Kitchen Renovation – Part 3 – After

Hello there!  At last, here is the long-awaited ‘after’ post for the kitchen renovation series.  We’ve had the kitchen and dining rooms painted since the kitchen was completed.  Then we’ve had some dull days which were no good for taking photographs  (too dark) and then of course, I’ve been sick.  Anyway, though the photographs aren’t quite as good as I’d have liked, finally here is a post to show you how it all turned out.

If you haven’t read my earlier kitchen renovation posts you might like to do so before reading this.  You can find them here (Part 1 – Before) and here (Part 2 – During).

We had our kitchen done by Kitchen Connection.  They were on the whole very good and we are happy with the end result but there was an unfortunate hiccup along the way.  The initial consultation in the showroom was great, with the staff that we interacted with being very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful.  Then the design guy that came out to the house was friendly and had some great suggestions too.  A 3D design is done on the computer which is helpful for visualization.  We were then assigned a Customer Support Manager who was a lovely guy.  All the trades that came were timely, friendly, courteous, and did great jobs.

The Hiccup

I can’t review a product or service without complete honesty, and though this is not an official review because in this case the product and service has been fully paid for by ourselves, I still feel this hiccup must be mentioned.  The hiccup came during installation of the cabinetry.  The installer was a lovely guy and did a really great job.  He was very good at his job, but unfortunately we were not consulted on handle placement on cupboards and drawers at all.  I was not concerned about this and in fact barely gave it a thought because I had assumed that they would be centred on all drawers, vertically and horizontally.  When the cabinetry was delivered there were no handles on them as yet.  The installer put them on in-situ.  I wasn’t in the room when he did this as I was trying to be considerate and stay out-of-the-way with the dog and besides, it was crowded and cluttered and not the safest place to be until some space was cleared once the cabinetry was installed.  When I came in later to see how things were going I saw that the handles on the seven (7) ‘deep’ drawers had been placed at the top (vertically) of the drawers rather than centred.  The narrow drawers (by depth) had the handles centred both vertically and horizontally as I would have expected.  This disparity looked very odd to me and shocked me as I had not seen it done this way before.  When I questioned him about it, he said it was the ‘new’ way and that ‘some people prefer this way, some people prefer the old way’.  I was never given the choice.  I think he realised his mistake in not consulting me about this.  I have to be honest – I was very upset, quite distressed about it actually.  The kitchen was costing us a lot of money and from the get go something happened that wasn’t right and it rattled me.  Interestingly, all kitchen drawer photos I see on their social media have the handles placed exactly as I had been expecting mine to be.  To wrap the story up quickly – to correct this handle placement would mean to replace the 7 x deep drawer fronts (not the whole drawer – just the drawer fronts).  They would not do this free of charge for us.  It would have cost us approximately an additional $800 which we were told was heavily discounted and waiving the installation cost.  This wasn’t acceptable to us after the money already spent and this error being through no fault of ours.  We also had other expenses ahead to consider, so unless we wanted to kick up a stink and create more stress for ourselves, we’ve had to accept the handle placements as they are.  Thankfully, the rest of the kitchen is so lovely that the 7 x wonky drawer handle placement becomes less noticeable with time.  You will see what I mean if you look closely at the photos.  Onward and upward.  I refuse to dwell on it, preferring instead to protect my inner peace and focus on the good, and there is a lot of good about our new kitchen.

Appliances

At the time, Kitchen Connection was offering a significant discount on any appliances bought through them, so we took them up on that.  Of course, we were then limited to the brands with whom they collaborate with, which were only a few, but that’s ok, we’re happy with our selections.  We got our oven, cooktop, rangehood, sink and tap through them.  The dishwasher we bought independently after ours suddenly partially died and we decided it would be more economical to buy a new one then to spend money on the old one.

Oven:  Westinghouse Stainless Steel Multifunction Oven

Cooktop:  Westinghouse 60cm electric ceramic cooktop

Rangehood:  Westinghouse 60cm slide out recirculating rangehood

Dishwasher:  Fisher & Paykal Double DishDrawer Dishwasher, 14 Place Settings, Sanitize

Sink:  Oliveri Monet Double Bowl Undermount Sink

Tap:  Oliveri Vilo Pull-Out Spray Mixer – Santorini Black

I have to say that out of the above listed appliances I am most in love with my tap!  It’s a real indulgence but worth every cent.  It is fabulous!  We stuck with the pull out rangehood, even though they’re not exciting, because we didn’t want to sacrifice cupboard space.

Benchtop

Caesarstone Oyster

Other Details

Splashback:  Smoked Mirror Glass

Pendant Lights:  Beacon Lighting (see here)

My gorgeous kettle and toaster are Morphy Richards and were a birthday gift (there’s no way the old toaster and jug were making it to the new kitchen).  You can see them at Myers here > kettle and toaster.  I love the black and the rose gold accents on these are so delish.  

Bar Stools – KMart (see here)

Step Stool for the vertically challenged such as myself – Ikea (see here)

Plants and Pots – Bunnings

Wrap Up

Regardless of our ‘hiccup’ I would still recommend Kitchen Connections, because they were otherwise very organised, punctual, friendly, professional and efficient, but I would do so saying to please be aware of ALL the details and do not make ANY assumptions.  DO check with the installer regarding handle placement.  DO ask about sealing around the cabinetry kickboards.  We had to ask for this and get them back to do it.  DO speak up if you’re not happy with something. I had to with a few things – nothing as major as the ‘hiccup’, and they did come back for these and correct at no extra charge.

Ok, so here are some ‘after’ photographs for you!  We think our kitchen is gorgeous, but you won’t be seeing a kitchen of the kind you see on ‘The Block‘ – no butlers pantry for example – we don’t have that kind of budget unfortunately! 

Here’s a few BEFORE and AFTER comparison shots, just for fun!

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I was hoping to get more photos (close ups of the gorgeous sink for example) but ran out of time.  It was more important to get this post done and published and if you’re reading this, then it looks like I’ve finally done that!  Yay!

Hope you like my kitchen.  She’s elegant and stylish and so much more efficient than before.   I love her!

Ciao for now,

 

 

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