Kitchen Refurb

[PanBiker]

Very nice Tripps, I take it the shower is fed from a combi boiler?

[Tripps]

Yes directly I think. It's a pressurised system. I had it serviced this week.
Problem with the bathroom - it makes the rest of the house look a bit shabby.

[Wendyf]

Yesterday we began the big move out of our kitchen and into the utility room where we did a refurb about 3 years ago. It makes a lovely little kitchen and has been wasted on just cat & dog feeding, washing & freezing. The big chest freezer has been moved out into the barn, making space for the kitchen table and some plug in cooking facilities.







I love it!

More photos of the old kitchen later, once it's a bit tidier.

[Moh]

Very nice but where is your oven?

[PanBiker]

I think this is Wendy and Col's utility room which they are going to use as a temporary kitchen until they have done the refurb on the main one Moh.

[Wendyf]

We are camping out Moh, and hoping to manage with a variety of table top cooking appliances. There is a single induction hob, a tabletop grill (which Col found in Lidl at the weekend) an electric wok and a slow cooker. We should be able to manage with that lot! Actually the oil fired cooker/central heating boiler in the kitchen is still in use, but it will have to come out at some point.

[Julie in Norfolk]

I shall be watching this with interest, Mum's kitchen refurb is due in about 6 to 8 weeks....

[Wendyf]

Colin does all the work himself Julie, and the room will be stripped back to it's bare bones before insulation of outside walls, replacement plumbing, central heating and electrics get done so this is going to take months. Your Mum's kitchen might be finished before we have pulled the ceiling down!

[chinatyke]

Colin does all the work himself Julie, and the room will be stripped back to it's bare bones...

Time to check the first aid cabinet is well stocked?

[Stanley]

In January David said: Problem with the bathroom - it makes the rest of the house look a bit shabby. . I know exactly what he means but I shall fight it.....
Wendy, Janet and Bob moved into a new house and virtually demolished it to rebuild. They converted the garage into a temporary living area, same as your utility room. They are getting close to being able to move into the new house. You'll manage fine!

[plaques]

Our rule of thumb has been, 'Summer - outside jobs, Winter - inside. I guess when you are thinking of shutting the central heating off then the priority changes in that area. I know that clearing dust and muck in wet weather isn't a choice thing to do but missing out on summer would go down like a lead balloon for me.

[Wendyf]

Spot on Plaques, it's because of the heating having to be off that we are doing it at this time of year. We should get enough hot water from the solar panels. I shall be free to do garden stuff most of the time, I used to hang around being as helpful as possible when Col was working on the house, but now I just irritate him by having an opinion on things and get myself banished. I just get to clear up at the end of the day.

[Wendyf]

Well the room looks absolutely awful with all the clutter gone and dishwasher & fridge removed and I'm almost ashamed to post these pictures but it's a necessary evil!
When we first moved in 16 years ago we thought it would only take a couple of years at the most to get the rest of the house done room by room but life gets in the way and finally we have reached the kitchen.
"Stanley" the oil fired range was installed that first year and the chimney breast was re-plastered but never decorated, the woodwormy lintel above the door to the hallway was replaced the year the hall & stairs were done and left un-plastered. Col made lovely new doors last year so we can close off the kitchen from the living room while still being able to see the view from the window...at some point in the past (before our time) a big (originally outside) wall was knocked down to make it open plan.
There was stencilling all over the house when we moved in....I shall be pleased to see the last of it!
Here goes...



That's not dirt on the wall tiles...it's pattern!

[PanBiker]

It looks like a decent sized room Wendy with a lot of scope. It matters not one jot what it looks like now, that's the whole reason you are replacing it to put your own mark on it. I notice you have a standard cooker as well as the range, a double cooker kitchen can't be bad. I take it you don't have any gas to deal with. It all has to get worse before it gets better and I know it surely will. It will be good to see someone else's efforts. I have Jacks to set about sometime so another go for me as well but its only about a quarter of the size of yours. Onward and upward...

