Hi to all,
I work for a distribution business. My wife, Emma and I have two children, Miles(3) & ...
Hi to all,
I work for a distribution business. My wife, Emma and I have two children, Miles(3) & Lauren(1). I enjoy driving, travelling and I love the sunshine! Cha Rocker, Steve
Member since:25.03.2004
Reviews:7
Two months to the imminent birth of Chardonay Fifi Trixibelle or Brian, and my wife has had me nest building on a grand scale. Window seats, Blinds, garden furniture and the big one...the Kitchen. In fact ironically the only preparation I haven't made for yet is baby's room.
So you think you'd like to build your own kitchen do you? You'll save lots of money and how hard can a few cupboards be....If this is you (as it was me before I became bitter and twisted), then you should probably forget the idea and just change a few doors for that new look without 10% of the effort needed. However you may have a wife or partner for whom only the greatest kitchen utopia will do, in which case...read on friend...my heart felt wishes go with you.
First comes selection, which means trawling around many DIY or kitchen centres to get "the right look at the right price" (or cheap and funky if your in the James' household).
For this we found Homebase had the best to offer, but if you prefer a traditional look there is much to choose from through MFI, WICKS, and many many smaller independents. We foolishly thought we needed to make a purchase in the January sales to get the best offer, as all offers ended in January, but alas this is simply an (effective!) marketing tool for mugs like me. Its a bit like the "chance in a lifetime" DFS sale...totally fiction. The prices never change and as one sale ends, then next begins.
Once you've decided on the look of your kitchen, you need to consider the planning. Things you should consider are placement
of the cooker, pipes and waste flows from washing machines, central heating and electrics. You may think you currently have a fully functioning kitchen but we required a plumber, gas engineer, electrician and heating technician in our terraced house galley kitchen. To be fair the old kitchen layout was ludicrous requiring us to play hopscotch in the dark just to have a slice of toast. Washing up was too painful even to contemplate.
So I eventually approached Homebase to arrange a home visit from their planning man (who promptly forgot and came a week later). This is something they're happy to do as you're about to spend a small fortune. We had an 8square metre kitchen which we arranged in a "U" shape. With only one new appliance (cooker/hob) the cost including the variety of trained specialists cost about £3500. Of this about £2500 was spent with Homebase, but this includes tools, paint and floor and wall tiles.
At the planning stage there is absolutely no commitment to buy, and the sales service from the planning man is not in any way pushy. You now have a single "plan view" (looking down from above) of your new kitchen. It's a quite cluttered drawing as you have wall units transposed over floor units.
Next, the planning man said if we were to call in within the week, he would include an extra discount and would draw the plans again to make them clearer. He also offered the carrot that hooked me in with as much ease as a small child with candy floss. The holiest of grails - interest free credit.
So now much happier as I could see my beer money extending for a few more months I called him to say yes please, I'll have the fifties style "Tivoli" kitchen in lemon yellow with the aluminium door handles.
Total Kitchen units cost was £1900 and included washbasin and drainer, funky tap (yeah and cheap), 6 meters of work surface, 6 large cupboard floor units (two corner fittings), and one 3 draw floor cupboard. Two wine rackshelves (stocked with interest free savings booze), and 8 wall units. All units are in various sizes ranging from 300mm width to 1000mm and 750mm high. Depth of the wall units is 400mm with the floor units at 650mm. Also included were kickboards, trims, handles (most of them!) and a cupboard style extractor to go above the gas cooker.
You're then advised that delivery will be about 6 to 8 weeks. Yeah right.
12 weeks later a van arrives with 2 men and a cargo of cardboard boxes. I wanted then to put everything in my cellar out of the way until I could commence the build but they didn't have the time. Neither did they have the time to wipe their feet, or allow me to check what was being delivered was what we'd ordered. You're advised that if anything is wrong to get back in touch. For example...a missing door handle. Homebase ARE YOU LISTENING?
So I now have my credit purchase of nearly two grands worth of yellow flatpacked chipboard and various plastic bags filled with all sorts of catches, screws, bits of plastic and edging. There are also two 3meter by 65cm lengths of italian marble (brown veneered chipboard). They look fine, and I'm not prone to exageration, but they weigh the same as Anglesey....each!
