04 July 2016

Kitchen Part 6 - Day 4, 5 & 6 of the real renovations

Thursday the benchtops came (that was the last post).
Friday the plumber and electrician came back. We had the electrician do a bunch of work around the place while they were here. A whole new board installed on the front of the house, the long promised heat lamps in the bathroom and the kitchen stuff. Our kitchen has 12 double power points, plus a single for the fridges, which run through a double surge protector. I'm hoping its enough ;-)
Saturday Magic Matt installed our larger shelves, the trim boards to fasten my hanging rods to, and the handles on the doors. I suspect they leave the handles off until it's safe for you to use the cupboards.
Saturday and Sunday we painted and moved in. There's still shelving in the pantry to go in - so food is still in the dining room. And the hanging rods have to wait until the splashbacks are in. So utensils are a bit of a mess.
Two small hiccups with the entire project. We looked at taps and said, "We want that one." The appliance company ordered and delivered a tap, which we carefully put in the corner for the plumber. I went to try my new 'pull out' tap on Friday night and found it didn't pull out :-( I checked the order form and the tap installed in my kitchen was the tap on the order form, but it wasn't the tap I asked for in the store.
This morning Daniel spoke with the store. We have no proof of a mix up, but they accepted that the tap wasn't the one I asked for. They are sending someone out on Monday to uninstall the unwanted tap and install the one I wanted. The one I wanted was quite a bit more expensive than the one we got, so we're paying the difference. I am very impressed with the service. Although I'm unlikely to be renovating a kitchen again in the near future, they will be my first port of call if I need larger appliances, and I will be recommending them to anyone who asks. So - if you need fridges, stoves, oven, sinks, taps, laundry tubs, washers, dryers - try Winnings. We went to the Indooroopilly store, but I'm sure they're all great.
Second issue was the microwave shelves. I envisaged a wall of shelves, broken by the rangehood. There was concern that the microwave would be awkward to access if it was in a the corner. I agreed to have the shelves in the corner turned 90 degrees. Once the shelves were installed we realised that the microwave door only opens about 75 degrees and bangs into the rangehood. Hmmm, so I sacrificed a visual aesthetic for functionality, which I didn't get. Again, Daniel spoke with Magic Matt this morning, and the shelves will be moved. As the ad used to say, it won't happen overnight, but it will happen. I'd be happy to live with it for six months, now that I know its going to be right in the end. Heck, I lived with the kitchen as was for 14 years.
And so, some photos.

Daniel hard at work painting. These are the shelves that are moving 90°. Blue sticky notes were my planning of what goes where.
Sticky notes to determine what goes where. The piece of pine under the shelves is painted wall colour (pale yellow), and is for attaching my utensil hanging rods. I have about three and half metres of hanging rods. Pretty sure it'll be enough. We used to have about one and half metres, and it wasn't enough.
And a message on the wall of the next renovators.

Message on the wall behind the splashbacks for whoever next renovates the kitchen.
She said, 'smile'.


How to use the new oven.

Looking like a kitchen. The old kitchen looked like a kitchen too, but this one looks like a really functional and lovely kitchen.

The window frame looks a little tacky. It will be green.

Looking into the kitchen from the dining room.

Walk into the kitchen, turn at the end of the fridges, and there's more.

And still more. These two walls will have open shelving. The short wall separates the lounge room, so the shelves visible above it will be for display items - vases, large platters, fancy plates etc.

My can rack that I just love.

Last night I cooked a roast. Tonight I cooked biscuits. I didn't often cook biscuits in the pizza oven. It cooked great biscuits, just in small batches. With a full size oven, I can cook a week's worth of biscuits in one go.

Still to come:
  • dishwasher goes in on Wednesday (YAY!)
  • splashbacks will be about two weeks
  • shelves in the pantry
  • move the microwave shelf
  • new tap
  • work out under sink storage (waiting for the dishwasher to see what room there is)
  • hanging rods and hooks for utensils
  • hooks in the ceiling frame behind the fridges for hanging pans