It's time to let go of the 50-year old kitchen in the lovely 5m square high ceilinged room with the great views and get something handmade to match the lovely Victorian deep cupboards that we still have.
First showroom: came over and said for bespoke expect to budget about £15,000.
Second showroom was hilarious: I went to him with pictures of the 50-year-old units (to be fair, they do make it look like a 1930s slum): he said he wasn't sure I could afford him and said it would cost £6-£8K then gave me a pitying look. His showroom was bloody lovely but he wanted us to have wooden worksurfaces and when I told him my cleaner had burst out laughing at the idea of me+wooden worksurfaces he said "sack the cleaner". Then for bizarre reasons known only to himself, he said "I bet your husband's a head of geography at a secondary school". So he seems to fall into the taking-himself-too-seriously and being a wazzock camp. He's due to visit us next Tuesday.
Third showroom: lovely lovely man but we were so keen and so grateful and so "oh could you do that too? that's great!" that he's come back with a vague-ish estimate of £16K without the electrical plumbing oven fridge or decoration. Damn: I think we were too keen and also eager to get him to do as much of the work as possible (we are not that into renovation stuff as you can tell from the fact our kitchen is 50 years old).
Have gone back to third showroom man saying we loved him and wanted to work with him but that I'd had an idea of £15K leaving my account - not £15 excluding electrician, plumber, oven and decorator. I've asked for more information and areas where we can negotiate.
Am sad. Experienced negotiators. What would you do? I don't want to sound like a candidate on The Apprentice but I also don't want to pay so much that I feel a fool.