Finally...

Finally, the builder completed the painting and small jobs!! We still haven't got curtains but we can start cleaning up.

Staircase looks very nice after complete. We decided to go with eggshell finish rather than gloss. Doors are the same finish too.

Wall light looks good now :) And it's working!! 

Then kitchen... finally completed the painting and everything! It was a long long journey...

As the last job for the builder, we have asked him to put outside tap. It was too high position... it works, so it is okay for now

Still need to clean up a lot! After cleaning up, we will upload more pictures.

Kitchen 5 - Tiles

Our builder went for a holiday for 3 weeks... and finally came back! First thing we asked him was kitchen tiles. After worktop installation, only thing left in the kitchen.

We have already purchased them from Homebase. The builder got grouting from topps tiles. We chose white tiles and grey grouting. 

Match with the colour of cabinet and worktop (hopefully?) Now our kitchen looks nice!

Also we put the bulb in the pendant lights. At the beginning, one of them did not work but the electrician came back and fixed it quickly. Now kitchen is ready to use! (kind of...) It took so long since destroying the old kitchen!

Kitchen 4 - Worktop

We chose granite worktop(tornado grey). Installation did not go well unfortunately... After the fitter correct all mistakes (cabinet opening was opposite, cabinet was broken, the dish washer was not connected etc), finally we could proceed to install worktop. 

On the sink side, it fit smoothly. However, the hob and oven side, the stone cracked when installation. The wall seemed to be too tight. The worktop guys brought back the stone and they said they would come back in one week. Due to the hole in the middle for hob, the thin part are very fragile. 

Second time... the stone cracked again :( They tried to repair but we could see some cracks. They suggested to cut the stone to 4 pieces (thin part) then install next time. We wanted one piece smooth worktop but agreed it.
They said the stone will be ready by next Friday... we called them the day before (Thursday) they forgot to book the delivery (unbelievable!) So we needed to wait another week.

Then finally, at the third installation, the worktop was installed successfully.
The following week, gas hob was installed. Looks great.

I have never had granite worktop, I am looking forward to cooking here :)

Kitchen 3 - Kitchen delivery and installation

The kitchen cabinets and appliance are delivered and the fitter started the installation. Before installation, the builder had to complete plastering and tiling in the kitchen. They did not have time to paint... so the behind the cabinet, there will be no paint :( damn. But he did brilliant job for plastering on the wall and ceiling.

Then the cabinet and extractor were installed...

Looks very nice but all wrong unfortunately :(  The cabinet closer to the extractor should be the bigger cabinet, also open from closer to the extractor. All opposite.

We love the extractor! That looks very good :) We are happy about our choice.

Hope we can resolve the issue soon.

In the meanwhile, the builder is working upstairs room, plastering... we really hope to complete by the end of the month.

Tiles

It was hard to choose tiles for kitchen... floor tiles and wall tiles. We've got a basic idea but it was harder than we thought! Not only colour, texture, thickness, size etc.

My friend recommended fired earth, their flat has got beautiful tiles from the shop. We visited several times, tiles are beautiful but a bit out of our budget...
Next, we visited porcelanosa, their tiles are again so beautiful but a bit too luxuary... (out of budget too).
Then we went to Topps tiles, Homebase and B&Q. Topps tiles are more expensive than we thought but not as much as the first shops we saw. Luckily, we found a nice wall tile at homebase (half price!) The tile is Laura ashley one, looks very similar to the one in fired earth. 

As for the floor tiles, it was even tougher... we ordered some samples online too. Crown tiles was so quick! The samples were free up to 4 samples, and arrive in next 2 days. We liked some of them such as magma, but it was out of stock when we needed. (disappointing )  The other online tile shop, tons of tiles, their samples were NOT free and it took 4 days (as there was a system error etc) but the sample tiles were nearly actual size and very good to compare! In the end, the samples were not arrived before we ordered but we were happy to see the samples as one of them was the one we ordered :) We've already seen the same tiles at Topps tiles, so we decided to order, we had to order on that day! Tons of tiles has a good selection of tiles, and the price was competitive. Also the next day delivery is available... with these reasons, we ordered from tons of tiles. We chose Pietre di Keope Cogne Grey (right one!)

I'll upload the pictures in the next blog. 

Underfloor heating

Our kitchen is quite small... we noticed that we won't have space for radiator. We looked at thin long vertical radiator such as this... Looks great but only the space we can think of is the next to the cabinet. So the cabinet won't open properly if we put the radiator there.... so only the solution is underfloor heating!

I did not keen on underfloor heating at all as I have heard that the running cost is quite high... let's see if it is successful or not. We can't know until we move in and use it.

My partner found an underfloor heating company. He called the company and found quite helpful so we decided to order from them (Ambient Electrical Underfloor heating).

We didn't plan to renovate the bathroom... however, we thought it would be nice if there is underfloor heating in bathroom too. So We decided to re-do the bathroom floor too.

The underfloor heating kit arrived the next day we order online (it was quick!) We ordered the insulation mat as well.

Next, I will write about tiles!  (It was hard to choose for us...)