The Kitchen Project

Originally posted as a thread on Bluesky, 7 January – 4 June 2025.

The next building project in the house has started. We’re ripping out the kitchen and the floor and a wall into the dining room to make a big empty space into which a new kitchen is going. For the next six weeks at least that means my office is a makeshift kitchen and the dressing room is an office.

When we replaced the roof on the kitchen it was clear the floor would have to come up too after years of moisture getting under there and it being partly bare stone.

God knows what horrors await as the layers are peeled back. Fingers crossed no one buried any bodies under there.

I’ll share some progress pics because looking at pictures of other people's renovation projects is fun and also a good reminder of how little fun it is when it is your own house and wallet involved.

End of day 1 - most of the kitchen is now ripped out and some of the stud walls have been removed. We have discovered a second tiled floor underneath the first one, but no asbestos anywhere which is very nice.

The big hole in the stud wall shows the complete lack of insulation or damp proofing between the kitchen and the 10foot tall retaining boundary wall which is holding up the hill behind the house. It’s no wonder everything was wet. The house is now split in two by a doorway with a menacing aura.

I’m going to be in London for a few days now so it’ll be fun to see what awaits me when I get home on Friday. There is a chance the wall might be coming out by then, I will be happy to miss that part of the job, the wall coming out was once the exterior wall and so is holding up the entire house. 😳

End of week 1 and we are firmly in the ‘worse before it gets better’ phase where it looks like a bomb has landed on the house. The wall is almost all out, the house hasn’t fallen down, and everything is going to plan so far, despite appearances.

This is the floor plan. The blue walls go, the red outline is the new space. The conservatory was removed a while back and the kitchen extended into its footprint, so now that second wall is going. The combined space is about 37sqm so it will be a big generous space once it is done.

This wall is a bit trickier because it was the original exterior wall before the kitchen was added on at some point in the last hundred years. That means the wall is thick, made of unfinished stone, and includes a chimney breast. I’ll be much happier once the new pillar and span steel work goes in.

The rest of the wall is now out in between what was the kitchen and dining room and the size and shape of the space is now easier to comprehend. With a bit of tidying up this span will soon be ready for the steels. Next up the floors will start getting removed and then all the demo will be done.

Floors started coming up today. Finally we can see the original brick floor which was under tile and then laminate. Brilliant. And the old stone floor laid on bare soil in the conservatory is all up plus some of the plasterboard is out to reveal an old window for what I think was once a coal shed.

Pity the plasterer who is going to have to make 150 years of weird decisions line up and make sense in here at some point. Also pity me who is paying the plasterer.

End of week 2 and the floors are now cleared in the main area of the space to the point where prep can begin for a new poured floor to go down. New wall is going up and concrete is setting on what will be one of the columns where the steels will get attached to support the new wall opening.

Next week the rest of the concrete will be poured around the opening and we should be ready then for the steel to go in. At that point the props come out and the floor in the old dining area can come up so we have a single level floor to work off for the plumbing and first fix electrics.

We finally have some visible progress today after a delay and some plumbing and electrical prep work over the last couple of weeks. The prep for the steels is underway with underpinning and concrete pads being set at the sides of the new opening to support the steelwork.

It’s kind of terrifying seeing that one’s house is just sitting there mostly on bare earth and boulders. The nice thing is that it’s very dry under there, but distinctly lacking in ancient treasures. The concrete should start going in tomorrow 🤞

Thankfully I am not here for a couple of days so I’ll miss the continued drilling of rock and the guilt of idly watching the builders carry 2 tonnes of concrete up to the house. 😬

Oh look, it’s an entire five-a-side team (with a sub) carrying steel into the house. Such a shame I wasn’t able to be there to help out today. I’d have loved to have joined in the fun. Alas I am 350 yards away hiding in a café pretending to be very busy.

Well would you look at that. That’s a lot of steel. Bet that was heavy to carry. I assume now that the wall gets built back up on the plate to join in to the existing stone but the builders seem to have gone for a lie down somewhere so it’s anyone’s guess.

God I can’t wait for this to all be done.

