled by me - safely home in our garage. Just caught the builders - that big hole in the last post. It's no longer a hole.

I have a total figure and am happy to PM you what we have been quoted if you want me to (haven't worked it out per m2 and separating out the windows and sliders as we have negotiated a discount on pricing after an initial mess up with our quote). Price includes install as our location isn't the easiest to access and I'd rather they take the responsibility incase anything goes wrong with the sliders. We had significant variation in pricing from three different Internorm distributors. Our sliders are north west facing and we have a fair few windows North East and South West but I'm not worried about overheating - but that's because I'm never warm!

You must be psychic @tanneja We just come back from one of the Internorm distributors today. Weru was way out on pricing. Kommerling never replied to any emails, neither did Gaulhofer. I did quite like Ideal Combi but there was so little price difference between them and Internorm (mainly due to the cost of Ideal Combi sliders due to our 5.5m size) and the difference in U values/overall quality I think we are set on Internorm. Just finalising some pricing and hopefully will be proceeding. Our builders start on 1 June so I want to be pretty sure on our decision. OH liked the profile of the Internorm aluclad UPVC ones. The sliders also impressed us though I found them heavy (and that was some only 3.5m rather than our 5.5m) but I think that's because I've bu$$ered my shoulder/neck and have a trapped nerve currently so can't even carry my handbag. I did find the handle set up weird on the sliders as when shut the handle points up and it's so big it looks like a big hook. I don't think the square profile helps so would perhaps look at a rounder handle instead for the slider.

Ah yes, we are due to start on 1 June but just a couple of miles away in Wales they are still on lockdown

It was a Christmas present off my parents a few years ago. Ever practical, I've previously had a tool box, pressure washer and vacuum cleaner.

You have a beautiful location @Thedreamer is this your permanent home (I haven't read all entries) as I've only recently discovered the blog section and started one myself.

One question my dad asked me on Saturday. He only came up to get rid of a tree stump in the garden that's been there since Storm Doris blew down our Silver Birch. Job done, we thought whilst he had the digger he could tackle 7 other stumps in a large overgrown border near our drive. He then asked the question he would now probably regret and was met with a response of "we will probably extend the drive at some point". He looked at my like he did when I'd told him I'd failed my GCSEs and explained we were going to pay a builder to get rid of all the hardcore then buy it back in again at some point for hard standing and that we can save 'thousands of pounds'. So, dad realising what he had talked himself into dug out the area under strict permission not to damage the Christmas Tree because where would we hang our fairy lights otherwise and I was on social media advertising 20 tonne of topsoil and moving stumps. The neighbours must wondered what was happening with an endless supply of trailers, cars and even a JCB Fastrack. The wheelbarrow clearly felt the impact of yesterday's hard work and pretty much sums up how we feel today too (another job dad sorted).

Thanks, I since found the nosing caps which look fine. Cheers.

Just had a thought. As we plan on having LVT gluedown flooring throughout it just occurred to me about the stairs we have in the hall (see pic) The Amtico gluedown sample we have feels quite rigid. Is this a problem? I think it's around 2.5mm with a 0.55mm wear layer for the hall. In other rooms the flooring is 2mm with a 0.55mm wear layer.

Yep read it. It's 60l/s so one like that icon fan would be ok. I'd probably never use it anyway and we can put this on the opposite wall to the hob which will be on an island.

Would something like this be suitable? https://www.superlecdirect.com/p-icon60-airflow-icon-60-ventilation-6-150mm-fan-72591701?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIioa-6eSK6QIViKztCh2oigTbEAQYAiABEgIGoPD_BwE I had a less powerful version of this in my last house bathroom and they are stylish and easy to clean too.

Yep you're right so I'm best just having a standard hob then and finding a big fan to put on an outside wall somewhere to satisfy building regs which we will probably never use and likely disconnect after.

Oh really ☹️

So do you have to add some form of grille bar to the plinth?

So, I spent last night using a kitchen planner on DIY Kitchens to play around with kitchen layouts. Knowing we have to have some kind of mechanical kitchen ventilation but we can't have a hood without putting in some form of fake ceiling as the bungalow kitchen will have a high ceiling/glazed gable I was looking at the hobs with built in inductions. The hob will be on in the middle of the kitchen similar to an island with no walls. As I've never used one in any kitchen I've ever had I'm not too bothered about the specs as such just getting something that meets building regs and at a reasonable cost, such as this. Can anyone explain to me in simple terms how these work if the pipe won't extract to outside. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cookology-Induction-Built-Downdraft-Extractor/dp/B07K8QDHX2/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=induction+hob+extractor&qid=1588009723&sr=8-3 Also, does anyone have any other recommendations of something similar at a reasonable cost.

We did look at composite doors and infact designed one online and of course with the extra fancy handle, colour and design it was the top end of £1k. For the extra we got this one for I think it was worth it. We will have a composite stable door.