Kitchen build..... My wife keeps me busy alright. FINISHED !

[grizz]

B&Q delivery guys were here at 08.00

We got first delivery slot..... Yay ??

No.

Glen the plasterer called at 08.30 to say he was 15 minutes away.

Then Tony the Electrician called to say his one guy finished a job at Bluewater earlier than expected yesterday, could he come over today rather than tomorrow? Of course I said YES PLEASE.

So the actual fitting is all on hold till these guys are gone.

In the mean time I shall try to figure out the assembly destructions.

Read more: http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.c ... z29m7eEDfz

[grizz]

18 ton delivery truck on the driveway at 08.00

Done delivering by 08.30

Electrician here at 08.30

Plasterer here by 09.00

Plasterer done by 11.00

Electrician done by 13.00

I now have to gather my courage to start deciphering the plans and sorting the bags of fixtures and fittings.

Would rather get back into my bed......

Read more: http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.c ... z29m7rgahi

[grizz]

............................................ Deliveries?

Waiting .................. ??

Why ......... ???


Well, this was a great day.

08.01 and the truck stopped in front of the house.



The guys were machine like in their efficiency.

Unloading 4 large pallets and an arm full of skirtings and other bits...




Scanning item by item with a barcode reader, the kitchen and green room were soon filled up with our new kitchen.








By the time Nicola got showered and downstairs, everything was packed in piles awaiting our attention.



Of course with having stripped the tiles back etc, there was an opportunity to prep the walls for the next lot of tiles once all the cabinets are up.

Glen was plastering and Steve the electrician was replacing all the plugs, switches and lights in the kitchen, it also included deleting some mad bodges and moving two plugs to more sensible positions.

While they worked, I kept the tea and crumpets flowing and tried not to get under their feet.

By 13.00 Glen and Steve were both done and gone, so we could start trying to figure out the piles of wood we had littering our home.




For anyone who has not built or assembled a kitchen at home, the art of self build has evolved so much even since 3 years ago when I did Nicola's last kitchen.

Plans are clear, parts are easy to place and fit....



Note my special wall unit fitting tool...... usefull when you are working solo and need to mark up where the holes need to go for the hanging brackets.



Holes drilled, again using a top secret tool... catches all the dust and saves on cleaning up later.




What you call : WELL HUNG !!!!!




While I was working I moved some of the shite from the green room and put it in the main lounge, using the new cat bed as well.

At some point I walked through and found a sulking Harley had made herself a new bed on the paint sheets.....




I also re-doored the wall mounted units above the radiator. I will add the end panels later.





At that point I called it a day and we showered and relaxed.... no sense in rushing the job, is there ??

[grizz]

At 01.30 both of us woke up..... then Nicola asked me a question about the kitchen and how I was going to deal with something...... next we were downstairs by 02.00 having a cuppa tea.
At 03.45 we were back in bed and by 06.30 I was downstairs making more tea and getting all the carcasses out of the boxes so that the packaging could go out with the recycling collection.

Nicola was down early as well, to help me assemble bits etc.


Today.........was also Christmas in the Grizz household.

I had decided that the kettle that has not switched itself off in the last few months needed replacing and our 4 slice toaster which has done 3 slices since last year, needed replacing.

So I ordered some new ones from www.electrical123.co.uk where the prices constantly seem to be good.

Anyway, I susprised her with them when she came down for her cuppa tea.

Surprised and chuffed she was.



Of course with her bounty safely stashed Nicola then jumped in and helped me with assembly until she needed to shoot off to various tasks.






While she was away, I did various small time consuming jobs, like measuring and cutting a cabinet to fit around the boiler.



This included moving a wall plug by about 20mm.... crappy job, but will make a difference in the end.




Get the idea????




Done.



Later Harley inspected it all.





Tomorrow is Tom's 17th birthday, so in closing I would like to show off the cake Nicola had baked and decorated for him.

Being a teenager, it goes without saying that he loves his Pot Noodle.


I am impressed and hope it puts a smile on your faces.

[Miriam C.]

Very nice! I just got mine almost finished and the builder did it. Not so sure that was the best idea. We replace 3 cabinets for not being square and damaged. Takes 3 weeks to replace one of these. Still have one messed up.

Good luck to the lucky wife....

[grizz]

Today we did the wall inits and various other tasks, some not at home.








One of the things those of you that know us, will know, is that Nicola has never stood back from getting her hands dirty.

So with the builds today, it was her job to fit the wall hanging brackets.



