Coeur Blimey

They say, “Home is where the heart is”. And the heart of the home (or the coeur) is the kitchen. How better to get back to blogging than with a post on that most important of rooms. It seems fitting given that it has been the thing we have dedicated the second greatest amount of time since moving in*. And let’s be honest, it is the most exciting room to redo – ever since we signed the offer we’ve been waiting for the day we could sit by the bar sipping a beverage in our finished kitchen.

Before we get too carried away, let’s go back over what had happened so far here. After all, 2 blog free month and you’re probably lost in this place 😊.

When we first got the house, the future kitchen looked like this.

 

Ummm.

Oh.

Thankfully, we firmed up our kitchen plans pretty early on, so could cover up the tiles and rip everything out (including the fake ceiling); then quickly advance with our rough in electrics and plumbing (a reminder of that a bit later on).

Eek! Not sure this is getting much better.

We then got the patio redone and had that joyous moment of fitting a sliding door, bringing us to here.

Right, looking better. Now lets make it into something useful.

Then we dragged family over at the end of August to help usput the kitchen cabinets together. More about that here; but a photo below to remind you in rough terms where that left things.

Thanks bro!

 And that is the last you saw of the kitchen.

Since then a lot has happened. September was a whirlwind everywhere in the house. In the kitchen, it involved: carefully fitting the assembled cabinets; prepping for granite installation (and finally having it placed); getting the white goods in place – all so that we could move with a functional kitchen. In the world of kitchen fitting, it turns out precision is key – and that means time. With some late nights we just, just got it functional before moving in and our undertaker did a basic backsplash before leaving at the end of the month for good measure.

So where does the granite go?

October was a month of finishing and furnishing. Finishing the backsplashes; painting; fitting cabinet handles; adding plinths; adjusting hinges; putting in finishing panels; adding drawer dividers/organisers; and finally, getting some kind of organisation to the place.

November has been enjoying our kitchen. Hence the late post 😊.

So what does it look like? Well…

Oooh! A kitchen.

With a view.

And stools from which you can enjoy it.

One of the bigger challenges was getting budget granite which matched the original tiles and cupboards. Nailed or failed?

Back in October, we were putting these things in. However, back then these drawers contained jigsaws and drills, not pans.

Yes, it is actually finished, more or less. It’s been a long journey, from this:

Remember this?

To this:

Can you see it now?

My father always said, “proper, prior preparation prevents p***$ poor performance”. Like one or two other things, I didn’t always see eye to eye with him on this. But in the case of kitchen remodelling, he was definitely right!

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* So what we have spent the most of our time doing? Finding, organising and cleaning things. No joke – renovating a house when its empty is infinitely easier than when there are boxes everywhere. I lose count of the number of times one of us has screamed “WHERE IS THE F…… SCREWDRIVER?!!!”