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what do you wish someone had told you before you redid your bathroom and/or kitchen?

167 replies

Heathcliffscathy · 20/03/2010 17:59

following on from the awesome breastfeeding thread, and on a much smaller and less important scale obv, i'm looking for your collective wisdom as i embark on major building works in my house.

weirdly not only am i going to hopefully benefit from your bathroom and kitchen wisdom...but as i'm preg AND undertaking building works of doom i'll be benefitting from the bfding thread too...

so your dream kitchens and bathrooms linked please...and also things you wish you'd known.

TIA

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tootootired · 20/03/2010 22:41

Vaillant, Worcester Bosch are good boilers. Run a mile from Baxi.

I was reading on a trade forum that professional plumbers don't use just one brand/shop - they mix and match to get the best for each. You can do the same for kitchens, as long as the dimensions match, you could get all the bits: appliances, sinks, taps, cupboards, worktops from different places. (I have done this before but we were young and penniless then so everything was from some shop's bargain corner). If you want a one stop shop you will pay dearly for it.

Are you sure you want an Aga? I thought they doubled your heating bills .

Heathcliffscathy · 20/03/2010 22:42

oooo lovely bathroom sidge...thanks so much lessveg!

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Heathcliffscathy · 20/03/2010 22:46

lessveg, how much was your kitchen from them? how fast could they do it for you? and give me a clue as to style?

hi marmite? shall iknow you by name????? thanks for good wishes/

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penona · 20/03/2010 22:50

Oh yes, looking at Sidge's pictures, def go for a separate shower if you can, and get a larger than normal one. In our last house we had a huuuuge bathroom and a double width shower. So much nicer than banging your arms on a shower door.
Oh, and go for the best quality door you can afford (are you in London? Try Burge and Gunson for amazing bathroom stuff and v helpful), it'll annoy you every day to have a rattly crap cheap feel one.

thelunar66 · 20/03/2010 22:58

My bathroom is being re-done on Monday.... I will post before and after pics on profile when its finished.

flowerpotwoman · 20/03/2010 23:15

love your bath Sidge: where's it from?

nannynick · 20/03/2010 23:23

I have a small flat and had Kitchen and Bathroom redone over a 2 week period. I was so glad I went on holiday for a week.

I also agree with the grey grouting for kitchen floor tiles, certainly does not show the dirt as much.

nbee84 · 20/03/2010 23:26

Do you have to pee in the shower Sidge? You've got no toilet

Looks lovely - must be nice to have all that storage in there.

taffetacat · 21/03/2010 07:52

Very much agree with the comment about variable sourcing - its more expensive and less choice available if you do it all under one roof.

We got some units from Ikea, had some made by a local joiner, got the worktop from a local stonemason, got most of the appliances from Sainsbury's Kitchen Appliances ( we have Smeg, Bosch and Fisher and Paykel, they do all the main brands ), the sink from some online sink specialist, the tap from Habitat etc.

On a different note, we have engineered oak floor throughout downstairs that we researched thoroughly;the builders said they could obtain for us at a reasonable price which seemed fair to us. At the last minute there was a problem with availability, and everyone hid. So we contacted the manufacturer direct and paid £200 to get the floorboards driven down from the Midlands and it still worked out £1000 cheaper.

Having said that, our builders and architect were both brilliant. Not London though, sorry.

taffetacat · 21/03/2010 07:59

........one more thing, I always add on, sorry...

The other important point with showers as I'm sure you know is pressure. Its no good having an amazing power shower if you haven't got enough water pressure - if you are having major work done throughout and have old pipes, consider altering the pipes that bring water into the house so they can cope with the extra pressure. ( I probably haven't used the correct lingo for this but you get the drift )

It obviously costs, but is one of those things that IMO, is worth it.

notcitrus · 21/03/2010 09:21

If you have a very small bathroom, around 8 foot by 5, and all the old tiles fall off as there's damp underneath and it has to be re-plastered, re-measure after the new plaster is in - as if the room is now 1 cm smaller all round, your carefully-designed fitted units won't fit!

Lots of careful sawing was necessary to get units to fit in.

Also when selecting bathroom wall tiles, don't go for 'floor and wall tiles' thinking they'll be good quality and last well - they might, but it takes 30 minutes to cut one tile even with professional kit, so the whole job takes forever as there's so many needing cutting. It wasn't so bad in the kitchen we did as only 3 needed a straight cut.

And get a tiler in. Would have saved about 6 months of MrNC's spare time...

Amtico floor in the bathroom is brilliant, though - warm underfoot.

Heathcliffscathy · 21/03/2010 10:49

yup been talking to somone about need to contact thames water to get the pipe widened...worried this will take ages tho...we don't have ages!

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MrsL123 · 21/03/2010 11:03

Sidge where did you get your bathroom tiles from? They are exactly what I've been looking for. Your bathroom looks gorgeous and I'm very jealous of how big it is - ours is only 6ft square

My biggest tip for the kitchen - stick religiously to a small work triangle. And a proper triangle, not some wierd-angled not-really-a-triangle at all thing that some of the kitchen places say you can get away with. Our large, completely square kitchen was fitted many years ago by the previous owners. Although there is technically a work triangle, it encompasses the whole kitchen. So the oven is at the furthest possible point away from the sink, which means us carrying hot pans aross the room to empty them. It also means we have a big empty space in the middle which would be ideal for a breakfast table, but this would be completely impractical because it'd block the flow of the room (and the hot pans!). So I have a big square kitchen which looked great on paper, but is crap. We're saving up to refit it and will be having the oven at a right angle to the sink, and the fridge at a right angle to the oven, in a perfect equilateral triangle. And I can't wait!

I'm not having any wall units either - just clever base-unit storage in a U-shape at one end of the kitchen, and a wall of tall units at the other. Mainly because we'll be doing most of it DIY, and I don't trust DH to attach wall units properly! If we can assemble and fit the base units ourselves, we only need to pay someone to fit the worktop, which actually I could beg ask my ex-joiner dad to come up and do (I'll promise him a nice weekend away and then pull out the jigsaw - evil cackle!). I also agree about the no empty cupboard thing. I have a list of what I need to keep in the kitchen, and everything will have it's place. No more empty drawers getting filled up with takeaway menus and paperwork! I'm having two corner pull-out carousel units for pans, baking trays, tuppawear, small appliances etc, a big deep drawer for plates and bowls with lift-out inserts (which will be near to the dishwasher!), a wide drawer for my cutlery, knives and cooking utensils, and another with an insert for cups and glasses. No more stacking them in cupboards! I'm also having a recycling and rubbish bin unit under the sink instead of having bins sat out on the floor, a pull-out unit for washing powder and cleaning products (ikea do a lockable one), some tall pull-out larders for food, and - best of all - a dog food cupboard! Which will just be a tall larger unit with a big space at the bottom for bags of dry food, and lots of shelves above for their wet food and treats. My kitchen is taken over by blummin dog food at the moment.

Other must-haves for my kitchen include a double fan oven, a built-in microwave, a touch-control induction hob, and a double-bowl sink with one of those extendable shower tap things (would love one of those instant-boil taps too, if they come down in price a bit!). And I'm going to have a big blackboard put up, so I can make a note of things when they run out instead of searching through cupboards to make a list.

As you can tell, I'm very excited about the prospect of my new kitchen, I spend at least 90% of my day dreaming about it!

Fauve · 21/03/2010 11:38

We were advised to double the number of sockets we thought we needed in the kitchen - apparently this is fairly common advice. Our builder REALLY resisted, but I'm glad of them all.

Re drop-down TV - you can get them in John Lewis if you're interested. I'm trying to find out about getting an under-cupboard radio/CD player to save workspace - will post if I find a source.

