At last a new kitchen
Ok Now I just need more space
March 2004
After a lot of planning and saving I finally got a reasonable kitchen fitted into the house in March 2004.
The difference is enormous, and takes a bit of getting used to. Whereas before I had plenty of floor space for chucking stuff about, now I am having to be a tidy Teddy and put it all in proper cupboards - and remember which ones.
I bought the kitchen through a French company: Lapeyre using their office in Boulogne. I had already taken my time, taking plenty of measurements and photos of the kitchen area. Johnny and I visited their showroom as well as other companies to take a look at designs and ideas. The one we went for seemed to be a good combination of price and quality as well as fitting in with what I already had in the house.
I drew up a scaled plan of the kitchen and moved my wee boxes about looking at different options before presenting the idea to Lapeyre. The chap there took all the measurements and sat and played on his computer producing a 3D version of my efforts, properly coloured and showing the desired front and style, and with the windows and doors displayed as well.
The next stage was to have the fitter round to take a look and ensure that I hadn't made a mess of the measurements and look out for any problems.
Once that was done it was just a case of waiting another six weeks (in my case) for a vacancy in the work schedule to be able to get it all done.
16 March arrived and I was reasonably impressed with the way the two guys got on with their work. All the cabinets arrived more or less made up, the guys just having to add drawers and doors etc.
The following afternoon, it was all ready, new sink plumbed in, the cooker and hob all wired up and suddenly I am going to have to start remembering in which cupboard I placed things.
Jean-Jacques has given me a hand repainting the walls a bright yellow and the place looks a lot better. My only problem being that I am going to have to do something about the whitewashed ceiling.
See also