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Victorian house renovation – living rooms and starting hallway
Post 3 on Victorian house renovation – Hallway and bedrooms
Two and a half years later we have “finished” our main changes to the house. The kitchen extension is completed and I am loving it! We knocked the outside coal shed, and outside toilet down, removed the back wall of the house, then re-built it into our new kitchen/family room. We also built the salon on the side of the house.
I have been thinking a lot about storage recently, but read a brilliant quote online- “If you think you need more storage, then you probably need less stuff”. So I have been having a massive de-clutter and in fact, don’t need any extra storage now.
The kitchen itself was done on a budget for a couple of reasons. 1. being I wasn’t really sure what units I actually wanted and where. 2. I prefer my money to be spent on holidays and not stuff 3. Very important I have a young child that I wanted to enjoy the kitchen and not be shouted at her cutting on the solid wooden tops I liked haha!
So the budget for the kitchen was set low! I found second-hand bits on Gumtree and spent hours trying to figure out where I wanted all the units. In the end, we estimated it costed £300 (three hundred) for our budget kitchen. The kitchen doors are mostly solid oak doors I got for free off Gumtree. I sanded and painted them up. We got a few flatpack units and built them ourselves. This is extremely easy to do! The kitchen carcass for our sink was less than £40. If you are willing to purchase bits separately and do the bases yourself you can save a lot of money. We paid a local carpenter to fit the worktop for us, but put units together and designed it ourselves.
The wooden floor is planks from Cushions in Norwich. Worked out £400 for the kitchen floor for materials. It’s 25mm thick, so can be sanded and restored a lot before needing to be replaced.
I wanted a full ceramic sink, so found one secondhand off Gumtree for £30.
My husband wanted a Range master. This was extra at £250 including hood on eBay.
Kitchen tiles were £40 in sale at B&Q. I did this job. It’s extremely easy to do. Only tricky part is cutting them around electric sockets. I used black grout in hope it would look cleaner for longer.
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Middle room got finished with office under the stairs for Andy.
White floor didn’t work in Jessica’s room, so we sanded it back to wood. I am really pleased with the simple look of white walls and wooden floor. I aim to do this throughout now. Every 6 months I go through the house and touch up the areas which get dirty.
My workroom on side of the building: Only 2 metres wide, but perfect for me. Toilet and utility room at the back.
The driveway was done too! Secondhand slabs used making it around £400 with materials and labour.
Overall I am really pleased. If I had done things differently I would have project managed the extension myself getting specialised trade men in for each job.
Next project is to make the garden feel like a tiny oasis in Norwich city centre. Not an easy job when my daughter loves her ugly trampoline. The de-cluttering is helping loads as we are now going to downgrade the size of our shed.
Live locally to Norwich and want to book in? Have a look at my price list and contact me by email.
