Kitchen ripped out/ new kitchen support thread

[Elsanore]

Work here starts on Monday. We are trying to empty the kitchen today and set up make shift kitchen in living room for next few weeks.

Got to go away overnight tonight for a wedding do, with dc, and DH and I both have work to do for our jobs sometime this weekend.

DH grumpily moving stuff around and getting very frustrated already. He has been very effective though and he's the main cook in the house and very good at this kind of thing.

First thing that was supposed to happen.. skip was meant to be here today for noon but it didn't come. Give me strength.

A thread for anyone going through the same, anyone with advice or anyone who wants to hear about my chaos life for the next few weeks.

Ours took three months. Only having a microwave, instant pot and one small plug in ring set up on the garden table in the lounge gets old really quickly! As does washing up in the bath!! Hope you all get to the end soon. We are just waiting for the last bit of flooring to be finished but the guy never turns up when he says he will. At least we can now use everything. Camping in the lounge photo, during photo and after photo

Oh god, so glad I found this thread! Mainly bookmarking for when the chaos hits our house in the (hopefully) nearish future!

What a transformation @Crazymadchickenlady. This is ours this evening.

I'm about to start this malarkey... with a nervous dog and a lodger (who is paying reduced rent while it's all going on), this could be interesting.

My plan for alternative kitchen arrangements features turning the box room into a kitchen, with a trestle table and PVC table cloth in lieu of a worktop, portable hob similar to this www.argos.co.uk/product/9394827?clickSR=slp:term:boiling%20ring:3:330:1 microwave, slow cooker and fridge freezer. I may even buy a mini oven from facebook.

The major pain in the arse will be washing up, which will be a combination of the bathroom sink and minimising it all by using paper plates.

A very understanding friend is doing my laundry for me...

I'm hoping that being as out of the way of the builders as much as possible will mean it all happens quicker... hopefully.

Our floor was completed but the kitchen fitter isn't returning my messages so we may never have the extractor and kickboards fitted.
Still camping in the utility room. Still no cupboard doors on in there. DH and I have both had covid so haven't been able to do anything ourselves either.
The Tesco delivery man asked how things were going last night, then saw my face and apologised. I'm down to the last 10mm of my last straw.

Congrats @JudgeRindersMinder !! That's excellent before/ during/ after porn!! 3 months was a slog. Enjoy

@ODFOx and others I feel your pain. We are entering week 9 having been told it would be 3 week job. Kitchen came on Thursday last week. "Once it's delivered it will be in in a few hours".

Left to go to another job on Fri after not doing much. Didn't turn up when promised to come sat and sun.

If they don't turn up today we are going to try to get another fitter and sack the original builder. Horrible stressful. Me and DH arguing loads even though we agree. Stressss!!!

Our dog went into kennels this morning for the week @ElephantInTheKitchen. The thought of the drilling and yapping competing doesn’t bear thinking about.

@Crazymadchickenlady thats looking brilliant! It’s worth all the pain when you have a result like that!

I’ll post pics soon, the painter’s here right now so everything’s all masked up!

Does one else document their progress on Instagram? I set up an account so I could have a permanent record in one place!

@Blossomtoes I’ve also had my dog looked after while the builders have been here, I thought it was fairer on everyone!

I've got DF on standby for dog sitting for if DDog isn't coping. He's absolutely fine about some things (fireworks, for instance), but has a variety of esoteric fears. He was ok during some noisy re-rendering works but they were external. I'll have him behind a baby gate so he's not pestering the builders with a ball and asking for them to throw it at inopportune moments he's obsessed

An upcoming holiday means the builders will be left with keys for a bit and I'm hoping that some of the noisiest bits will be over by the time we get back

We're on our third month with no kitchen. Got camping stove, slow cooker and microwave. Thankfully we have a functioning uttility room so using that as a mini kitchen. Don't get frustrated and annoyed yet. You need to be cheery about it but be firm with builders re schedule. We didn't shout loudly enough and have been living in a building site for 6 months (if you include the outside extension work).

(PS how long have you had your dogs looked after for? Surely not the 10-12 weeks some have talked about? You'd be paying as much to the kennels as to some tradesmen!)

Ours is in kennels for a week while the kitchen fitter works his magic. Ideally - and hindsight is a wonderful thing - she’d have gone in last week when the plasterer, floor fitter and electrician were here.

My dog’s been going to my friend who does doggy daycare at very much mates rates for me, so he’s home at teatime, he’s only away while the builders are there

3 months @33goingon64 that's tough going! I hope you get your kitchen back soon. We have some progress in that they have sourced a lintel for the big window which may possibly go in this week. Roofers and plasterers booked this week too so hopefully big changes. Its a tiny space to do and no external wall changes or steels required which helps.

