On Wednesday morning he arrived with his samples and laptop. After measuring the kitchen area and discussing my ideas we spent two hours designing the kitchen using his extremely sophisticated Canadian-supplied design software. That was pretty neat because we were able to try out various ideas and configurations very quickly. Once we had the design that I liked Matt basically had to just push a key to get out a detailed quotation of every component in the plan.
On Thursday morning I received his quotation and some images that I have converted from PDF to JPEG below. The counter top and spashback will be of "engineered stone" which will be durable and stain resistant. It will also cost more than all of the cabinetry. In order to accommodate the counter at the right we will move the hallway door. At the corners are "blind" cabinets because normal corner cabinets with the double doors giving access to the entire interior were too long and would not allow a comfortable fit of both the stove and a double sink along the main surface. The hinges are "soft close" once that are neat to see in action. Unfortunately the software did not faithfully represent the colors, so they are to be ignored.
The span of the back counter is 3 meters and that of the side counters about 1.5 meters. The name of the game was to put together a set of standard cabinets that would fill the space. You will note narrow doors on either side of the oven and exhaust above it. The will have pull-out racks storing spices, jars, bottles, etc. Matt says that he has done this before and the result will look good. To the far left is a wine rack which Matt told me would look pretty good in the finished kitchen. I initially thought that a wine rack was a bit over the top but warmed to the idea of having selected bottles ready to go for a dinner setting. At the left corner will be two existing double power points and a similar set will be mounted along the right hand splashback.
Brenda came up with the good suggestion to leave the strong wooden pantry cabinet next to the chimney in place, so that side of the kitchen will be the "old" part, with the chimney, wood burning stove, and original pantry. Separating the old from the new will be the open passageway between the hall in the middle of the house and the dining room.
I had a meeting with Paul on Friday afternoon. He liked the proposal then we discussed the implementation. The final material for the roofing will arrive on Monday (tomorrow) and he promises that it will be completed by Wednesday evening. He insisted that he will be ready to immediately start the kitchen phase so I will accept Bunning's quotation and will expect delivery in about 3 weeks, very near to Christmas. When the flat packs arrive we will store them in one of the rooms. In the meantime we must get the kitchen area ready. I will strip the kitchen, Paul will move the door, set up the new power points, and install the new ceiling and walls. I will sand and seal the floor and paint the ceiling and walls. I will also have to procure the new stove top and oven (both electric).
When this is done Paul will set up the cabinets. He has set up many flat pack kitchens before and expect no problem. Once this is done I will contact Bunnings and they will send their people to make measurements and assessment of the counter and splashback areas. It will then take several weeks for the stone surfaces to arrive, all specially handled in shipping and installed by trained Bunnings personnel.
After that we'll think about the exhaust system and kitchen lighting.
Given the impending Christmas holidays as well as the inevitable delays by contractors I'll be happy to have the new kitchen by the end of January.
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| Looking from chimney |
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| Looking toward hallway |
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| Looking toward dining room |
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