In lieu of a foodie post this week I am sharing my excitement and frustration over the possibility of replacing our kitchen. The existing kitchen was brand new when we bought our house 7 years ago but it wasn’t until I had to try and unpack everything from our last rental home that I realised I had more kitchen stuff than actual kitchen to hold it. After years of creative Cupboard Tetris and sulking over who’s turn it was to do with dishes (surprise, mine) once our oven decided that it only had 2 temperature settings – full knacker or off, I seized my opportunity to broach the subject of upgrading the whole kitchen.
Yes, yes, I could very well have just replaced the oven, but bless our previous owners little socks, they bought the super narrow model that is quite hard to source and annoyingly expensive given that I don’t really love it that much to start with. Aside from that, replacing the oven doesn’t really address the other issues with the layout. The laundry is conveniently located at the end of our kitchen which is fortunate because it is the only place the fridge would fit, but makes for an awkward combination of cramped and wasted space all at once. There is no pantry to speak of so people, including myself have to play guess the cupboard to find all the ingredients they are after and as the bench space is non-existent, I often have to borrow prep area on the stove top which is far from ideal. Finally, we don’t have a dishwasher which as far as I am concerned is unacceptable. I don’t see any need to justify myself more than that.
We also have a covered area located directly outside the kitchen/dining area which we have always toyed with the idea of closing in to give us more useable living space so I arranged to have a kitchen/extension company come out to provide us with a quote. The gentleman was most helpful in providing some ideas on how to make better use of the whole area and I have to say I was quite swept up in the heady possibilities of relocating the laundry to allow the WHOLE kitchen and laundry space to become a new kitchen. The bench space! Just think of the bench space!
Of course all of this is going to mean that my new oven is quite possibly the most expensive oven on the planet, and for that price, it would want to prepare dinner itself… and wash up afterwards. So I told the nice man that we did not know if we really wanted to spend that kind of money given that we had always planned to move into a bigger home at some stage and to just provide us with a quote for replacing the kitchen within its existing layout.
I waited impatiently for the quote to arrive (all of 2 days) and was initially put out by the figure. It was more than I had hoped to spend including the new appliances and I knew Chief Cheque-Signer would not be enthusiastic either. I drove my mum crazy all day thinking out loud about all our options, hoping to come up with a solid argument to pitch when Luke arrived home and I very nearly thought I had it. Unfortunately, we see the resale value of a well laid out kitchen very differently so the discussion reached its inevitable end as we could not decide whether it was worth investing more money into the house if we are looking to buy something bigger anyway. It is a much bigger decision than we initially thought, so we are going to have to take our time deciding which way to go.
In the meantime, I guess I will just have to keep dreaming…
Firstly Erin, I will give you the award for the worst kitchen, yep. Even worse than mine. Although you have been rather constrained in your depiction of it. Clearly you are lucky to have sound mental health.
ReplyDeleteI hear you on the changes and I hear you on the need to upgrade. it is a bind and an a confusing point for which way to go. There is that fear of biting off too much, as you see others go down when they take the risk. But what is a family to do?
I was thinking my little house would be great if we didn't have to live in it. After discussions with intoxicated bike rider friend we decide that some men can't see the house is a workplace for women and things have to work, whether that be the layout or the appliances. They simply have to work. I told my husband that if he had a slow computer at work how could he do his job. Mr Nutshell said that he couldn't. He is the Chief Tech Officer for a 35million online company. he couldn't do his bit could he if his equipment was crap. Well my family is priceless and I've got a house that no longer works for us.
People suggest changes, but I think it isn't the changes we need, it won't make more space, it would be over capitalising. I feel the $$ is better spent on the future. Not making it extra nice for the next person. it is pretty good if they have one child, not three.
Good luck with your decision. It's annoying when you can see what you want and then have to look at the bigger picture.
xx
I see your dilemna Erin, but, if you are looking to buy a bigger house in the near future I wouldn't bother upgrading your current kitchen. The next owners might want to renovate it all again anyway if it's not to their liking, then you've gone through that stress and expense for nothing. Just my opinion. We are about to put our house on the market and all the real estate agents we met with said don't bother upgrading the kitchen, carpets, flooring (unless it's a necessity to do them to sell) as potential buyers might not like your renovations anyway and have plans to rip it all up again! :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your advice Lisa, I doubt we would bother upgrading the kitchen if we were to move in the next 12 months. It has forced us to make a more concrete plan about when we want to buy a bigger house. Until now it has always been just something that will happen someday.
ReplyDeleteYes that is an officially crap kitchen. At least i have a pantry.
ReplyDeleteI too dream of the day when I will have a beautiful kitchen..and bathroom...and two living areas, and a big bedroom with a walk in robe, and am outdoor entertaining area.... have I missed anything?