Home extensions 2017 - Christmas is coming

[Believeitornot]

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*fitting our own kitchen

Ooh nice. Love the units & mix of colours. Similar sort of space to ours but a different layout. I like seeing how people think of things. Where are your hob & sink going?

Thanks dust! Sink in island, hob on rh wall in pictures above the gaps for the two ovens. There's another half of the room the same size where the camera is which will be dining/living and backs onto the garden.

Fab, we are going the other way with sink against the wall and hob in the island. Probably have a similar sort of size to you on the other side which will be living space, and then the dining space is to the side. I like your layout. The ovens side by side is nice.

We agonised over that choice! I think hob in the island looks much neater, especially if you go for induction. Your space sounds lovely.

Love your kitchen! The roof is fabulous 😍

Dust - I have a Miele too, and it's so many miles better than the old Bosch I had, it's unreal! Mine has a cutlery drawer too - they are brilliant. I know what you mean about appliances really cheering you up! I've been trying to figure out why having them on felt so important. It's not just the labour-saving - I think it's something about "feeling" modern/ feeling like one has some help/ordinary life back.

glorious - that looks AMAZING! You guys are doing a brilliant job. What is the recess at the end of the island? Is it a special place for the radiator to sit out of the way?

Even though there are quite a few bits and pieces still to do, I have spent the weekend unpacking wherever I can, and fitting shelves and hooks to the wall in the boot room. We are making progress but the bad news is that I've lifted so many boxes I've actually done my back in, and spent all last night lying awake in bed in agony!

Today is supposed to be the day of the final Ikea delivery. Which, if all goes well, would mean I have the ovens and the remaining drawer fronts here. This was supposed to happen on 27 December, so I'm really bloody tired of not having an oven now.

Fingers crossed for your delivery whisky. In theory I should have wired in ovens by the end of the day. I really hope so. I am also very bored of no oven.

I should also have granite worktop tomorrow. Then they can fit the wood worktop on the island. I really ought to make a decision on the splashback. We think we have chosen some nice blue tiles, but I have seen they do a yellow in the same range that I like the look of so I ordered a sample.

Here are the blue & yellow. The blue are very shiny and catch the light nicely. But part of me still wants a bright splashback.

Ikea have managed to deliver everything... except one drawer front. Cue another delivery this Thursday

At least I have my ovens! Hooray!

Wow dust - those yellow tiles are sunny! I like both of them, though they would give very different moods to the kitchen.

Glorious- I adore your kitchen!

Dust I love the yellow over the blue, which is surprising as blue is one of my favourite colours! I think the yellow is lovely and bright.

Whisky- yay for Ikea finally pulling their fingers out of their bottom! I hope the ovens are wired up soon x

Oh Ikea, so close! But at least you have ovens.

They would give very different looks. The blue is bluer than it looks in that photo, you see it when the light hits it. It can look quite dark. I’m going to see how the yellow looks and decide.

What does your gut say dust? What do they look like against the mid-grey of your units, in the light?

My scaffolding has come down at last! I was a bit worried at the weekend that one of the rooms felt very small in floorplate, but very high, and whether it felt a bit claustrophobic. Turns out it was actually the scaffolding looming over me that was affecting me. I feel a lot more connected to the garden and outside now.

I love those tiles!

We still have scaffolding 😫 our rendering has started though so hopefully it won't be too much longer!

The blue does look good against the grey, my sneaking suspicion is the yellow will look better. But I need to wait for the sample to turn up for that.

Great to have scaffolding off, must make everything look so much different.

I am making a fuss of myself today as I got home to find the electrician gone and I am fairly sure he has not finished what he needs to. I gave it some time in case he had gone for lunch or grab some materials. But then I called the builder to ask what is going on. He is chasing. I just want to know what is going on and for things to be done promptly. Aha, I think I see his van now. Good. I want my damn oven working tonight! I bought pie just in case.

Glad the errant plumber has returned dust! These deadlines for things like ovens really matter, don't they? I think it's important, psychologically, that they are met. To a tradesperson, waiting a couple more days for a job might not seem like that much - when it's your house, and you have your heart set on it, it's the difference between feeling massively disappointed and elated.

Here I am still just looking at everyone progressing faster than us. :-))

We are finally watertight and now have the UFH guys installing. This is the first day the mess has moved indoors, really. (I already bought the MN recommended hoover to clean up the builders' dust.)

And now I realised I've got 'trust issues'.... as in needing to leave the house when the guys are here. How does everyone do this? Just leave everything around? Leave a set of keys with main builder? I've been 'guarding' my stuff all day, really. I know they probably wouldn't want to grab the cash on the dresser and wonder around the house... but I just feel so uneasy about it all.

Just leave them to it Tika, your stuff will be safe. They are already emptying your bank account quite happily and legally, they don’t need to pinch anything! My main builder has a set of keys, but mainly they go in through the back of the house, they have their own padlock for the big fences they put up to keep the site secure.

tika - Oooof, the move indoors is quite a big moment. Good luck with it, we are all rooting for you! I really love my UFH.

I gave the builder a set of keys. It's pretty much impossible to leave the house otherwise (not that I've been doing much of that anyway ). It's difficult, because I don't think you're insured if someone lifts stuff - but luckily our builders were really trustworthy. It is an odd feeling, though.

Our builders have a key. It took a while but I completely trust them . In fact they're dog sitting today too 😂

@Baxdream you used Roann didn't you? I really like the idea of picking the granite slabs, but Roann have now come back with a price of £2655 all in, whereas the local place is £3080. It's such a big difference, I'm tempted to go with Roann? Thoughts?

No we went with topsco. We didn't pick slabs or anything though. Budget was key for us though and we're really pleased. Our local ones were much more (about £700) so that sold it for me!

Oh, they don't do river white granite unfortunately. I was sure someone here had used Roann. Maybe I'm going crazy! £400 is a big difference as it's the cost of a hob......as it's granite rather than quartz the patterns can vary hugely. I'm not sure what to do!

I have a working oven! Unfortunately I’ve realised the worktop is in front of it so I can’t actually use it. But the combi is higher and not blocked so I am going to try that out tonight instead.

We’ve also booked to move out for 3 weeks while the bathroom is done. I am so relieved. Now I have to pick all the bathroom stuff this week.

dust - HOORAY! That is a major moment and it calls for wine! And well done on the bathroom decision, it sounds eminently sensible. I think by that stage you will need that break.

4years - You probably realised this already, but the product on sale is often exactly the same between different companies. I found the same quartz by the same manufacturer for sale at widely divergent prices between Ikea, Mayfair Granite and Paramount Stone. See if you can trace the stone you like back to the supplier company (Silestone, Compaq etc.) and then get different quotes and play them off against each other until you reach the rock bottom price.