Last unit to go up was the "glasses cabinet."



Now all the wall units are up, next up doors, shelves etc and then sort out the base units and work tops, tiles etc.

[grizz]

Nicola is still in shock.... she saw me use a spirit level for the first time in 5 years.

The plan is to live here for a long time, so I am doing things as close as possible to right.

Read more: http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.c ... z29rmwNmRc

[grizz]

Slow day at The High Chaparral today.

I was up by 05.00 and started to put out the doors and sort out the stuff we were not going to use (there is quite a lot of it)

By 06.30 Nicola was downstairs to see if we were going to go to the bootfair... of course.

Back early, by 09.30 after which I made breakfast and then got started hanging the wall unit doors.

The pain in the butt was the corner door.... a hand full of bits and no destructions... but of course I figured it out cursing as I went along.

You tell me what you see.



Once again Nicola was helping..... one of the things she made today was a template for marking out the door handle spaces.






Planned out all the spacing, as it is a tight fit.

Then cleaned out the kitchen floor etc after fitting and planning the plumbing.

I also did loads of cut outs at the rear of the units to fit around all the pipe works.


Fitted the flexible hoses for the taps so that I have less of a chance to catch myself out......




Poor Nicola, I used her to help me carry the first work top up from the garage.... I could just see the pain on her face.
Anyhow, first worktop landed.
Tomorrow the second one, cutting in the sink and also cutting the small section to fit on the long run.






Deliveries tomorrow and I want to get the cabinets finished off.

[grizz]

Just a quick update.....

I continue to be amazed and more importantly, it really pleases me when deliveries scheduled for a time frame get done promptly.

The new integrated dishwasher we had decided to buy as the old one was still working perfectly after about 12 years, was delivered at 07.35.

Decission to replace was made based on the redesign of the kitchen layout and the fact the dishwasher is now going to be integrated.

That is pretty cool in my book.

Read more: http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.c ... z29xrfpSrW

[grizz]

Going to keep this update short except for a couple of tips.

Well, as mentioned, we had ordered a new integrated dishwasher as the old one (though not used a lot) was over 12 years old according to the previous owners of the house. But we wanted to go integrated with the new kitchen.

We decided to order this on Saturday morning with scheduled delivery between 07.00 and 13.00

Well, at 07.35 the truck was stopped outside in the street and less than 10 minutes later the machine was in the kitchen and I had signed the electronic checker and the driver was back in the cab with his assistant, turning the truck around outside.




Six watchers on Ebay for the old Hotpoint dishwasher, so hopefully we will get a bit of money back from the sale if it sells.







Not long after them was the delivery of the "American style" side by side fridge freezer. This was bought because of the change in layout of the kitchen to give Nicola more worktop space, and due to the fact that the fridge had not kept vegetables crisp/fresh since we had moved in here two years ago.

The two guys clearly knew what they were doing and had done this before......

The fridge was 750mm deep including the handles, but our Kitchen door only 720mm..... OOOOPPPPSSS !!

I had not checked the doorway before ordering the fridge.

Fortunately I had the cordless drill at hand and we removed the kitchen door to get the monstrosity in.




Door removed.



In place.....



Nicola was saying earlier that she would have to get used to the large fridge/freezer.




The rest of the day was spent doing various smaller tasks that were needed to make other parts of the kitchen function, like chopping some of the plaster away behind the dishwasher and washing machine pipes, cutting clearances behind the units and getting everything set and perfectly horizontal etc.

I also managed to get the kitchen sink recess cut and prepped.




As always, Harley had been hovering nearby all day while we were working.... and the moment I was done cutting the new worktop, she was up and made herself comfy.
I have never known a cat to be so set on being in the thick of things when machines are running.



This whole project is taking a bit longer than planned, but I am doing most of the labour on my own.


Last pic tonight.

[grizz]

Today was another interesting day.

Not a lot done, but much achieved.

I made up all the drawers and fitted all the doors until I ran out of soft close hinges.





Also had to make various cuts in the work top and in the back of the carcasses to get them all to fit tightly against the rear wall.
I still have to figure out how to gain another 22mm in depth of the dishwasher... the integrated door will still be sticking out in front of the rest of the doors etc.



Now here comes today's lesson.....

We had ordered the kitchen after the design consultant had made it all look great on PC and printed it all off for us.

Then I checked the measurements he did against what I physically had and and on one run found 200mm missing....

Went back and redesigned the lot to get it right.

