We started planning for our home renovation last fall and it's been a slow and frustrating process. Nothing is easy with all these intricate laws in the UK and thankfully we appointed an architect to guide us through the process. We needed to submit our plans not only to the town for approval but also need all of our neighbors (4 parties involved) to sign off as well and this has been the most difficult part of it all. We're almost there with all the paper work and it's seriously cost a fortune already without breaking any ground. Today is a very exciting day as we have finally appointed our builder and things will be moving along now! Luckily I will be crashing at my mom's in NJ all summer when most of the demolition and structural elements will be happening. I've got a toddler that is into everything and a 3 1/2 year old that's pretty convinced he's Bob the Builder so not ideal candidates to live on a building site.
The main reason we are doing the works is to extend our kitchen into the exterior space that currently isn't being used. This has snowballed into having bathrooms and bedrooms redone because they basically have to tear out the back of our house to add in new steels to support the house. It's a pretty common extension that is done in Southwest London where every inch of space you can get is so very valuable. I really spend most of my day in the kitchen which is currently pretty cramped and can't wait for a new spacious room for cooking and entertaining. I do feel like a line cook most days just taking order after order. The scary part is that we probably still won't have a working kitchen when we return at the end of August.
I definitely want to go for more of a traditional look in the new kitchen as I am living in a Victorian house after all. I have my heart set on having a white shaker style kitchen with hints of gray. I think a classic white kitchen is such a timeless look and I want something that I won't regret or get sick of after a couple of years. I think adding the gray makes it much more modern but still keeps with the traditional style. I'm going back and forth with how much gray I actually want in the cabinets. At this point I think I want to have just a gray kitchen island with the rest of the cabinets in white all topped with a white quartz countertop. I'm sure I will change my mind 1000 times before I go and place the order.
Above are some gorgeous kitchens for you to all drool over. Of course my version will be totally budget friendly coming from Ikea but I've got big plans to make it super glamorous without having to spend much!
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i empathize. I am also waiting for official planning permissions and party wall agreements. it has been 6 months and am still waiting. London building works is a world of its own!
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