If you read this post, you’ll know our house is in need of some love. Quite a lot as it goes. Of course we can’t do everything but we’re excited to be having a new kitchen. This week we took delivery of 126 boxes which are currently scattered across three rooms. So with work starting in a matter of days, it seemed a good time to tell you a bit about what we’re doing.
We moved into our house in Surrey back in the summer of 2010 and POD arrived on Christmas Day that year. The kitchen and dining rooms were two separate rooms so we had these made into one space which was much more functional. The uneven flooring downstairs was replaced with oak which was much more suitable for a baby. Other than doing some bits and bobs, not much has changed over the past few years. While the dream is to have an extension, the need for a new kitchen has been far greater.
Having renovated much of our previous house in London, we’re no strangers to relocating rooms if the space isn’t working. Downstairs bathrooms were typical of houses in the area but we had ours relocated upstairs and turned the previous bathroom space into a kitchen. The kitchen became a dining room so we had more room for entertaining. Remember those days before kids?
We have limited space in our current house. Although we’re a family of three with three bedrooms, we have accumulated a lot of ‘stuff’ and never seem to have enough storage. Even with decluttering and that’s a job in itself as you can imagine. So our forthcoming building work will see the kitchen and dining spaces swapped so we have more storage. Our existing oven will be integrated into the fireplace and there will be units either side of it. We’ll have a full size sink and dishwasher, rather than slimline versions, which is exciting in itself. There will be an island in the middle of the room with units and our fridge on the opposite wall to the chimney breast. We were hoping to replace the cooker and have a fridge freezer with an ice dispenser but that’s not something we’ll do just yet.
The first job when work kicks off will be to knock out the fireplace, remove part of the chimney breast and add a concrete lintel. The gas pipe will also need to be moved and we’ll need plug sockets moved around as well. I suspect our TV aerial will need to be rehoused too as it currently lives where a unit will be. While we’re not looking forward to having no kitchen and all the dust, we cannot wait until it’s finished. I’ll be taking photos along the way so do check out the PODcast Facebook page if you want to see how it’s going.
Featured image by Brooke Lark on Unsplash