[Moh]

It looks a big job, I am afraid I could not cope with it now but we have done refurbs. when we were younger. I don't envy the mess but it will be worth while.

[Wendyf]

The electric cooker was left by the previous owners, the oven has never worked but we have used the grill. We didn't use the hotplates until we got the solar panels installed. The Stanley is wonderful, especially in winter, and I love cooking on it but it takes a while to get up to temperature. It has separate burners for oven & boiler and the boiler doesn't warm up the body of the cooker at all, so it's not like an Aga that's warm all the time..... unless you are wealthy enough to keep the oven hot.
The first Stanley we owned up in Scotland only had one burner which you could direct between boiler, oven & hotplate, more than once I forgot to close the baffle after cooking and returned to find the hotplate glowing bright red, it was terrifying!
We are putting an induction hob into the new kitchen and a single electric built in oven, mainly for the grill. Our attitude to using electric has changed since the solar panels arrived!
I've never had a house with a gas supply.

[Stanley]

Lovely Wendy, If I was forty years younger I'd love to be doing that job and yes, I'd want to be left alone just like Colin! What make is the oil-fired stove? Looks very much like the early Rayburn that my dad had so much to do with at GGA.
I know what you mean by loving cooking on it. There's nothing beats the massive store of even heat in a cast iron stove and I think it makes cooking so much easier. Of course at one time all cooking was done on similar large stoves and if you haven't got one, treat yourself to Dorothy Hartley's book on English Cooking, 'Food in England'. Get the hard back, it has all the original illustrations in it. here's used first edition hard back, well worth the money, I promise if you've never seen it you'll love it if only for the illustrations! LINK.
Ian is right, of course it looks a mess, that's why you are doing it!

[Wendyf]

The stove is made by "Stanley" in Waterford, Ireland, they were cheaper than the equivalent Rayburn and better quality. We bought it second hand but unused and it's been brilliant.

[Stanley]

Never heard of them Wendy but it looks the part.

[Wendyf]

The old kitchen units are out and waiting to go to the "dump". Everything looks so much better now! You can see why the north wind blew in behind the sink, there is only a thin bit of wall. A couple of years ago we had a visit from a lady who had lived here in the late sixties/early seventies, she and her husband had bought the farm in a derelict state and did a lot of renovation work but never really finished the job. She brought photos with her which we scanned, so I've added a photo of the scullery sink as they found it. (We have a Belfast sink waiting to go back in that spot!)

[Stanley]

Do you know, I think I remember that sink from the 1950s.....

[Wendyf]

Some major tasks to get on with this week, first the woodworm eaten internal lintels to replace, then some sections of a water pipe which runs above the kitchen ceiling and on into the barn needs replacing. Col has done most of it while we were working on the bedrooms but some bits were inaccessible.

[Stanley]

I'll bet Col is enjoying himself..... Sounds like good thorough work. One thought that may not be appropriate but always worth bearing in mind. When I had spaces like that opened up I always took the opportunity to lay heavy twine in the runs where it was possible that wires would have to be run through in future. (In heavy concrete floors I laid plastic ducting.) Not immediately useful but a godsend if you want to put wires through in the future.

[Wendyf]

Such a relief to get the lintel above the window out, the back has been completely eaten away by woodworm and there are hundreds still chewing away in there. It's part of a pine beam, probably from an old barn. I tried but couldn't do the lifting necessary to get the new concrete lintel into place, but Colin devised a method to do it by himself while I wasn't there to worry at him...when I got back from taking Bruce to the vets for his annual jab the job was done and Colin still standing.
Col usually lays an extra piece of strong, thin cable through walls and under floors when he is doing wiring Stanley. There is always something extra to go through!

[Wendyf]

Old kitchen units broken up and waiting to go.



The old lintels look picturesque from this angle:-



But not from this:-





One more to go, but that's over the back door in the hallway and for another day I hope!