The hole in the house is now supporting itself and the framing is starting to go up around the opening. With the props being out the remaining bits of floor can come up for a new latex coated subfloor to go down and the electricians and plumbers can come and get the services all sorted out.

The window out to the back garden is being replaced with a shorter one so that the kitchen sink and counter can sit here and be the right working height. The window is being fabricated this week.

I was worried the steel pillars were going to encroach into the gap and take away from the simplicity of the opening but I think once they’re boxed in they will be fine, plus they give us a place to neatly run water, power and data into this part of the house without having to make any more mess.

Getting those props down feels like a big step, hopefully we are on easy street now and by the time spring is here we’ll have a kitchen and be able to enjoy it and the dust and mess and money will be a distant memory. 🤞

This is what these three spaces looked like before we bought the house. And whilst it looks lovely, the conservatory was rotten and falling down, the kitchen roof and floors needed replacing and the kitchen itself was falling apart.

The wooden floor came up in the former dining room yesterday to reveal a bonus vinyl tile floor laid on the floorboards. Is it asbestos? Who knows.

We also got some sealant down on the stone floor section which will act as a damp course before the screed gets poured for the new subfloor. This stuff absolutely stinks. Properly gross.

We now have a latex screed on top of the damp proofing in the larger half of the space. Next week the electrical and plumbing stuff will all get sorted and once that is all done the framing will get plaster boarded and a new subfloor will go down in the former dining area.

The plumbing and electrical first fix got finished this week whilst the dining room floor was tested for asbestos. Luckily it’s fine and can come up next week. Today the builders came and started boarded up all of the new walls and levelling off the joins in the floor.

Next week we’ll have the new window going in, groundwork’s for the new drainage dug out in the back garden and the final prep work before the kitchen fitters are in the following week 🤞 the finishing line is in sight.

We are so nearly at the end on this project. The builders have done the final prep work for the plumbers and electricians to finish up this week, the kitchen gets delivered tomorrow and fitted next week, hopefully between now and then the plasterers will be in and we will have a new floor laid.

I am so looking forward to never washing dishes in the bath ever again and to having the house not be full of dust and middle aged men.

The kitchen folks have been carrying bits of kitchen into the house for the last 3 hours.

I’m concerned I might’ve bought way too much kitchen. I guess that would at least explain why it has cost the same as what my parents paid for a 3-bed house in 2001.

How much kitchen is too much kitchen?

😬

The new shorter window has been installed, the new ceiling hung and the floor patched up now that all of the utilities are in underneath it. Next up, plastering and flooring and then the kitchen gets fitted.

The new window replaces an original Victorian sash which was completely shot (every window in the house needs replacing at some point, we’ve done 6 so far).

This one opens up completely from the middle which will mean we can pass food out to the garden and in from the barbecue and access the sink.

Cabinets started going in today. The changes we had to make to the steel support for the wall opening means the island is getting squeezed a bit so we spent a good hour debating options. Hopefully it’ll turn out okay - the thing is 3.6 metres long which is obviously insane.

I’m trying to stay out the way so I don’t get co-opted into lifting cabinets around whilst I’m sick but look! There are fridges! Imagine being able to keep food at the appropriate temperature. Luxury is on the horizon.

That’s the fridges, corner pantry and the first oven unit all in place. Gosh it’s nice to see stuff happening in here which makes it look more like a kitchen and less like the hellscape it has been for large parts of the year.

I don’t want to get ahead of myself here but I’m starting to see how incredible a space this is going to be - for what was once three entirely separate buildings, two of which were basically falling down, I think it’s coming together really nicely. Gonna make such good cups of tea in here.

Big decisions getting made here - I think these are the handles we are going for. Who doesn’t love a good bit of knurling? Brass to match the taps and other hardware, will patina nicely, and means we only need one type of handle for everything rather than knobs and handles of all different sizes.

Considering also some sconce candles for the wall pillars. These ones are lovely but are insanely expensive. Maybe I’ll make some myself.