Once the delivery came we checked everything, and what had been scanned was here.

BUT..... as I assembled and went along, it became apparent that some bits were not there.... fittings and also three of the soft closing hinges and a work top "Butt joint piece"

So I went back to B&Q today to order and pay for them..... about £29.00 which included a £6.00 delivery charge, which irks me no end as it should have been right the first time.

The other side of the coin was much more shiny though.

These builds are automated to some extent, so when you order certain items, they will automatically be topped up with stuff tht goes along with the item.

I ended up taking some stuff back today as well when I went to order the stuff that never made it to our place.

Firstly, I went to the returns section and the lovely lady behind the counter gave me a look that you give the mirror when you discover a boil on the end of your nose on the night of a first date..... Next she told me that because the goods were delivered they would have to be uplifted by the same people...... BUGGGGGAAA !!!!!
That really gets me miffed.

I then went in to see the consultant as he had said he had some of the bits that were never supplied with one of the doors. I also asked for some Soft close hinges to get the three I needed to finish that part of the job today. He had neither and said they needed to be ordered from a central distribution depot..... WHAT ?? No hinges in the whole of the biggest B&Q in the UK??
I was again told that I needed to take all the stuff I was returning home to have it uplifted from there..... ohh, and while I was in the shop, I could go order and pay for the extra hinges at the Trade Point counter.

I went off to the Trade Point expecting more lackluster performance.....

Met by a lovely lady, she observed and asked if I was returning the trolley full of stuff I had with me?
I told her that I had been told that I could not return in the shop by two people.... to which her response was that she thought that was absolute rubbish and would see if she could get it sorted for me.

20 minutes later all the stuff was returned, they had called a manager from some dark place to approve the refund and I paid for the stuff I needed and was off to pick up Nicola and one of the cats at the vets.

Look closely at the size of the refund I managed to get, just on stuff that had been supplied that I could or did not want to use.

The only item we returned, after ordering it, was the magic cupboard at £216.00

So today's lesson is to make sure you only pay for what you need.


Photo of receipt for what was returned.



Thanks to those of you who contribute with advice, comments and tips.

It is always good to get feedback.

[grizz]

Well, after the excitement of the £923 refund yesterday there was still the matter of the extra inch I had to lose on the depth of the dishwasher to get the integrated door to fit flush with the rest of the units.

Yesterday or the day before I had chiseled away about 10mm in depth of the plaster and wall to get the drain pipe recessed some more behind the dishwasher.... but still I ended up with that inch to lose.

This morning Nicola left for work early, and I looked at the "problem" again......

Saw the solution....



Chopped about 180mm out of the right hand drain pipe..... soooo easy.
Moved the lot over to the left.

Pushed dishwasher into its space, nice tight fit. Perfect.



Next up was the new mixer tap fitting.

There is a specific sequence... last bit to be tightened is the mains side.

Dexterity of a blue arssed monkey needed.



Getting the mixer fitted and tightened singlehandedly necessitates the again, two sets of hands. One set above and one set below.

Being solo meant plan B and a roll of masking tape.

Anchored the tap onto the sink with strips of masking tape with me crawling under the unit.




Along with that bit of nifty engineering I also made up another nifty tool.... yes, with the masking tape again in use.

Using the wood chisel that had been converted to general chipping/digging tool I seated the long brass nut and then proceeded to tape it to the "screwdriver.
Another long flat screwdriver was used to push and seat the horse shoe shaped brass washer that holds the water pipes in position.

Well, eventually all the stars aligned and I got the lot screwd together..... Woooohooo.





I also silconed and clamped the sink into the hole, connected the drainage etc..... just as Nicola came home.



Tomorrow I can start final fixing and tying everything down.

Then last job will be tiles.

[grizz]

Woke at 03.30 but of course could not come down to work, did have a mug of tea at 04.00 and then surfed the web in bed on my iPhone.
Put that down at 05.10 and snoozed till 06.30 when Nicola's alarm got her going.....

I did the "Friday Blue Jobs" like the trash, clearing some of the stuff from the garage that could go out with the rubbish.
Also was hacking back various creepers that grow down at the garage and garden as it is "Brown wheelie bin" day today, so garden refuse goes out as well. With the turning of the season there is a load of leaves (well, there was)

Today is a light day with loads of hole drilling and I have to go fetch some tile cement and grout down at the industrial estate.



Yesterday was reasonably slow as well.

