Week 26 –  Finishing Kitchen

At last the doors arrived from IKEA  – but not the solid beech worktop. We called them and they told us that we’d have to wait for another six weeks. This is absurd. We’ve been waiting for it for over three months! I was not prepared to wait for another six weeks. So we got into the car and off we drove to IKEA..

We asked an IKEA  person at the door, where we could find the manager –  it was he! We explained the situation and our disappointment, so he invited us for lunch to discuss the matter. We told him that we ordered our kitchen back in June, yet we still have bits & pieces missing – particularly the worktop, which is an essential element of our kitchen. We’ve been promised its delivery several times, but they keep postponing. He listened and went back to his office to check things out.

He came back and told us that they had one in the warehouse, which we can pick up there and then. He’s also sending £100 compensation vouchers in the post.  Hurray!!!! I wish other retailers were this apologetic and forthcoming when they make a cock-up – although I still don’t quite understand how it could be that they happened to have one laying around in the warehouse yet, when we called them, they told us that they still hadn’t received any were and unlikely to do so within the next six weeks. Anyway, the main thing is that we had some nice Swedish meatballs, got some vouchers and got our worktop!

The next day we installed the doors. The hinges don’t really work properly with the pop-out mechanism because the hinges should be unsprung. But they do kind of work, just not as well as the doors in bedrooms and the bathroom. We also installed some half-shelves in the cabinets for spices and small containers. We cut some shelves in half and drilled new holes for the supports. This saves space and makes it easier to get to things.

The next day was spent on installing the worktop. We had to cut out an area to fit around the ducting box – this required some precise measuring as the walls are not true. We couldn’t do it very well, an ugly gap remained between the walls and the worktop, so we came up with an idea to cover the uneven cut: we continued the stainless steel edge (sort of a small splash-back) along the wall, made of the worktop material. We screwed this onto the worktop from underneath. The corners were filled with wood-filler. Then I sanded the whole work-surface down and oiled the wood three times.

Then we cut up the thinner worktops (which did arrive by the way) –  to cover the zones. This was easier than I thought it would be. I also had to oil these three times. Then we installed the lighting – and voila! the wall of units was ready. At last, something is ready!!!!!

We only need a blind, and the utensil rails and the kitchen will be done.