Kitchen Renovation

It all started when our oven broke. It gave up the ghost midway through winter when we really needed it most. Then again, the oven, the cooktop and the whole kitchen was probably more than 10 years old so we shouldn't have been suprised. After a lot of thinking and looking at options, the wife and I decided to take the plunge and get a new kitchen along with a new oven, cooktop and rangehood. We've always had issues with the lack of space we had, so we though that getting a new kitchen would give us a fresh start.

It took us a while to get started, but once we chose our kitchen supplier, we were off and running. We first chose a colour scheme and benchtops at the Showroom. Then the designer visited our place to plan the new kitchen layout. After he did an initial design, we went back in to look it over and decide any special drawers or cabinets. After that was done, it all came down to the price which wasn't too bad but luckily we still had some financing options available to us.

After that it was just finalising the plans and going over the exact measurements of the kitchen and ordering the components. Delivery of the kitchen didn't take 2 weeks and it was good that the kitchen supplier took care of organising all the tradespersons ( plumber, electrician, installer etc. ) as everything was scheduled to be done and dusted within 3 days. All we needed to to was clear out the old kitchen and move the fridge, which took us about day to do. It was surprising how much stuff we had in the old kitchen and we had to scrounge some space in the dining and our own garage to store it all. In the end we got the old kitchen cleared our ready for the builders to dismantle. The kids even had a last play inside the old kitchen cabinets.

On the day the kitchen components were to arrive, the tradies were at our door. They worked quickly, the old kitchen was dismantled and taken out in the morning and all the pluming and electrical pre-work was done in the afternoon. We thought everything was going swimmingly but we got a call that the tiler couldn't make it. We hurriedly had the kitchen supplier schedule another tiler to come in but that meant our kitchen couldn't be completed within the 3 day time frame. That was the first disappointment.

The next day, the installer came by bright and early and started assembling the kitchen right away. There were a few hitches in that a component for the range-hood was missing. This was the second disappointment. We were never informed that this part was required when we bought the new kitchen appliances from the store. I was stressing because every store I rang didn't seem to have the part and would have to order it in with a 2 week delivery estimate. That would have really delayed the installation and would have cost us much more. Luckily, one store had the part in stock and despite it being almost an hours drive away we just had to go and get it. In the end, the part cost less than $25!

On the third day, when the kitchen was expected to be completed, we found that we were missing a couple of door handles. This was the third disappointment. Turned out that they weren't delivered so we had to wait for those to come in too. That was a relatively minor thing but the kitchen was mostly completed by then.

Despite having no tiles and a couple of door handles missing, we started moving stuff back into the new kitchen. At first we thought we couldn't fit everything back in! But then we realised that we actually took things that were out of the old kitchen and got to fit it all into the new one. We officially have more space!

A few days later, we got the tiles and the door handles put in and the kitchen looked pretty much complete. We just needed someone to look at patching the floors because when we put in the new layout, we left a patch of floor that didn't have any of the floating floorboards we had put in last year.

At any rate, the kitchen is done and despite the little hitches we're completely satisfied with it. We got the extra storage space, a larger work area and most of all, we got an oven again!

Here are before pictures:



And after:



More pictures here.