Preparation
You would think buying a new kitchen would be a straightforward process, if you’re prepared to pay someone else to do it all… well it still takes some sweat and hassle, plus definitely a load of upheaval whilst it’s being fitted!
We first decided to get some quotes in November last year and had three kitchen companies come round to give us quotes. Not having any real idea of what we wanted, neither in terms of layout nor colour schemes, make this a bit trickier than imagined… with most of our decisions being made on-the-fly with the designer.
In the end we decided to postpone the fitting until May, so the weather would be nicer, but had basically decided to go with the design from Oakwood Bespoke. One of the attractions was that this company would be doing everything for us, as well as being the best design solution from our vague description of what we wanted!
Come March, we finally ordered our new kitchen for installation commencing 9th May. First problem (once we had signed the order and handed over the deposit) was that Oakwood told us they couldn’t match the internet prices for the appliances we wanted so had to order them ourselves. This was a bit irritating as I didn’t want the hassle/risk and was certainly under the impression Oakwood were going to do the ordering of everything for us.
After a little moan, I ordered everything in plenty of time for the install date, but meant we had to clear out the garage about a month before in order to store everything as it arrived. The only other slight concern pre-installation was having to pay the balance of the order a week before fitting.
For the appliances we need to buy, we ended up ordering:
Rangemaster Classic 90 Dual Fuel Range Cooker and hood from http://www.cookersandovens.co.uk/home.php
Smeg Fridge Freezer which we bought from http://www.appliancecity.co.uk/
Bosch Tumble Drier from http://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/
Ascari Contemporary Radiator from http://www.traderadiators.com/
We didn’t have any issues with any of the company’s products or deliveries (although have only tested the Tumble Dryer so far!) so that worked out OK it seems. We are keeping our existing Bosch Washing Machine and Dishwasher as we only bought them when we moved in 18 months ago.
The schedule of works to do the install is three weeks, week one stripping out and plastering, week two fitting cabinets, week three tiling and painting/finishing. Three weeks of eating microwave meals, takeaways and eating out…. could be worse I suppose…
Week One
The first day of the installation duly arrived and we had cleared out the kitchen the weekend before. We have got some breakfast cereal, bread, milk and fruit on our dinning room table which is now our larder and the kettle/tea/coffee setup on a table in the conservatory, along with as much keep fit gear as we could fit in. The garage is the fitters storage area and the shed is full of our crockery, pot/pans, etc. Washing up is achieved by filling a bowl from the outside tap… which is about the closest we want to get to a camping experience!
The first two days I was working normally in the office upstairs and we were adjusting our normal daily life to fit in with the builders OK, although had to dig out a few things from the boxes in the shed as we found we had been overzealous in packing away 
The Wednesday I had taken as holiday and then worked from home at a friends house for the Thursday/Friday to keep away from the mess and noise as much as possible. This worked very well, although was keen to get back that Saturday in some ways to see how the work was progressing. We did get a call from Oakwood on Friday to say they couldn’t get hold of our wall tiles in time, so we would need to go back to Tile Warehouse to pick an alternative!
On getting home on the Saturday, there was no need for worry as the house seemed intact and work looked like it was on track.
There was a lot of dust about though so was nice to get out the house as much as possible over the weekend. We went to the Tile Warehouse and found some identical tiles to the ones we originally ordered and they were in stock, so no real issue there either.
The only other negative experience so far is that they are dumping all the rubbish directly onto our driveway and will not be collected until the Kitchen is finished, so will be there three weeks !
So apart from a few minor niggles, everything seems on schedule and going to plan…. lets hope week two goes as smoothly.
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