I've now realised that this job is not simply about putting flat pack together and screwing it to a wall. Some of theses things you actually have to build from scratch. Without any instruction.
This is the tool requirement guide list supplied by Homebase: 1 Flat screwdriver 1 Philips (cross cut) scredriver 1 Hammer 1 Drill
...and this... is what I actually needed: 1 Flat scredriver 1 Philips (cross cut) scredriver 1 Hammer 1 Drill 1 Rechargeable electric screwdriver 1 Wood Saw 22inches 1 Mitre saw and stand (for 45% angles) 1 set Alan Keys metric 1 set Alan Keys imperial 1 Wood Chisel 1 one meter sprit level 1 tape measure 1 Jig saw 1 Electric sander 1 Hammer drill 1 workbench 1 Router (I rented mine) 1 Router drill bit 1 set of masonry drill bits 1 set of wood drill bits 1 set of different sized screws and nails 1 set of different size raw plugs 1 Work surface pattern (rented with the router)
So you can add £200 for tools, but you do of course keep the benefit of them after you've finished your kitchen. Not that you'll ever want to go near DIY again...but its comforting to own them and makes me feel like the man about the house.
So...being completely under the thumb (man like feelings greatly subsided) my wife leaves me to go shopping for the afternoon expecting to return to find a 1950's lemon kitchen. Clearly this was optimistic, but even she believed there would be more accomplished than half a cupboard and a bleeding, fuming husband ranting about ****** Homebase flatpack drawings and a missing door handle.
Now I don't want to brag, but I am very good with schematic drawings, flowcharts and design documents...but this is the actual problem. The drawings were flawed, and incorrect, and I couldn't see past this.
Didn't want to either. (visualise toys flying from pram)
I was indignant we should complain to the highest level and make them understand that as a perfectionist (when I want to be...OK!) they had to redesign their kitchen plans.
This is where my wife (the sensible part of the relationship) called her father (who else) who came to help out and promptly ignored the drawings and assembled with minimal fuss the first unit before the kettle had boiled....G*t.
Common sense then took precedent and I'm fairly sure that we built some things in a different way to the designers intentions and some things I'm sure actually looked different to their intended form. But it didn't matter because the kitchen works, and it looks cool (to my wife anyway).
So would I promote the Homebase kitchen...frustrating as I find this the answer is yes. It took 2 weeks to regain my sanity following what turned out to be an 8 week build (working only weekends though).
I hated Homebase for those 8 weeks and my wife for taking me there. I hated chucking even more money every week to Homebase because I didn't have the tools for the jobs. I hated the Homebase planner for his useless drawings.
But when all is said and done, the jobs finished now and we have a fabulous lemon 1950's syle kitchen. If you got someone to build it for you add £2000 to the cost taking it up to £5500, but this is still way below the £12000 many spend.
The trick is to do yoga, meditation or whatever it is that calms you down and if faced with a problem forget the plans and saw, chop or hammer your way to a solution. Who cares if its the right one as long as it looks okay.
And the final word...My wife thinks it looks a million dollars...and I might even agree... if it had all its door handles.
Take Care Steve
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Like my comment on the other review I feel your pain.
Biggest tip I have for building your kitchen is to allow a gap between the wall and the back of the unit (using a timber batten) to make service runs easier and avoid 'wobbly wall' syndrome - of course this might give you problems with the worktop width but as I was using a beech worktop that I cut and shaped to suit it wasn't a problem ... also be careful with freestanding equipment such as cookers.
Much as companies will quote you back their standard terms and conditions on stuff such as checking deliveries there will still be a "this does not affect your statutory rights" which trump those ... your local trading standards will be happy to give you advice on how 'reasonable' you have to be.
Awooga
dasveed 23.02.2006 13:48
really well written - very informative. Great!
pgn0 04.02.2006 00:11
A wonderful piece of prose, written with inspiration and, mor importantly, drawn from direct experience! Now to go beat the man in Homebase down a few quid on the quote...
Apr 27th, 2004
exceptional by (26%):
very helpful by (70%):
helpful by (4%):
