Our Kitchen Extension and Renovation – Part One

So, we’re about to start our long-awaited kitchen extension and renovation! Yay! Firstly, I want to apologise for a very cheesy video and not too pretty photos here! Goodness knows what I am knattering about on this video (and that’s with some editing!) I nearly didn’t keep the video on but I thought it was important to capture just what our kitchen was like before it’s ‘makeover’ and to show you why it so desperately needed doing and why we’re so excited it’s finally happening! I’m sure I’ll look back and think – just how did we survive a year and a half with this kitchen?! You can see a bit more of what our house looked like when we bought it, in this post about our house move.

We bought our 1930s house a year and a half ago and thought we’d do the kitchen extension/ renovation within a month or so. However, an addition to our family in the form of Archie, needing to save up funds and planning permission means that it took longer than we anticipated.

I keep calling it a kitchen extension but we’re not actually increasing the footprint of our house but we are knocking it down and starting again. The back of our house consists of a leaky conservatory, a kitchen in the middle and a small lean too next to that. We’re knocking all three rooms down and rebuilding it all as one kitchen. Due to damp and the need for deeper foundations it means we can’t keep the current walls, just the wall that joins to next door as we’re semi detached!

Before the Builder’s Arrived….

Anyway, here’s a little tour of our house as it was at the beginning…..

And so the builder’s have arrived and we’re one week in – this is what the house and kitchen extension looks like now! Excuse the mess and… check that wallpaper out!

We’re coping pretty well with our make-shift kitchen (to be honest, it’s not much different from our previous kitchen and so that’s helped – our expectations were already pretty low!) It’s just the noise that bothers us a bit, it means that Archie doesn’t sleep that well in the day and it’s been better to get out and about all day, particularly as it’s the Easter holidays! I was prepared for the mess in the house but I wasn’t quite prepared for the mess of the gardens – eeeek! The kiddos have been disappointed to not play that much in the garden – it’s just so unsafe with holes and tools everywhere and it’s going to need some massive tidy up/ re-turfing session when it’s all finished!

We’ve chosen our kitchen but still not finished choosing our worktop or flooring – I find myself boring everyone around me with kitchen extension talk. If I read another flooring website – it will be too soon! There is just so much choice and I feel a little bamboozled with it all. If you fancy giving me any advice about flooring or worktop options – feel free! And if you find yourself in the same boat – here’s my pinterest Kitchen Board which is taking up so much of my time!!

Anyway here’s to gritting our teeth and venturing forward and remembering how lovely it will be when it’s finished!