Category: kitchen (Page 2 of 4)

Delays with the kitchen

March 11, 2014 / stephen

The kitchen worksurfaces were due to be installed today. I found out yesterday afternoon that there has been a delay in getting hold of the granite sink bowls. This means that the worksurfaces won’t be installed for another couple of weeks.

This sort of thing is not unusual on building projects, but is still a pain when it happens.

The electrician turned up this morning to install the appliances. These only arrive when the worksurfaces are installed. The tiler starts next week in the kitchen. While we can tile without the worksurfaces installed, no one else is going to be able to work in the kitchen while he is there.

There isn’t much we can do at this point other than roll with it. But it is a pain.

Lighting circuits in the kitchen

March 4, 2014 / stephen

With our home automation kit, each room has a number of lighting circuits. These circuits can then be turned on and off independently. In addition, some of the circuits can be dimmed (as long as they are connected to a central dimmer unit).

Some areas of the house have been fairly straightforward to sort out. Others are more complex. The kitchen is a good example of where there are multiple lighting circuits – gone are the days when there just used to be a fluorescent strip in the middle of the ceiling!

We are just sorting out all of the lighting in the kitchen and I am amazed to find that we have a total of 8 lighting circuits here.

Wall lights – small rectangular lights shining up and down on the reclaimed stone;
2 sets of suspended wire lights – each with 4 x 5w bulbs. The two strips are controlled independently;
4 x LEDs under the breakfast bar;
7 x LEDs along the canopy of the tall kitchen units;
2 downlighters in the square window that separates the lounge and the kitchen;
an pendant light in the tall window;
And finally, there is a LED strip underneath the plinth of the main units. This is DMX controlled and we will be able to change the colour and the intensity (brightness) of the LED strip.

However, we don’t need 8 switches to control 8 lights (although you could if you really wanted to!). With the Loxone system, we can define scenes. A scene is a predefined set of lights. So for example, you might define an “eating” scene or a “cooking” scene. Each of these scenes might use a different combination of lights. Some of this we are going to have to set once we are living in the property. The scenes should also be set when it is dark as lighting looks completely different in daylight.

These are Collingwood lights. There are four along this wall. 1w up and 1w down. We have used the same lights in the parapet wall in the hallway so that they line up. These lights are hardly noticeable when they are not on.

Suspended wire lighting from SLV. This all runs on 12v and we can put up to 6 lights onto each pair of wires. Currently we have 4 on each.

These LED lights were installed underneath the worktop of the breakfast bar when the kitchen units were installed. Although installed by the kitchen fitters, these too are controlled by the Loxone kit.

Saxby LED downlights. These are IP65 rated and could be used outdoors. These are the same lights that we have used in the bathrooms elsewhere in the property. Each of the lights is 1w.

These two downlighters are in the square “window” between the kitchen and the lounge. They need to be pushed back up into the holes, but have been left down while the decorators are still working in this area.

A straightforward pendant light. There will be a piece of artwork here in the long term.

Update on the kitchen

March 1, 2014 / stephen

All of the kitchen units have been installed this week. This includes the units that make up the island unit. All of the electrics are in place as is the plumbing.

Once all the units were in place, it was a case of cutting templates for the granite worktops. The templates are cut out of hardboard and marked up with the relevant details.

Next week the worktops will be made using the templates. They will then be installed the following week – along with all of the appliances.

The appliances will be installed when the rest of the kitchen is finished off. The island unit has been wrapped up to protect it over the next week or two before the installation is finished.

All of the kitchen cupboards have been installed this week. We now have a week’s break while the granite worktops are being made before the kitchen is finished off.

This is the island unit with a hardboard template instead of a worktop. The granite worktop will be cut using the hardboard as a template.

Notes to the guys manufacturing the worktop are made on the hardboard templates.

The new kitchen has arrived…

February 25, 2014 / stephen

Although it will be a couple of weeks before it is finished, the kitchen has started to be installed today.

By the end of this week, we should have all of the base units fitted as well as the first fix electrics and plumbing. The fitters will then make up the templates for the granite worktops.

We have a gap of about a week, then the worktops and appliances are fitted. It is starting to feel like a real house now!

The new kitchen has started to be fitted today. It won’t be finished for a couple of weeks, but I reckon that we will have most of the base units installed this week.

Now where is that hole again?

February 24, 2014 / stephen

There were a number of pipes installed in the kitchen floor. These were for various services such as water, drainage etc. It only occurred to us a few weeks ago that one of the holes – for the extractor fan – had disappeared when the floor was screeded.

The extractor pipe was fairly obvious and we had covered the top with black plastic (to ensure that no debris went down the hole). However, the chap putting down the screed seemed to think that this should have been cemented over!

A quick look at the plan and we found the measurements for the location of the pipe. Unfortunately, it took a couple of goes to relocate it.

How do we find it? We played Absolute 80’s down one end of the pipe and listened for it on the kitchen floor! Yes, really.

The hole for the extractor fan should have been 375mm from the wall. It looks as if it was a little out, but thanks to Absolute 80's we found it!