Agree about the tiles going on the right way up - I caught our tiler putting them up wrong in the nick of time, thus saving my life from being ruined.

Heathcliffscathy · 21/03/2010 11:53

cor mrs l124 loads of good ideas there!

don't really want a drop down telly, but would like a built in ipod dock/digital radio...does that exist?

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wilbur · 21/03/2010 12:15

Just to add - I know you are planning on a gas hob, but have you considered induction? We have an induction hob and I love it so much, it's embarrassing. It's just as fast and responsive as gas, we find (and dh is a very good cook and does fiddly things like reductions and suaces that have to be simmered for days) and you can clean it in one swipe instead of fiddling about with gas rings. You may have to change your pans though, and it takes a bit of getting used to, but I wouldn;t be without it now. V energy efficient too, our gas bills have gone down massively and electric is not up by much. MIL has an Aga and a 2 ring induction hob for extras - works well for her. We have it at one end of our kitchen island, so it's good for chatting while cooking. Can post pic if you like.

MrsL123 · 21/03/2010 12:33

Wilbur how do you find the heat off the induction hob once you've finished cooking? The main reason we want one is because the dogs/cats have a nasty habit of jumping up at the sides and we've had burnt paws off our ceramic hob because it stays hot for ages (and we can't have gas incase they knock it on by mistake). And DH has a nasty habit of leaving the rings on and forgetting about them!

wilbur · 21/03/2010 13:59

You can't leave an induction hob rings on - they are only "on" when there is a pan on them - it's the magnetic connection that creates the heat. We find they cool down very quickly, because the glass only gets hot because it has a hot pan on it - the glass is never hot on its own. Ours flashes H H H when it deems it is still too hot to put your hand on (although obv a cat would not notice that!) but it's pretty cooled down straight away after the pan has been removed. It's mich quicker than my mum's old halogen ceramic hob, for instance. HTH

jasper · 21/03/2010 14:14

get an aga if you possibly can afford it

samsonara · 21/03/2010 14:21

that black grout does not come off easily from porcelain tiles, infact I haven't been able to get it off and it's streaky in places

Heathcliffscathy · 21/03/2010 20:10

fantastic advice wilbur...this thread is proving incredibly precious@!

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Heathcliffscathy · 21/03/2010 21:52

bump

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cece · 21/03/2010 21:58

I have new kitchen - see profile pics.

When I ws designing it I knew exactly where everything was going to be put before I finalised the design. It all works really well, except the larder unit. I wish I had put individual drawers inside the unit, as it is hard to see what is on each shelf.

I wish I had put in underfloor heating.

I love my Amtico floor in the kitchen.

I hate the so called bathroom laminate we put in the bathroom. If you have DSs then the floor will be ruined like mine around the toilet pan... if you get what I mean. It is not urine proof!

Oh and wipe the grout off the tiles before it dries - still can't get some of it off in the bathroom!

BTW I was also pg last year when we had our extension bulit, also had a newborn for the last 2 months. It was well worth it.

cazzybabs · 21/03/2010 22:07

WOW thanks for starting this ...we have getting new bathrooms so thanks for the advice..

now if only someone could choose me tiles I would be grateful

Sidge · 21/03/2010 22:10

flowerpotwoman the bath is just from Wickes, it's this one here. It's a standard length but slightly wider than a standard one I think and is really chunky. I love it, and all my 3 girls fit in it quite easily!

nbee84 LOL no peeing in my lovely new shower! The toilet is in a separate small room next door, we thought about knocking it through but with 3 daughters my DH quite liked the idea of keeping the loo separate!

MrsL123 the tiles are these ones, again from Wickes. For a cheap tile they are actually really nice and surprisingly robust, the bloke that did my bathroom commented on how nice they are and good quality for the price. I wanted Travertine but the budget didn't allow, especially as I needed 23 m2 for the walls and 8 m2 for the floors.