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Monday 22 February 2010

20/20 Hindsight

Anything I would have done differently in my kitchen I was asked by a friend the other day? Hell yes!! Where to start? We have SMEG appliances (other than the fridge freezer which is by Maytag) and they haven't been great. The cooker is much hotter on one side than the other and cooks food unevenly and the hob scratches so easily and is really smeary. I also regret not having a gas option for the hob. The fan oven has also broken twice now and cost us a considerable amount to repair. I know hindsight is always 20/20 but I REALLY wish I had spent some more time researching appliances.



I am also not sure of WTF I was thinking when I chose that cooker hood. I bang my head on it all the time and it is very noisy plus I am not that keen on the shape (I was really rushing when I ordered it)...


A recent post on the Living Etc forums made me drool over this Mercury
range:



Want it. Am now figuring out how we could reconfigure things and how much we would get for our oven and hob on ebay!! At almost £4k, it certainly isn't a priority (hello, loft conversion pending), but it doesn't stop me thinking about it...

Other regrets? I really wish we had put wiring into this central beam (in the middle of the rooflights):



To hang one of these (which I love very much...)




I know there wouldn't have been the budget at the time to buy the light, but if the wiring had gone in, the option would be there. I was talking to Mr SLS about this the other day and he did say we could get an electrician in to quote for the work if I wanted, but then I hadn't told him that the Sarfatti light would set us back £975. Also, with the loft conversion on the horizon, it hardly a priority.
We also spent a considerable amount of money on the floor, we went for a slate from Original Style. While I love the look of the tiles, they are incredibly time consuming to maintain and need regular sealing. Slate is also very soft, so we have quite a few scratches and dents now. I really wish we had spent half the money on porcelain tiles rather than getting stuck on the idea that we needed to have 'real stone'.


I am aware that all of this makes me sound like a moaner, and I know I am very lucky to have what I have, but I think with all projects it is important to learn something. I will spend more budget on appliances next time (the fridge was my big ticket appliance and I am very happy with it, so I do think it pays to spend money on them) and I would also spend more time planning the lighting (future proofing it in case I want to add to it later). If we ever do it all again, I will hopefully not make the same mistakes again!










2 comments:

  1. I love this post! Of course next time you will avoid all these mistakes and make a few new ones...!

    My own 20/20 views would be:
    There's no point 'upgrading' a cheap kitchen with a more expensive (in my case granite) worktop unless you're sure you will want to keep the cheap units for a long time! It's a good rule to use for rental or property development, but in your own home it just ties you in to a kitchen you're not 100% about. I'd rather go cheap as chips all over and start saving for the Plain English!

    Also, I think I should have sacrificed some of the space in the kitchen/diner to create (or keep) a utility room. I don't think the room would have suffered much as you can cram things in a lot tighter in a utility space.

    As you know, I love my slate flooring so we'll have to agree to differ on that one! HEx

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  2. LOL HE, let's agree to disagree on the flooring, but you will see what I mean when you visit!! I do love having a utility room but it was at the expense of having a larger area for the kitchen table... coulda, woulda, shoulda... ;-)

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