The hole for the extractor fan should have been 375mm from the wall. It looks as if it was a little out, but thanks to Absolute 80s Radio we found it!

Suspended wire lighting

February 22, 2014 / stephen

We have just installed suspended wire lighting in the kitchen. The ceiling is really too high to attach anything to the beams, so using a suspended wire system seemed like the obvious choice.

There are 2 pairs of wires – one along the line of the kitchen work surfaces, the other over the breakfast bar. There are 4 lights on each. These are 12v LED lights. Each are 4.2W. So we have about 17W of lighting on each pair of wires.

The cables are fixed to the wall using some oak mounting plaques that the joiner made. The oak was left over from building the roof, so once these pieces of oak have been treated with Osmo, they will match the rest of the oak in the kitchen.

The suspended cable system is from SLV. You will find the lamp holders here: http://www.slvlightingdirect.com/track-lighting/wire-12v-lighting-system/slv-181080-lamp-holder-adjustable-wire-12v-system-light-black.html.

This is the view from below. Most of what you see is actually the outside of the light bulb. It will be important to make sure that we have spares should we get any failures. These are 12v MR16 LED bulbs.

We have yet to get these powered up (our electrician has done with archilles tendon playing football), but hopefully we will get these up and running next week.

An oak “plaque” has been screwed to the wall, then the chrome fittings are fixed to the oak. The oak was from the offcuts from the roof timbers, so by the time it has been treated with Osmo, it should all match.

The bulb forms 80% of the fitting (the plastic basket is actually part of the bulb). We need to make sure that we have some spares, otherwise we might end up with some non-matching bulbs. These are 12v LED bulbs that are rated for 25,000 hours, so hopefully it will be a while before we get any failures.

Controlling the rooflights

February 20, 2014 / stephen

There are 3 sets of rooflights in the extension (in addition to the Veluxes in the bathrooms). There is one set of rooflights in the kitchen and two sets in the lounge. Each set has 5 panes – 2 of which open. Because of the height of the ceilings, these need to be electrically controlled.

The 3 sets of rooflights cost around £6,000. They came with very cheap plastic rocker switches – a bit disappointing given the cost of the windows. We have replaced these and decided to control them using the Loxone kitchen. This means that they can be controlled via switches in the house or remotely via an iPad/iPhone/PC. This gives us the opportunity to automate the opening/closing of the rooflights – e.g. opening when a set temperature inside the property is reached or closing the rooflights when the burglar alarm is set.

Interestingly, the attention was for the Loxone kit to only control the lights, but since we have installed it we have found a number of other uses for it.

Lights in the kitchen

February 20, 2014 / stephen

The kitchen is due to be installed next week and we are just sorting out the lighting and the final bits of decorating.

We are using Collingwood MC020-S LED up/down lights. These are only 1W each (or rather 1W up and 1W down) and cast out an amazing about of light.

The light on the furthest left needs to be adjusted (look at the shape of the light on the ceiling), but these start to show off the texture of the reclaimed stone wall.

This is the view into the kitchen from the opening in the hallway. There will be a row of kitchen units along this wall once the kitchen is installed.

These are the lights that we are using on the kitchen wall as well as the parapet wall above the staircase. The line of lights in the kitchen matches the line of lights on the parapet wall. These are Collingwood MC020S LED up/down lights. You can hardly see them when they are switched off – they seem to blend into the stonework.

Kitchen ceiling painted

February 10, 2014 / stephen

The decorators started last Friday and today they managed to get a couple of coats of paint on the kitchen ceiling. They also managed to paint the ceilings in the hall and the snug as well as getting some of the woodwork prepped. This is really starting to make a difference.

The kitchen ceiling has been painted today – two coats of white emulsion. I am amazed how quick one of the decorators has done this – it would have taken me ages and not nearly been half as good. The wire at the top of the picture is for the fire alarm – it seems to get into every shot!

With the ceiling painted, the next job is to give the oak beams a second coat of Osmo PolyX. Then we can move onto painting the walls.

The decorators have arrived!

February 9, 2014 / stephen

The first job is to clean up the new roof timbers. These had been previously been coated with Osmo UV Protection oil. This was necessary as the oak was exposed to the elements while the roof was being built. If we had left it untreated, the mud and rain would have soaked into the wood and been very difficult to remove.

Cleaning up the oak involves softening up the previously applied Osmo with white spirit. Then rubbed it down with wire wool, before finally wiping it down with a clean cloth and white spirit. The more persistent marks will be sanded out. Fortunately, there aren’t too many of these. The final stage will be a second cost of Osmo (this time the internal PolyX version) to reseal the wood.

By the time we get to the end of the first day, the beams in the kitchen have been cleaned ready for a coat of Osmo next week.

These timbers had been previously coated with Osmo exterior wood finish. To get the dirt and finger marks off them, they are wiped down with a cloth dipped in white spirit, then rubbed with wire wool dipped in white spirit and then finally wiped down with a clean cloth (again dipped in white spirit).