Our Dream Kitchen: The beginning of our journey

I suppose I’ve had grand ideas about the kind of things I want from my home and my kitchen for a very long while now.

Years in fact.

As I mention below, I have for far too long sat watching those beautiful home improvement shows with green eyed envy and it has filled my head with wondrous ideas of what is possible.

I have flicked through endless pages of magazines, saved secret Pinterest boards, have a Houzz account and endless favourites list, have mood boards made from cuttings, scraps of fabric and anything else my eye is drawn to, and I’ve even paused the TV to take photos of great ideas I’ve seen in the ad breaks!

So, my mind is well and truly flooded with ideas.

To add to that though, I would say my mind is flooded with expensive ideas!

Most of which I’m sure we’ll be unable to afford!

But hey – a girl can dream can’t she?

You see, we’re living in a kitchen which needs a bit of a makeover. It’s just not our style, which I suppose is par for the course when you move houses. Equally, my taste will not be to someone else’s liking and so on. But I presume if we all liked exactly the same things, the world would be a pretty dull place!

But, the cost of kitchens can be high, though this does vary hugely depending on what you want, the size of your kitchen and other differing factors, but it means that many of us make the most of what we have for a good few years before embarking on any renovations, while we save our pennies for the room of our dreams.

But, I believe it’s only by having to live in a space which isn’t for you or doesn’t suit your needs, which enables you to really realise what you dislike about a space and therefore want to change.

Plus, I’m not sure ours was fitted very well in the first place really as it looks ok on the outside, but no sooner have you opened the doors, you’ll see that the cupboards don’t even have backs on them!

For example, if we’re a bit too enthusiastic about cooking and accidentally push the pasta back into the cupboard with a teensy bit too much vigor, before you know what’s happened it’s disappeared off down the back in amongst the pipework and the cobwebs!

And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve reached in to grab a bowl and been met eye to eye with one of those spindly wobbly spiders. Too many to mention in fact!

So as you now understand, we have made the best of things for a long while now, out of necessity as we saved towards something to far better suit our taste, style and dreams.

Though, having said all of the above, we don’t exactly have things bad either, despite the backless cupboards.

We are fortunate to have a house and garden for which there is potential to be developed in the first place. Plus the space we have to play with is quite generous as things go.

Our grand plan is to open up most of the downstairs floor space to create a much larger and far more functional living space for our family’s needs and requirements.

But embarking on such a big journey takes a lot of planning and lots decision making, time, and mess. There are just so many things you need to think about first.

The Challenges we had to discuss…

So after taking what seems like an eternity, we’ve finally bitten the bullet and decided to crack on with the journey to create our dream living space.

Basically, the reason it’s taken so long for us to even decided whether to continue on with the remodeling is down to many factors that we asked ourselves on a daily basis:

·   Could this house actually become our forever house if we remodel?

·   Wouldn’t it just be easier just to move to a property where the space we require is already there?

·   Will we still want to move house once we’ve completed the work?

·   Is there a ceiling limit on the properties within our road – would spending this money be ill advised / would be get our money back   if we sold the house?

·   Can we actually do what we want to the house to make it more functional to us?

·   It’s an expensive prospect. To get what we want from the house would use all of our rainy day money. Is that really what we want?   That’s a very scary prospect.

You see – there are so many things to consider before even reaching the initial planning stages which I’ll cover another day.

And these discussions, and considerations and concerns have been going on in our household for a fair few years now.

The discussions didn’t exactly cause arguments, but most certainly my husband and I have had differing opinions about our dreams and visions and therefore have had some rather heated discussions about what we can afford and even if it’s worth bothering with entirely!

But, once we’d discussed these things fully and a hundred times over, we agreed it was something we both wanted to do.

I also think my husband has been very spurred on to complete the work now, as it’s something we used to chat with my mother-in-law about. Lots! We would natter over a cuppa on a very regular basis about ideas of things that might work, and she even drew up potential plans of how the space could be transformed. It was exciting yet daunting too. And since losing her at the beginning of this year, I think it would be lovely if we could see some of the ideas she helped us decided upon come to fruition.

That sounds silly doesn’t it – but sometimes you just realise how short life is and that you may as well live it. So we are!

So then it was time to start considering what we wanted to gain from this scarily expensive and disruptive project and establish what our ultimate aim was.

So exactly why do we want a new kitchen and downstairs living area?

·     For us as a family – Our biggest reason for this is to create lots more practical space for living in, and to best suit our family’s needs, by have an open plan kitchen/dining/living area. At the moment, we very rarely use the dining room – which make it redundant and a waste of money for such a large part of the house. So by knocking a couple of walls down, we hope to be able to use every inch to its fullest potential. We want this to become the new hub of the home. To eat as a family again

·     For entertaining and socializing – We are a very sociable family with lots of lovely friends – so it will be lovely to have the space to entertain.

·     For my children – I have had ideas since I grew up myself, that when I became a parent, I wanted to have a house that my children could use as a sociable space for them and their friends too. As times have changed I feel it’s far safer to have the parties in-house than out and about! More room for the kids – an area we can all be together in yet not overcrowded one another with different sections

·     To become a little more house-proud – It will be so lovely to be proud of my home and invite people in to see it too!

·     To satisfy my desires Because I have watched too many home improvement TV shows and have a pile of magazines and dream mood boards – it’s time to make it a reality

·     To hide clutter – Better storage layout and more usable preparation areas

·     To add value to the home –

·     To fit with our own style and taste – New modern design to fit with taste, plus to be more desirable if we were ever to sell it

·     To create more light – north facing back garden

·     To save energy and money – by updating current appliances to new modern day ones which are far more efficient and environmentally sound

·     To incorporate a bit of indoor/outdoor living – the outside to the inside with bigger doors – far more convenient to outdoor dining and entertaining To be able to see the back garden

·     Quite simply, the kitchen is outdated and needs an overhaul – This kitchen is looking tired and sad. Plus I’d like a whole kitchen – just wait til you see the photos of the current kitchen with it’s half arsed kitchen cabinets

·     I just want a change!

·     Plus, you never know, but being transformed into open plan – perhaps this will spur us on to be far tidier than we currently are!

So, this is it now – the beginning of our journey which I’m afraid I’m going to be dragging you along with me on.

So until next time..

Wish us luck!!