I fixed the sink U-Bend leak with a bit of PTFE tape that Jim, the neighbour two houses away brought around, as I had given mine to Mickey months ago when he needed some at his mum in laws place.

Also did all the worktop end plates, a "Butt" joint and then screwed down all the worktops and joined the carcasses..... kinda committed to finishing this job now. I have probably wasted two days along the way by losing interest and getting bored with parts of the build, seeing me cutting the grass or surfing the web.




Cut all the skirting boards..... TYPICALLY, due to me keeping the previous layer of soft flooring (both as insulation and because it feels great underfoot) when I had the floors redone when we did the "Green room" and whatever other reasons, I had to trim off about 9mm from the three 3 meter lengths, thankfully the table saw I had snagged off Ebay about 4 years ago when I built the Teardrop trailer is still offering great service.

I also used the offcut that I edged with some stashed edging to make up a new windowsill until I can find a sensibly priced piece of 1000 x 160 x 25 mm oak or similar light wood as Nicola does not want the old dark wood one back there.
The other window is lower than the worktops, so I have created a trough for the blinds and window to carry on working as before. To blank it off another piece of offcut was edged and will stand up about 50 mm above the worktop to stop stuff falling back over the edge.



Using the boss' iron to iron on the edging gave great results and no glue on the surface.



Windowsill



Trough edge.






Last thing I did was to use Nicola's patented "Handle hole drilly thingy" to mark out all the holes that I will be drilling in a few minutes...... I also made one up for the drawer fronts from an empty pizza box as it is completely different and the drawers are not the same size, so holes move around.




That was where the day ended in the kitchen.


When Nicola got home from work, she said that she was tired of eating her dinner out of the toaster and fridge...... Could we go out and have cooked meal somewhere ??

As we do not do much of that sort of thing, I agreed and we went off to the a Local Pub about 3 miles from home.

The Windmill Pub has been there since Nicola's grandfathers time and before that......

He is in the front row of this photo taken in front of the pub a long time ago......



Happy girl.




I had a Mixed grill (no egg though, and I substituted the chips with loads of veggies as that was what I really wanted.
Nicola had the Steak and Kidney Pudding (yes, that is what it is called




We ate in the pub section, as the restaurant was "closed" as it was Quiz night.

There was a lovely fire going in the pub as well, which was a really nice addition to the atmosphere and the barman was a lovely older gent..... Perfect.

Well, Perfect once we had our deserts....

Nicola went for a blast from the past memory flashback, having the Rhubbarb Crumble with Ice Cream and I went for a Syrup Sponge and Ice Cream

All in , a lovely evening, came home to watch a bit of telly.... American Pickers if you need to know.

Nicola was asleep before the first ad break.

Desert menu.......





Right, back to work for the day.

Hope you guys are stil here and enjoying as it is almost over.

[grizz]

Sorry to those still looking....


Had Goose over yesterday and last night, so updating would have been a bit rude.

In stead we had a great evening, with Nicola feeding us, and then watching three episodes of New American Pickers back to back.

Today we were on the go from 8am.... tiles.

BUT FIRST..... Yesterdays report.

Started with the drawer fronts, drilling the holes, followed by the doors.



Next up was cutting back all the screws by about 20mm as they are supplied long enough to penetrate a house door.



I started off using one of my grandfathers tools....then switched to a large pair of pliers.





Fitting the handles was quite interesting, as I ended up re-drilling all the holes again, this time with a 5mm drill bit as the 4mm was the right size, but too tight a fit.

As I have not been sleeping that well recently, I found myself making this mistake once.....







Later on I had finished the handles, but found that there were 3 handles missing.... NO IDEA HOW THAT HAPPENED.

So ordered some more off Ebay.

Still, happy with the results up to this point.





Note, the dishwashed door had still not been fitted. A bit of procrastination???? YESSSS !!

Later on I had cleaned up and started to move the tools to the lounge, then Nicola came home...... guess what....?

Nesting instinct kicked in and she started to repack the cupboards.





Well, that is it for now, next session will be the tiling.

Almost 23.00 here, so bed time, the fire has burned out as well.

[indycamper]

LOVE the report! Glad you decided to let us see what you have been up to. I like the fact that the base units have legs - over here they are built on wooden bases. Any adjustments in height have to be done with shims. I think it would be a lot easier to adjust a leg here, a leg there, and move the units around a bit - rather than getting one perfectly level, shimming the next one level beside it before connecting it, etc. Might try adjustable legs if I ever tackle something like that again!