Ground floor & kitchen refurb - how to prepare!

4 years ago

Hi everyone!
We are embarking on a refurb of our kitchen which will involve walls coming down and a partial conversion of the garage (plus knocking through).
We can’t move out so will be moving upstairs for the duration.
This is our first major building work so I am excited and terrified in equal measure!
Just wondered if anyone has any tips for making it as painless as poss particularly being without a kitchen and living on site (with two children!)
Also any top tips on how to prepare before the work starts would be great...
Thanks in advance!

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Rukmini Patel Interior Design

4 years ago

Hi there - congrats on embarking on your project! A lot of what you mentioned has been covered off in a blog post I have written on how to deal with a renovation project along with tips and tricks for getting through it: https://www.rukminipatel.com/10-things-to-consider-before-you-renovate/

Let me know if you have any questions?

Rukmini Patel Interior Design

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Comments (9)

Ellie
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
We have just finished similar, with 2 young children. It involved kitchen/dining room/ hallway, staircase etc 3 walls down, 3 beams in, new sliding doors to garden, blocking up a door and creating new doorway into kitchen. So we all moved downstairs and lived in the downstairs spare rooms. It was all blocked off but still dust everywhere.

We made one of the spare rooms a kitchen with dining table, fridge, microwave etc.

I assume you have your planning/building warrant/ builders selected etc.... that does take a long time. It took us over a year just to get through all that before the actual work began!

Also it was our first ever building work so husband was terrified! Everything went smoothly. We prepared for extra expenses.... as its a 1930's house but were surprised by no major extras!

However, our builder and his team was fab. I think that is the crucial thing!

Good luck.

ps we were lucky to start in August when it wasnt too cold! Our house didnt have a back wall for weeks!!
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Thanks. Beautiul space. Can you please take a photo of the wall that is across from the island? -there is no overhang on the counter...so I am not seeing stools there on either the long portion of the island or the shorter portion by the window. -if you mean by the window, there is a door on one side and an oven on the other.....hence it is a traffic way,,,,,,you don't want stools there I am not sure why you feel the need to put something there. You might consider art on the wall across from the island to ground that wall. Need a photo.
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First before you think of putting grey on your walls take into account the light in your kitchen. Where do you live? Is it sunny most of the year? Is your sky grey 4 to 6 months of the year in the winter and spring? Grey can be very depressing when you are surrounded by it day after day. My vote is for white walls or a light color. You also have to take into account what the other rooms are painted that are open to the kitchen's sight line.
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Sonia
4 years ago
Exciting! When I had a new kitchen (no walls knocked down!)I set up a temporary kitchen in my sitting room, using the old worktop placed over the old fridge and an old kitchen unit. I also bought a slow cooker and moved the kettle and microwave in there too. At least we could have a home cooked meal most days. If you can set this up in a room somewhere, it really did help. Oh and have your local takeaway on speed dial as some days cooking is not an option :-D The dust though, I never forget the dust, it was everywhere........
C Mack
Original Author
4 years ago
Thanks everyone - just what I needed! I’m hoping that if I get organised I can save some hassle. It currently feels like we will be moving house again as the whole downstairs will need packing away!!
Martin
4 years ago
Currently going through it, they used the old kitchen worktops and set up a kitchen in the living room. They did sheet everything up but it gets ripped so the living room is very dusty now. The floor is grotty but we're getting a new one when finished so didn't properly protect it. They fitted a temp door at the bottom of the stairs to shut it off and we put down carpet protector. To be honest it hasn't been too bad, there's going to be some redecoration needed but that was anticipated. If you're worried about dust just make it clear to the builder before which areas you want protecting.
C Mack
Original Author
4 years ago
Thanks Martin - we are planning to replace the floor and are actually blocking off the stairs from the living room as part of the work so am hoping that will protect upstairs a bit - probably makes sense for them to do that bit first in that case!
Like the idea of a temp kitchen...
Martin
4 years ago
With respect to the door at the bottom of the stairs see if they can leave enough space between the bottom step and the door, a mini landing for shoes. There is hardly any space for us and it's right pain taking shoes off and then trying to bend down and pick them up from the first step. If not you can run the carpet protector into a tiled bathroom, that way you can walk all the way up and remove them in there. Then it's an easy job to clean muddy tiles.
Space Cat
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Temporary kitchen is a must. We had a similar setup to what Martin describes, some of the old kitchen units and some worktop. We bought a combination oven/microwave which did a decent enough job ... but the absolute must have were a couple of portable induction hobs from IKEA, our architect loaned hers to us. They're around £50 and brilliant. Also, if you're upstairs think about where you're putting the fridge/freezer.

The one thing you do need to have a plan for is washing up. We had to use the bath for a couple of months!

Be prepared for everything to get wrecked. No matter what you do, dust will get everywhere. The builders will do their best but construction is an incredibly messy job. We took the view that anything that didn't go into storage was sacrificable.

Have to say that despite it all getting very dirty, almost everything came through intact, with only a few things having minor damage. Nothing a thorough cleaning hasn't sorted.

On that point, be ruthless about what you do / don't need. And I mean RUTHLESS. If there is any question about you needing a thing, you won't. Ditch it or store it. Space will be at a premium and you'll be grateful for every square inch of it. We pared to the bone, 4 plates, 4 bowls, 4 cups, etc etc and there was still stuff we ended up not using (and our build lasted 46 weeks). If living in while doing a major renovation has taught me anything, it's we fill our lives with junk.

If you're having any external walls taken out, then it will get very cold at night. Even the smallest gaps in any temp walls or door frames will have a profound effect on the temperature in the rest of the house. See if you can get hold of some insulation from the builder, the fluffy earthwool kind, to stuff in all the gaps. This made a massive difference for us, especially in the winter months.

I don't know how much room you have upstairs but I guess you'll only have one room that you can give up to be your makeshift kitchen / lounge. Towards the end of our build, we were getting very, very fed up of being the same four walls most of the time. Try and think ahead, are there things you can plan to do / places to go at the end stages to break up the monotony? We did this the wrong way round and did loads of things at the start but ran out of steam and ideas by the time the grumpiness really set in.

My last bit of advice ... enjoy it as best you can. There will be times when you think you've made a huge mistake and there seems no end to it. Try to keep in mind the reason you started. It will be worthwhile, more than you can ever imagine. Good luck!
C Mack
Original Author
4 years ago
Thank you, that is so helpful - some very valid points here and yes, I am going to use this to have a massive blitz on clutter in general. Good advice about plans towards the end of the build too, particularly for the kids!

Ground floor & kitchen refurb - how to prepare!

Rukmini Patel Interior Design

Comments (9)

Ellie

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Ground floor & kitchen refurb - how to prepare!

Rukmini Patel Interior Design

Comments (9)

Ellie

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