New kitchen moral support and inspiration thread

[Gusthetheatrecat]

I know there was a thread like this ages ago, but since it's slipped down the boards I thought I'd see if there was appetite for another.
We are well into our new kitchen project and after what seems like many setbacks (discovering our horrible old tiles and carpet were masking a slightly rotten and bodged floor, primarily, but also including but not limited to a new heating system, the wrong underfloor heating mat, and our cabinets being incomplete) I THINK I am now starting to believe it might all be over one day.
We have been without a kitchen since the end of July, although away for one week. The oven is now in, so we can sneak in and use it in the evening, but any food requiring lots of preparation is still too much whilst we have only a small amount of kitchen stuff on the bookcase in our sitting room.
I keep coming back to this board because I read it AVIDLY whilst planning. I went through the kitchen lessons learnt thread and have put most of it in unquestioningly: applicance garage, drawers below waist height, food disposal unit, halogen hob.
Our worktop has just been put in, and it looks so beautiful I find it hard to tear myself away from it.
Is there anyone else at a similar stage to me, dreaming about moving into their new room, feeling it's both tantalising close and far away at the same time?! I am looking forward to realising my kitchen dream, which is mainly based around the peninsula unit where the cooker is. The kitchen dream is therefore me (but taller, obviously, and probably wearing a long white dress) cooking a simple but nutritious dinner for the girls, facing them and chatting to them whilst they sit in front of me at the table, doing their homework and some colouring. There are probably some fresh herbs strewn across the worktop in a instagrammey way beside me, with a mezzaluna. And I expect that the girls are all wearing handmade clothes...
Anyway. The point is that after all the upheaval and cash and everything, you can cook but not be away from the action. So if we have friends over, they sit at the table whilst we cook, etc. etc. And another point is no longer to have the world's least safe floor tiles. And to have more workspace.
I am a bit over-excited, can anyone tell? Can anyone come and chat to me and we will tell each other it will be ok?!

I am hoping to order my new kitchen tomorrow. Going for a combination of white and dark blue gloss units with a white Quartz worktop.

I'm v excited. Haven't chosen flooring yet. Can't decide between trying to get it fitted for Xmas and forcing myself to wait until the new year!

Sounds like the perfect fantasy and I hope it comes true very soon. In my personal reality, the fantasy would soon turn in to pile of unopened post on the side, forgotten fresh herbs drying nicely on the floor and homework screaming matches echoing around a larger space than usual!!!
We are hoping to extend our kitchen in the enact few months but struggling to find online examples of what we are thinking. We have a galley kitchen next to a back reception that has lovely doors opening on to the garden. At the back of the kitchen is a funny little add on toilet and 'porch' area. We were going to open up the whole space and push the toilet back but now we are thinking keep most of the back room and create a wraparound L-shaped kitchen/diner. That would mean being able to have the inner doors open for free flow or closed if the kids want to at games/watch TV etc.
If you are feeling bereft of planning and designing opportunities then any suggestions very very welcome!

I am mid kitchen renovation and am that stage where I can start to feel a bit more excited. The bills still keep rolling in and we're weeks away from being finished in the other parts of the room but we're no longer eating microwave meals from paper plates as I'm using my range oven, though still prepping on the temporary old wardrobe shelf worktops. We still need to have bi-fold opening built and doors fitted, flooring, decorating, tiling and a door rehung but I am starting to feel it might, one day, be finished.

This is a picture of the progress, if I'd taken this facing the other direction it looks like a bomb site, including enormous craters in the floor!

My dream is that we have the doors open and family and friends are drifting in and out between the garden and the new kitchen/diner/living room whilst I sip some delicious wine and whip up a lovely lunch to be eaten outside. Sadly with the weather on the turn and the bi-folds probably not going in until the end of September it might be a long time until my vision is realised!!

The reality is 3 children squabbling about who gets to sit at the middle stool at the new island unit (no idea why that is any better) and me barking at them because someone has got felt tip pen on my beautiful pale grey quartz worktop .

Hello fellow kitcheners!
Ikeameatballs - white and dark blue sounds wonderful. I have been dreaming of my grey units for so long that I worry they might have become slight passe without me noticing?! I saw a picture of some navy blue units with brass handles the other day and had a thoughtful pause.... eeek!
And I am very jealous of you all with your quartz. I really wanted a marble worktop, but decided to go for a quartz look-a-like, but in the end we went for granite for various reasons. It does look wonderful, though.
Regular - have you tried houzz? I find it a lovely source of inspiration. Have you had an initial chat with an architect?
Suzy - I know what you mean about the bills rolling in. I am now at the stage where anyone could probably approach me about anything, "Look, this is going to cost more than we thought." and I would just wearily say, "Yes, fine, let's do it properly. Just let me know."
Mandy - there will be no squabbling children in new kitchens! They will all get on famously, help with cooking, and make up little songs about food and family as they do so.
Surely?!