Fitted kitchen
Quite a quick job really; Becca was quite capable of making up most of the carcasses in advance. So I had the luxury of just getting them in position in and fitting. The only exceptions were the monstrous larder unit - what a bugger getting that upright without snapping the legs off - and the corner units, which were assembled in the room (just in case they wouldn't go through the door).
We actually didn't have that many base units to fit; just lots of holes. I think these are more tricky. All you have is a flat panel to fix to the wall and floor any way you would like to invent (nothing is supplied) in a level, upright and true (90 degree) position. Against walls that are neither upright, straight or true, doing so is not that easy!
Hanging the wall-mounted cupboards was far more straightforward. A little notch was taken out to bring the electrical wire round from the back to the underneath, where striplight fittings were screwed on. With a bit of luck, the whole lot will be concealed by the pelmet.
Managed to get away with cutting the worktop without a router jig. These save time but cost around £90YYY Did it by hand and then carefully finnessed the radius with a round file. Tried it out on a scrap piece first to get my dimensions.
I made the cut outs for the clamps freehand too. I don't know whether I was just lucky, but the final result is so precise you can't see the join. It looks like one big L-shaped slab of fake granite. I think using a joining bar strip would have given the game away.
So you get your lovely worktop in, admire it for a bit, but then you have to go cutting holes for sinks and hobs. Boy is this tough; despite fitting a new blade, the jigsaw required a little persuading.
Have arranged for a whole load more gas engineers to quote for the boiler move over the next two weeks. Not that keen on picking names out of the yellow pages, though. I think I am going to have to ask another neighbour for their recommendation. The one suggested so far seems to have disappeared. So I'm taking the hint that he doesn't want the job.
A jig used with a router is the easiest way to achieve professional worktop joints