That whole run of cabinets are all in now around the corner along with the ovens. We’re about half way through the fitting at this point. Should be able to get the worktop templates done early next week hopefully.

The sink run of cabinets is all in now barring some side panels which are still being made. Having two dishwashers in the kitchen is probably the most exciting thing that is going to happen to me as a 40 year old man.

The sink is getting fitted, the back side of the island is now all sorted and the pantry doors are up. Tomorrow we will get the utility area fitted and then Wednesday the appliances will be installed. Then the fitter will hand over to the worktop folks to do the templating.

The step back in the island is to create space for a couple of counter seats, and the storage on this side will be for stuff we don’t need all the time - seasonal table decorations, the Santa mugs, etc. very excited to have so much storage space.

One more day of kitchen fitting to go, today the doors got hung on the fridge freezers and the dishwashers. That’s all of the bits that needed to be done before the worktops can be templated on Thursday. Tomorrow the utility area cabinets and a couple of wall mounted cabinets will get hung. Close!

The builders were back today doing some of the stuff they didn’t get to before the fitting. Window and door frames, boxing for the radiator, that kind of thing. We also had the worktop templating done and I got to nerd out on radii and edge profiles. More carpentry tomorrow.

Electricians and carpenter are here today. There’s a change we might have lights and a working fridge by this evening. Also I just got the invoice for the 44 handles we need for the insane number of cupboards and drawers and it has ruined my week 😵‍💫

The worktops are going in - I think they’re going to look great, and crucially, they made it to the house without being dropped on the steps and so are in the correct number of pieces. The electricians are also here, maybe we’ll have lights soon, imagine that!

The quooker tap which is going on the bar cabinet doesn’t have access to waste and so I wanted to just use a drip tray, but the one quooker make expects to be plumbed in. To get around that I designed this freestanding driptray cut into a piece of the worktop material with a felt bottom.

It’s plenty big enough for the amount of waste water one might get from making tea or whatever, and easy to pick up and take to the sink. I was amazed nothing like this existed already. I should probably sell them on Etsy, I can’t imagine I’m the only person to have needed something like this.

Worktops! These are from Quartzforms in Germany, and have a nice gold veining running through them. The slabs only go up to 3.2m and all of the spans are longer than that so they are jointed with colour matched resin, and finished with a lambs tongue profile and a nice wide corner radius. 😍

In the spot under the window where the sink is we kept the existing bay window shape and cut the countertop into that, and then extended the worktop up to the window and then had a cill made of the same stuff. I like how that all create more space around the sink.

I am sure all of the people we’ve had work on this project hate me for having opinions about these small details but they make a massive difference to the usability and aesthetic of the kitchen and if I didn’t care a lot about that stuff I’d never have able to pay for the kitchen in the first place.

Big day today! The electricians connected up all of the appliances and the lights and the sockets and the builders did the remaining plastering, hung the back door and laid the latex for the flooring to go on in the entrance area from the back door. We’re getting so close.

We’re into the endless wrapping up phase on the kitchen project - waiting for some replacement/missing cabinetry and handles, getting trades all in to do their final bits, etc. but it’s functionally done and looking good. New dining table should be here next week followed by the sofa.

We’ll get some nice photos from the kitchen company when everything is buttoned up, they want to do a case study of the project for their website.

Most importantly, the coffee machine is back up and running and has had a clean and a bit of TLC and is back to producing banging coffee 👏

The painter is finished and the kitchen fitter wrapped up today. Frustratingly there are still some bits we are waiting on being delivered, but we are 99% done and it’s finally looking like I hoped it would when we kicked this project off in ~1920. Dining table should be here in a fortnight or so.

Got a dining table. Yes! It’s an extender! Also the radius of the table matches the curve of the back of the chairs perfectly. This is most pleasing. That big wall will get some art, and there will be a lamp here somewhere for some gezellig over-table lighting.

(Most of the) Reeded glass doors for the bar cabinets got installed yesterday and the sun is out and there is a new mirror up reflecting the lush greenery of the garden and it’s all looking lovely.

Yes very good (the window cleaner is coming soon I promise).

Finishing touches

Fin.