2021 renovations

[sally maclennane]

All these new kitchens sound fab!

[Marth]

I love these plans. I shall check out Howdens. I am planning a new kitchen and will need to have the floor sorted. I probably need the back wall tanked or thermally improved as well. I have Damp Bob coming next week to carry out a full damp survey so will have work from that as well.

I was going to take the whole wall out between the kitchen and dining room, but I'm having 2nd thoughts. I really like the dining room, and like that it's calm. It will wind me up having all the kitchen stuff and mess going on. I think instead I'll change the door to a double door width and put in bifold french doors, so it can be open and part of the dining room or closed.

I'll still put doors across the front room and dining room in case I want to close that off, but quite like it all being as one.

[Duophonic]

These plans are fantastic.

I have no idea where everyone gets the money for renovations but I wanted (total first world problems) numerous things done but can't get workmen for love nor money. They're all booked for the rest of this year. The reason I was told was 'no one's going on holiday so they're upgrading their homes at the minute'.

My only renovation this year will be getting a pet flap (cat flap is too small ) installed in a glass door. The pet flap gets delivered today so Mr D will drop it off at the glazier tomorrow and hopefully in 3/4wks Eric will have timed access outdoors all linked to my phone.

I've also been told Brexit has a lot to do with huge lead times. On the cat flap research I queried getting my door completely replaced and one national chain said that they'd be able to fit me in due to patchy supplies getting to the UK at around Sept time.

With regards to kitchens, has anyone had any experience of using one of the national companies like Wren or similar?

[Chicky]

I actually lied, we were going to go with Howdens but their customer service was so bad that we went with Magnet instead. Very similar kitchen though. I think branches differ Duo so I’d try a few companies out and see the vibe you get. The products and prices seem to be quite similar.

This is the style of kitchen we’re going for, but we’ll have tiled floor and lighter worktop.

[Skips]

We borrowed more money to do ours. I wish we could have got one company to come in and do the lot, but even when we purchased the house three years ago, and had the money left over from the sale of my place, we couldn't find anyone to do it.

[sally maclennane]

With regards to kitchens, has anyone had any experience of using one of the national companies like Wren or similar?

I know a few people who have had problems with Wren so I actively avoided them. I found Howdens quite average this time, I think as Chicky says about Magnet, it's very dependent on the branch so I'd probably ask around. I think my friend used Howdens in Paisley if you want me to ask her what she thought of them?

Re money, mine was paid for using the money from the sale of my dad's house so nothing to do with lockdown, it just happened to coincide. My builder said the same though about people not spending money on holidays so using that for home improvements. He also said people were desperate for more space due to being stuck at home with family

[F'Artiste]

It’s so exciting seeing the kitchens! We’ve appointed an architect (in theory, but he hasn’t actually acknowledged it or confirmed the next steps, so we might have to go to a back up). Builders in my area are fairly booked, and most houses seem to have a skip on their drive.

[Squirrel]

I love all these kitchen plans!

[Princess Morripov]

The kitchens! I love that green, Chicky.

[sally maclennane]

Yes, the green is gorgeous!

[Duophonic]

The green is beautiful!

My kitchen is tiny, it's in a tiny rectangle of outcrop of the house, it's probably originally been a utility or something but like Marth I'm loathe to give up my separate dining room space as I want to retain that defined space. We sit in the dining room with the patio doors open spring into early autumn and I'd hate to give that up to kitchen mess.

Sorry, I didn't mean for everyone to justify how they spend their money, it was just a general musing and selfishness on my part when I couldn't get done what I wanted to do.

[Livilla]

I know what you mean. I am genuinely so excited about having a new fence The previous owners here did everything badly and cheaply and I'm having to undo it all.

This is our problem - the people we bought our house from lived here for 15 years and did no maintenance whatsoever. We’ve now been here 5 years, and everything is now cheap, 20 years old, and failing all at once. We had a discussion about doing things project by project over several years, or in one big hit and decided to go for the latter as we couldn’t be sure that while we were doing up the kitchen, the only working shower wouldn’t disintegrate etc.

[Livilla]

And I also love the green kitchen!

[Duophonic]

We don't do anything on tick Beatrix. If I'm totally honest affording it isn't an issue it's getting the workmen in to complete the work is, so I've ground to a halt. Most companies aren't even answering my queries.

We want to get done:

My study is to be turned into a library
Our hardwood floors restored
Mini's room redecorated
Kitchen ripped out and redone

We planned to get it done when we moved in 2019 and managed to get the bottom level completely repainted but then covid, Scottish lockdowns and getting workmen in has been the issue.

[Chicky]

We have gone with the builder who did the loft extension in our previous house, we had a few issues (I’ll never forgive him for cutting tiles on my parquet floor and cutting into the floor ) but he’s usually reliable, the workmanship is good and we trust him, I also feel totally safe with him and his workers around. We started talking to him back in august when we moved and he booked us in for April as that was his first available slot, he says he’s flat out with renovations and has been for ages. Plus they couldn’t work in the first lockdown so everything got backed up too.

[Loralei]

I used Wren and was impressed by them. The only criticism I have is that they were quite pushy sales-wise, but we knew what we wanted and didn't feel pressure to order/book immediately as we knew any amazing deals would be replaced by other amazing deals once they expired. My kitchen fitter was really pleased with the quality and although a couple of items arrived damaged they were quick to replace them.

[smalex]

We’re using DIY Kitchens again - they’re great on price and have the best available width options. I was very pleased when we used them for the kitchen in our old house. It’s all online, but their advisers are excellent. We’ve gone for solid wood, painted, doors this time and I’m really looking forward to them.

I used a similar company Units Online, they worked on the same concept. I was really impressed with them both though actually (and a friend of mine used DIY Kitchens at a similar time and really liked them), thought their approach was quite refreshing compared to all the normal places.

Everyone is madly busy right now. It's gone nuts since Christmas, its like 2016/17 levels of interest (before talk about Brexit got really serious which seemed to take the edge off)

[Duophonic]

I really need someone to completely design the kitchen as it's tiny so I need tons of smart storage features which I have neither the imagination or the inclination to properly research. I also need them to rip out the existing kitchen and replace.

I really want someone to do everything with little prompting from me.

[Tabitha]

I used Wren for those reasons, Duop. We went somewhere a year or so prior and they were no good at identifying ways to make the most of the space, whereas the designer at Wren had loads of ideas. As Lora said, they were quite pushy about getting you to sign up but their offers come and go so rapidly we knew we'd get a decent discount whenever we did it. We also used their builders so I didn't have any of the hassle about trying to co-ordinate plumbers, electricians and the arrival of flooring etc. We worked out a price with them for the additional works (extra sockets, lighting, new fuse box etc) and someone project managed the lot. I'm sure it wasn't the cheapest option, but it was relatively pain-free. They've also been very good about coming back to fix a couple of faults.

As far as the dosh is concerned, we had refunds on a couple of holidays and weren't going out but actually we're paying by interest free credit over a couple of years anyway.

[Livilla]

We used Howdens for our last kitchen, and while I was very happy with them we had to do everything by ourselves in terms of the planning and how to use space. It's the main reason we're looking at using other firms this time, to be honest, I'd really value some input from an expert. And also, I'm prepared to pay a bit more for a kitchen that I'll hopefully be using for the next 15 years, rather than just to sell the house.