If you read my blog back in the day, back in 2006, you’ll know all about my traumatic experience with B&Q when they did my bathroom. The experience was so traumatic that I couldn’t even walk into a B&Q for around ten years, let alone buy anything from them, and when friends bought anything from them I felt deeply betrayed. This put me off improving my home for the rest of my life.
Thirteen years later, however, feeling a little less traumatized and living in a house that needed a top-to-bottom overhaul, I was courageous and allowed various artisans (and women) to come and beautify my home for me. So far everything has gone well (I probably shouldn’t use that word because as I write this I’m using my washing machine for the first time since it was hooked up to its new location in the veranda).
For the last almost two years, this is what I’ve done to my house, with no B&Q disasters (touch wood).
Fence Repairs
I live by the sea and it is windy all the time (except when it isn’t, which is not very often). This means that fences are regularly destroyed. I’ve had mine repaired twice and the last panel only stays in place because I have a garden bench supporting it. I figured that by fixing the fence, the fencer might as well tidy up the garden at the same time. time. And he did a great job too.
Attic room
I decided to paint the attic myself because I thought it would be nice and simple. Bad McWrongface! Me, not being the DIY type, didn’t know that a) cheap paint is crap; and b) blue is a really hard color to cover, even if it’s light blue. It took me four or five coats (even after I ditched the cheap paint after the first coat for a more reputable brand) and I still did it very poorly and if you look closely (please, don’t do it), you can see bits of blue.
I wasn’t going to try to install a floor myself so I paid professionals to do it and they did a great job as well. They didn’t even complain that I had left a bit of furniture in the room (when I had my carpet done in London the company that did it had a charge of £25 per item which was to be moved according to its terms and conditions).
Bathroom
I’m ashamed of myself. You would think that after all the trauma I went through after my B&Q experience, I would never buy from them again. And I really didn’t want to but I traveled the whole world (sort of) looking for a bathroom that I liked a); and b) didn’t cost around a billion pounds, and the only one I found that met both requirements was B&Q’s. The B&Q man asked me if I had ever shopped at B&Q and I took great pleasure in telling him about the time I took them to court and won. He said “fine”, which I found funny, but made a mental note to never hire him due to his extreme lack of loyalty to the company. He also said they weren’t doing installations anymore and I said that was probably because people kept suing them for royally screwing things up (I used a more polite as that one, but you get the gist).
So I bought my lovely bathroom from B&Q and paid a professional plumber and not some limbless, brainless monkey that B&Q found randomly on the street to install it for me. The bathroom was delivered on time (shock horror) and nothing was missing (same), the plumber plumbed it, I had the people at the flooring company who did my attic install it vinyl flooring, the fencer installed a new door. and, although the bathroom needs to be finished with a bit of boxing and all that, it looks really, really nice.
Conservatory
My kitchen is very small. Seriously, despite what my friend on Facebook says that it’s not the smallest kitchen in the world, I think it is. I had originally planned to extend the kitchen by knocking out the side return and building outwards to almost triple the size of the kitchen but, because I wanted the back of it to be mainly glass in a A sort of half-sunroom/half-kitchen hybrid, I realized that it wouldn’t really give me more storage – only more floor space – so I decided to have a sunroom built there. the place.
It took a team of brilliantly jokey builders seven days that I missed after finishing. It’s not exactly an ideal conservatory, as I use it mainly for overflow kitchen storage (thanks to an Ikea cabinet in which I can store my bread maker, slow cooker, blender, deep fryer and all the rest) and not to sit down. , sipping tea in the sun, and since I’ve done the cooking I now have the washing machine in there but it’s given me a lot more flexibility in terms of space and it works perfectly as a craft room/writing room (I’m currently sitting in the conservatory typing this).
Windows and front door
When I moved into my house, it had brown windows and a brown front door and all the fixtures were a peeling gold color. It was thorough. In an ideal world I would have beautiful wooden sash windows, but it’s not an ideal world and I’m not rich, so although I could have had replacement aluminum windows, I opted for a pretty white PVC, clean and impeccable.
I had spent MONTHS choosing a new front door after the man in the window shopping gave me two large brochures featuring many beautiful (and not so beautiful) front doors, just for the man who came to measure everything to tell me that my door was too. narrow, which left me with only five choices. I picked the one I hated the least and, by chance, I saw the same one on a house a few days later and hated it a lot less in real life.
Kitchen
My kitchen, in addition to being tiny, had obviously been installed by a handyman who had just oriented the countertops and cabinets in the general direction of the kitchen and told them to install without care or attention. If the cabinets and countertops had been in better condition and installed correctly, everything would be fine. However; they weren’t.
I had a new kitchen installed last week (purchased and installed by Wickes) and it is BEAUTIFUL. I can’t stop watching it, I love it so much. I need a new floor and I need the walls painted but that will be done (except for buying all the new things like cutlery and storage jars and a kettle and toaster and everything which is obviously what you need for a brand new, sparkling clean kitchen). I also have a dishwasher again for the first time in two years and I really like it.
I don’t see anything in all these improvements that hasn’t gone smoothly. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that any future improvements go just as smoothly.
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