A blog of travels & renovations.
Renovations to the house – kitchen is up first!
Choosing handles isn’t easy – you don’t want them too big but they need to actually function. With that – I’ve gone with brushed stainless steel square ones which look rather good I think!
Handles are only on drawers and beneath the sink so we can keep the clean lines for the cupboards.
After some last minute plastering, the cabinets were able to be installed yesterday. Amazing how quickly it all goes in once the “problems” are sorted.
What’s also amazing is how bloody good the new cabinets look!! Absolutely delighted with they’ve come up! Here’s some progress photos…
Yesterday saw the cabinets arrive and much of the carcass installed as well as the plumbing shifted slightly. Starting to take shape!
So far I’ve talked a lot about what was there; what I was going to do… now let’s talk about what is going to be there!
The format is going to be similar to what was there – island/bench in the middle which will now be a breakfast bar with an bench overhang. There’ll be a double inset sink close to the end of the bench near the far wall. Beneath will be drawers and the dishwasher.
On the “fridge” side, there’ll be the fridge at one end; Smeg gas cooktop + oven and rangehood in the middle (and directly opposite the dishwasher for some good old symmetry); a small bench where it hits the pantry wall. Cupboards above that go to the ceiling, drawers beneath.
In the pantry, it’ll be an extension of the cupboards/drawers/bench almost to the end where a full-height pantry will go. It’s being built so that the wall is basically just a divider and will sit flush with the benchtop so it’s one nice long, clean line.
Benchtops will be the premium end of Essastone’s range which is Bone White. Cupboards/drawers are in a 2-pac satin Natural White by Dulux. Sink is an Oliveri double stainless steel inset sink (part of the Sonetto range – SN 1064). The tap is also an Oliveri – a brushed stainless steel Mito square gooseneck (model MTO269B) which looks rather nice.
Splashbacks will be subway tiles with a grey grout. Need to purchase these still…
For the floor, this is going to be a ReadyCork floor in the traditional orange. The very white-dominant kitchen should look pretty nice against the orange and it also ticks the boxes of being nice to walk on, easy to lay and very durable. Not to mention it’s also very environmentally friendly.
Walls will be done in Dulux’s natural white colour as well to best match the cupboards/drawers.
Here’s the drawings of what’s going in – middle bench/island first; fridge/back wall + inside wall of pantry in the 2nd image:
I’m pretty easily lead when it comes to most things trade-like as I really don’t know what I’m doing. I assume those who are skilled/qualified will do a good job.
Case in point are these two professions from the old kitchen. One – a bricklayer asked to build a simple wall to be the back-side of the island cupboards. The other – a cabinet maker who then builds the cabinets and puts it all together.
I, along with the new cabinet maker and side-kick, were quite shocked to see the way in which the previous tradies had gone about their business. The brickie – who let’s be clear, did a ridiculously good job and the cabinet maker – well, not so much.
The brick wall, which I should stress only has to hold up a tiny bit of bench on top and provide a backing to the rest of the cabinetry, really didn’t have to be much to hold it. It’s not structural, it barely has to hold anything up. I thought a sledgehammer would be plenty to dislodge the bricks. Umm, no. If the house had fallen down due to a tornado or earthquake, this thing would still be standing.
It had 4 steel guide poles cemented into the ground with the proper construction bricks (not your every day red house brick) were intertwined with and then cement-mortared in. But wait, there’s more! There was more wire used throughout to help with the structural integrity in between the mortar and bricks, but still – is it going to be strong enough? Obviously not, and clearly the guy had plenty of concrete left as he’s then poured concrete through the middle of the bricks. Yep, reinforced at every level. It took a jackhammer to take the bastard down and then an angle grinder to finish off the steel bars. It made a big mess.
On the flip-side, the old cabinet maker decided that gravity should be enough and a number of panels and so-on were simply stood up because the benchtop rested on them. That wasn’t quite so impressively built but made removing them incredibly simple.
The progress pics are below:
