Kitchen Renovation

Want to see pictures of our kitchen renovation? Of course you do! The more the better!!
Want to read a long story about our renovation? No? Then you're in luck, the story is short and there are lots of pictures.

Two years ago we bought an apartment. A lovely old two bedroom unit in a great location. The kitchen was, well, ugly and dated.

Here are some pictures of what the place looked like when we viewed it.

The dishwasher never worked all that well. It was ancient and noisy, so we started saving up to renovate the kitchen, with the idea of doing some parts of it in stages (i.e. replacing the appliances before ripping out the cabinets and moving the plumbing).

Unsurprisingly, about a year after we moved in the fridge died an abrupt death, so the money that was going towards the dishwasher was diverted to a new fridge and we started saving again for the dishwasher. When we saw the dishwasher we wanted listed on a great deal during Boxing Week we leaped at the opportunity to order it online ... and then found out it that it was not in stock and we wouldn't be getting it. So we ordered a different, better and cheaper model.

In anticipation of the new dishwasher arriving I uninstalled the old one so that the delivery team would be able to drop one off and pick the other one up. I'm reasonably handy, so that wasn't a problem. We put the new dishwasher in place, levelled it and anchored it to the counter. Everything was going smoothly until the plumbing under the sink exploded. First the drain pipe, then the hot water supply.

Again, I'm reasonably handy so I fixed the drain, capped the hot water because it was beyond my skills to repair and looked at our beautiful, unused dishwasher. We knew we wanted to renovate the kitchen in the next year, so instead of calling a plumber to come and fix the hot water supply, we started calling contractors for estimates and looking around at cabinets, tiles and counters.

What follows are my Tweets of significant events and pictures whenever possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, he was probably swearing at the incorrectly laid tile in the corner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sample of counter we were supposed to get on top of counter we got.

Contrasting counters with flash.

 Now, as you can see, a few things are quite obvious from this. First, we need a new stove. We briefly thought it had died, but it was just the cursed dial timers on those 70s stoves. That part of this reno will have to wait for another day.

Second, all is well that ends well. We would happily work with Bryant Renovations again, in fact we may work with them again quite soon on the bathroom reno. We would also buy another Ikea kitchen. As you can see from the pictures and Tweets, however, it was not entirely smooth sailing. Ikea shipped broken and unnecessary parts. Bryant was horribly behind schedule, in part because our building had a plumbing problem, but also because they do not communicate efficiently. They made a number of mistakes along the way, starting with their estimate and contract, flowing through much of the work, especially the granite counter. However, they resolved all of our issues, and did so on our budget. For all the frustration, which is probably common to all renovations and renovators, the end result is worth it.