Thursday 22 November 2012

Kitchen renovation ponderings



You know how they say you shouldn’t renovate a house straight away and that you should live in it a good 12 months before lifting even a hammer? Well, we committed that most cardinal of renovating sins when we moved into the Sow’s Ear. We started planning a new kitchen before we even moved in and had it built within three months of moving.

Kitchen in a Queenslander house
I took all the magnets off the fridge for this shot! 

Do we have any regrets three years on? Hmmm…I’m not sure. There is nothing in particular I would change in terms of the layout or finishes. We have a great looking kitchen but I think we probably could have managed it better which would have meant more efficiencies in the long run – time and cost savings.

If we ever do it again, I’d most likely allow myself more time to research and shop around at kitchen showrooms and I definitely would organise my own tradies, especially now that we’ve got a great network at our disposal. 

You can get a more competitive price and the job is completed in a more timely fashion… as opposed to relying on someone else’s network. The number of questionable invoice surprises after our kitchen was completed would make you shudder…

We pretty much went with the first kitchen place that gave us a quote which is quite silly in hindsight. Although everything went okay and the design is good, I can’t help feeling that we should have got another couple of quotes, downloaded a kitchen design catalogue or two and perhaps not feel so pressured to rush to get the kitchen “done”. But that is the wisdom you gain through hindsight.

open kitchen shelving

One of the best things about renovating our kitchen was that it introduced me to the world of design and renovating blogs. Bloggers are generally very generous with the information they share about their renovating experiences and a lot of the inspiration for our kitchen was from blogs.

So are you guilty of renovating before the 12 month mark too or do you think that 'renovating rule' is just nonsense? 

20 comments:

  1. I don't think we did any major renovations in the first twelve months of living in our place, probably more due to lack of funds than anything though. I'm happy with lots of projects we've done, but with things like our kitchen and ensuite, wish I'd done a bit more research first, especially now that I'm a blogger and as you say, there's so much inspiration and advice to be gained from others :)

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  2. Your kitchen looks great!
    I had to design mine and choose everything very quickly but I still love it three years on. I don't think I would change anything unless budget wasn't an option......;o)
    Tania xx

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  3. Totally guilty! The kitchen here had swollen pineboard shelves that I wouldn't have dared put any food on, a large surface of shrimp pink and baby blue and an unusable island stuck right in the middle. It had to go. I've had my new kitchen for eight years now and am still happy. We also ripped up the lino and carpet layers and polished the floorboards before we got the furniture in..then painted the walls etc. We also put in new light fittings and fans, they've been invaluable. We still have to do the bathroom up and finish some painting, put on a new roof and renew some stumps..oh well!

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  4. We've never actually lived in our cottage, but after 4 years of planning, 3 extra kids, and now onto our 3rd (and final) architects, I sure hope we've got it right!!! One of the main reasons for using an architect was to make sure that we got the design right and therefore minimising any bad decisions. I guess we'll just have to wait and see after we've moved in to ascertain whether we would have done things differently. xx

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  5. Your kitchen is looking great, very sleek and functional but the open shelves and that beautiful coloured glass brings it to life. Well done for getting it so right from the outset.

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  6. We renovated our kitchen before we moved in! I did not know about this rule? Still love my kitchen too.....and yours :)

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  7. i love your kitchen but secretly have the same fear - i hope i will love my kitchen when it is all said and done... we are holding off on doing other things partly because of lack of money but also for this very fear driven reason - hopefully it all come together :-)

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  8. I think you did a beautiful job, rule or no rule.

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  9. Guilty as charged, but only through necessity due to being removal houses with no kitchens (about to embark on house number 2 that arrived on site November 13th). The first one worked great but this time we have a much smaller space to work with so I am looking at cupboards going all the way up to the ceiling (or as close as I can get them) with glass fronted doors (has to be a small L shape to fit into the space). Design is on paper but I am yet to get into the house with the tape measure and chalk to see if it will work.

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  10. We renovated after owning the house 4 years, but we only lived in it for 3 months before having to move to Melbourne ... so we sort of did it the right way ;-)

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  11. We lived in our last house for 18 months before the reno, this time it will be nearly 2 and a half years. I think if you do not need to change rooms structurally it would be easy to get a kitchen right straight away. If you are moving rooms or walls like we are then I think it is worth living in a house through all the seasons to know what the light is doing and how the house flows from a functional perspective. I love your kitchen, it is very timeless- we are doing something similar- white vj's , white open shelving and grey marble bench tops. Of course all my colourful stuff will be up on display otherwise it wouldn't be me at all! mel x

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  12. I have lived with Primus stoves on tables, a surprised mouse bursting out of a bag of flour like a showgirl from a cake, walk-out-over-scaffold-boards, climb-the-fence-and-run-up-the-lane-to-the butcher's-loo bathroom visits, visiting friends with towels over our arms, and I STILL would rather do that than rush into a renovation!

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  13. ack of budget means i'm 'getting to live in it and let the house speak to me' before doing big ticket things like kitchens. and i'm pretty sure its saying to me 'i want a new kitchen'!!
    If i could have afforded it, i would have rushed straight out and did it first thing!

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  14. Guilty! I did it and made a couple of BIG mistakes. I will have to undo them.

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  15. We had a very tatty 50's kitchen when we moved in which we had a think about for a while. We thought about it seven years before finally doing it. I had seen friends make good and bad decisions and learnt from that so it was planned down to the last centimetre. We still made one mistake which was giving work to a local guy who sent a dodgy worker over to install but have since found an amazing local cabinet maker that did all our other built ins for half the money and twice the quality. There's always something else!

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  16. Guilty also. Our old kitchen was just SO dire I couldn't have lived with it.
    I hope I don't come to regret it, but it won't be long now before I start to find out..

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  17. We have just hit 12 months, and have not done much yet. The kitchen won't happen for another couple of years, but it is quite functional, but not pretty. The extra bedroom and Bathroom are probably going to be the next bog job, at last we are over the 12 month hurdle.

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  18. Loved your kitchen blogposts, esp before and after, such a transformation.Love the open shelves with your collections. We pulled down the back lean-to 8/9 months after moving into our house for our very first DIY.Included was the kitchen that smelled so bad when we bought the house, we found 9 layers of lino and 1 dead rat.Forgot to thankyou for the blog mention last post,cheers.

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  19. We have been in our house for over a year and still no new kitchen!! Hopefully one day soon we can afford it!

    Check out my giveaway of a month planner, meal planner and shopping list pad and pencil for the fridge. http://takeshapefitness.blogspot.com.au/

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  20. Love your kitchen, all those shelves to display your amazing glassware.
    I think it's a good idea to have the time to nut out design. The best thing that came out of delays with our last home was I had the time to really sharpen the edges of the design and have a good think of what I REALLY wanted. So I think never to early to start planning but probably
    only start getting things done after all the 'homework' is done first. (hope that made sense?)

    Sarah

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