Kitchen Improvements

We blogged a while ago about our Kitchen and the Bodged Electrics, which left the room in a bit of a sorry state. So, whilst we were sorting the study out over Easter, Kate's Dad came down to help us finish off the Kitchen.

Tiling and generally tidying up behind the fridge:
When we moved in to the house we found that there was a large patch of plaster missing on the wall behind the fridge. There were also several large holes and channels where wires had been chased through the walls in the past. There wasn't any skirting on the back wall, and the skirting on the right hand wall was only half painted. Furthermore, this bit of wall also housed two cooker switches, one of which had the spur running from it for the cupboard light and sockets in the lounge. Our electrician had sorted out these issues leaving us with just one safe (and legal) switch, but it left us with some broken tiles that needed replacing.

Unfortunately, we didn't get round to taking a "before picture" of this bit when we first moved in, so we pick up the tale after some painting, filling and plastering had taken place.

Before and After: Re-tiling, painting and adding Skirting Board

During: Thanks Daddy!

Re-tiling:
Another electrical issue we had was a socket overhanging the gas hob. This had to be moved out of the way and a blanking plate installed in its place. Again, this left us with quite a few broken or missing tiles, so Kate's Dad sorted that out too...

Before and After: Socket on the left replaced one where the blanking plate now lives

And closer up....good as new!

Putting up some blinds:
We are a bit over looked at the back of our house (and the front actually - the joy of a terraced house in the city), so we wanted some blinds in the Kitchen to add a bit of privacy and obviously to shade us from the sun when necessary! We picked up some reasonably priced Ikea Venetian blinds which we're mighty pleased with.

During

Before and After: Window 1

Before and After: Window 2

General Before/After:
This room is slowly changing so its easy to forget how different it is from when we first looked around...

Before: Estate Agent's Photo

After: It has already changed again since taking this - we've added a wine rack and unpacked our coffee machine!

Going Forward:
There are a few remaining fiddly jobs in the Kitchen (such as properly attaching some skirting behind the radiator which is currently just resting against the wall). Also, a few final tweaks will make it fully fit for purpose, such as adding these in the two corner cupboards to maximise our storage:

Le Mans Corner Storage Solution

But that is a little way off yet. For now, on with Bedroom 2! 

Catch up...The Tale of the Kitchen and the Bodged Electrics

Here's a quick attempt to start to bring you up-to-date with what's already happened with the house.

We completed on the house 6 weeks ago.  We turned up to find out that the vendors hadn't moved out yet, despite us having the keys.  Interesting (thanks for that estate agents)!  After an hour spent at a friends' house, we were finally able to get into the house.

We had always planned to have an overlap with our rented house so that we could try and get the ready before we moved in. "The best laid plans..." and all that!

We got on with decorating the kitchen as we were having our brand new "dream" cooker and a washing machine delivered four days after completetion.  It was all going so well and then the "fun" started when they came to deliver and install the cooker.

But before that, here's the quick catch-up video of the kitchen decoration...

The men from Currys arrived with the cooker and, after struggling for 15 minutes or so, managed to get it as far as the lounge.  They came into the kitchen to check what needed to be done to install the cooker and almost burst out laughing when they saw the electric cable lying on the floor behind the cooker cavity.  A quick look proved that this had evidently been installed by a complete cowboy who had elected to try and run a further 3 double sockets and a light off the cooker ring.  We were swiftly told that they "wouldn't touch it with a barge pole" and that it needed to be sorted before they would come back and install the cooker.

Long story short (because it is pretty long!) it took just over 3 weeks to get the issue sorted.  A quick run-down of the identified problems included:

• A dodgy spur being run from the cooker switch, far exceeding the fuse rating;
• No earthing to the water supply at all;
• Wires running under the cabinets, through a damp puddle to the washing machine;
• We found approximately 5 junction boxes under the floorboards of one bedroom, resembling something like spaghetti junction!
• Overloaded consumer unit;
• Most of the sockets in the house weren't earthed;
• There weren't any proper "rings" in the house, just a series of long and randomly winding spurs.

So, the electrics are sorted for the moment (well they're legal and safe now at least).  The next project is to rewire the lounge/dining room, once we have managed to move out of it!

And we have finally managed to get our cooker installed...

...so at least we can cook now!  

We're still living pretty much in the lounge, but we're slowly getting out!