Sacked the unreliable messy builders. He's very cross and asking for more money (he's already had loads).

Cobbled together an ok makeshift kitchen arrangement (who needs a sink anyway!) for a week or so till new set of builders start.

I'm actually relieved to be having a week off builders and the will they won't they turn up tension.

I was one of the earlier posters on here (since name changed) with a big renovation job and a bloody nightmare.

I'm back in the thread to update to say it's pretty much finished, as of tonight. There are a few cosmetic bits to be finished like a bit of extra wood edging that had to be ordered and some plaster to tidy up around a couple of plug sockets but in the morning when the silicone seal around the sink has gone off (I now know "gone off" is what builders say about things setting/ drying) we will have a useable room.

It's been bloody HELL to live through. 3 months instead of 3 weeks. Horrible strain on everyone and DH and I have some repair work to do on our relationship now in the aftermath, just due to all the stress and strops and grim times.

I'll never buy a doer upper house again unless I have somehow magically become Rick enough to afford to live elsewhere and move in when it's done.

Good luck everyone else. It's true it IS worth it when it's done. It's extraordinarily horrible living through building work though especially when it's always going wrong.

Funny looking back at this. We've finally got our kitchen in since last week. Still no front door or hallway renovation. We were without a kitchen from late July to early December. Luckily we had the utility room to wash up in.

Glad you got yours in finally too, in time for Christmas. We were washing up in the bathroom for 3 months emptying washing up water and coffee grounds into the toilet. Sick of bathroom smelling of food!

@Elsanore just came across this thread you have had quite the ride! Any positive updates?

Ours is (nearly) finished. Just some pipes to be boxed in, the wall behind the cooker to be tiled and decoration to be finished. It seems to be taking for ever.

Since 7 November we have employed a carpenter to try and sort the kitchen units but it appears that one door will never fit well as the upright it is attached to isn't straight . It is of course in the corner and is the cupboard with houses the boiling water tap and holds all the plumbing for dishwasher and sink. So we'll live with a wonky door rather than have to take the whole lot out again.

I can't get a response from any electrician to attach the wires for the cooker hood so haven't used the hob yet. If the kitchen fitter hadn't disappeared he would have done it but of course the carpenter couldn't.
But mostly, mostly, we are there now . A few snags, a few bits we need to finish ourselves, and a few things that will never be quite how we wanted or expected, but we'll have a kitchen table and working hob and ovens by Christmas. 9 months.....

Mine is being ripped out at the start of the new year.

I managed to get everyone (Joiner/Electrician/Plasterer/Plumber) round on the same day to plan so in theory everything should run smoothly......they are all booked in with dates.......luckily I know the the guys I am using well as they are either ex colleagues or trades we have used for work projects.

My kitchen was ordered and delivered to our workshop in November as was the timber, plasterboard, plaster etc. Appliances have been ordered and due to arrive on the date the guys requested. All I have to do now is organise the skip (via a company we use through work) and buy my flooring. My boss has been very accommodating with my sh*t all over the place and is happy for one of my colleagues to be treating my wooden worktops in the factory as we speak.

Project managing a construction/joinery project on a larger scale seems to be easier than having work done on my own house. I am anticipating a few hiccups and have mentally added an extra week onto the 2 week timescale the guys have given.....fingers crossed nothing unexpected rears its head!

I posted earlier on this thread under a different name re our full house renovation. I’m delighted to say my kitchen/utility are totally finished-I’m away on holiday just now whilst the painters are doing their magic, so hopefully when I go home at the weekend there will be no more builders🎉🎉

It's finished!!As of 2 days ago. Apart from a couple of little cosmetic bits to be tidied up like plastering the edges of some sockets.

It took 3 months altogether (ridiculous dodgy original builders said 3 weeks!)

I ended up calling a lovely builder that we know from our town who we hadn't gone with in the first place because he is expensive. He came and had a look and then got his brother on the job doing the joinery and organised an electrician, plumber, stone masonry guy and a quartz worktops guy to all help and get it done. They all piled in and helped, for his sake. No way we would have got them all to pick up someone else's half finished crap job without him pulling them together for us. Luckily we know him from another job from years ago and I've chatted to him a lot around town and he's a bit of a mate now. Total life saver! He even made sure they all charged us a fair/ low rate and the overall job came in on the original budget.

It's worth all the pain already, it's a thing of beauty.
Thank you for checking in on me!
Good luck everyone else