New Kitchen, unexpected purchase.

[higgle]

We had planned on replacing our kitchen - replacing units, appliances + new flooring etc. in about 2 years time - i.e. when we had saved up for it. Unfortunately all our appliances have started to die on us, last week one of the kickboards fell to pieces and one door has fallen off its hinges. It was a poor quality kitchen put in by the developers when the house was built.

I'm now thinking we will have to do this more quickly than I envisaged. I'm thinking of a Karndean or similar floor, some medium priced units and black granite tops. The kitchen is about 17' x 17' . What we really need to do is to get everything we can at the cheapest prices possible. It is likely we will move from this house in 5 or 6 years time, so it will need to look OK for some time. Any recommendations for cutting costs?

I did a kitchen in a property I rent very reasonably by using Ikea cabinets.

I bought the handles from a specialist online store, slate tiles and underfloor heating from tops tiles, bought fully integrated appliances from various online stores having hunted around for the cheapest options and then got a local handyman to fit the lot.

Not including the ridiculously expensive glass worktop and splash back which was about 50% of other costs but makes the rest of the kitchen look suitably expensive it was less than £8k which I think was a bargain.

Will granite and karndean be worth it if youre moving? Not that i advocate putting in a cheapo kitchen as i think it's a false economy - if you're paying people to fit things, you might as well pay them to fit the best for your budget.

We're having quartz and karndean, but we're never moving for 30plus years until dh retires, so it's a long term home and i think we can justify the cost.

Kardean ranges quite a lot in price, polyflor is similar and chepear. You can get free samples of both...

Thinking of your re-sale in 5-6 years, I wonder if you're better off going for something other than black granite worktops. I get the impression that you don't love them yourself but think they sell well, whereas I think that if you pick something that's come in as a trend more recently, it might stand a better chance of still looking fashionable in 6 years time.

Grendelsmum - worktops are a bit of a problem because I'm a serious but messy cook. We have already burned two nasty marks on the original very strong laminate(?) worktops, one from a coffee pot and one from a tea towel being set on fire. I couldn't trust myself with wood, there would be some horrible accident in the first week to ruin it, so I think that only leaves granite. I would love a retro kitchen like my mother's -she had metal units with stainless steel tops and an integral stainless sink installed in 1955 and they still look great! Not exactly suitable for my house though. Did you have anything in mind? It is a 4 bed detached house in a nice area so I think we have to put in a half decent kitchen whether we stay or go.

I think Ikea does a black quartz type work top, very similar to granite, not sure of cost though as ours was left by previous owner. And it's fab. It looks good, easy to clean and you can put hot stuff on it, no problem!

I'm thinking the black granite look is going to date by the time you sell (there was a discussion about that on here recently and the general consensus was that if you don't love it yourself, don't go for it). Corian is even more expensive, but very tough indeed. You could go for a different colour of granite, rather than black? A warning for cooks, though - apparently lemon juice can mark granite quite badly. We have laminate ourselves as DH is also a keen cook and hates granite altogether.

As I say we used glass which looks amazing and is hard wearing. You can get it in pretty much any colour and it has always received lots of compliments.

sooner or later you ought to learn how to refit a kitchen unit door that has come off.

hinge repair plate 78p

longer screws £1.78 per hundred

It's comparable to sewing a button on.

I have black granite, I wouldn't choose it. I don't hate it in fact I really like granite just not black. I would choose a lighter colour. You have to constantly polish it to get a shine otherwise it looks very matt.

Just to update, DH made a new carcass and refitted the door, we couldn't match the kickboards so he bought some wood and stained it and made those too - it is all looking far more presentable now so we can replace at our leisure and get what we really want.