Richard wrote:

Hello All,

I thought I'd ask for your opinions on purchasing a new Kitchen.

I have been trying to decide if spashing out 8-10K on a new kitchen is
really worthwhile or settling for an equivalent B and Q jobbie at a
quarter of the price would be better or serve us just as well. I had
kitchens Direct in not so long ago and they qouted me 14K which I
thought was a complete Pi!s take and have had other qoutes from people
like John Lewis and Nichols for around the 8-10K price mark. Today
whilst browsing through B and Q which has become my second home
recently I stumbled on their kitchen range and quite like the gloss
white offering they have. The money for this in comparison seems like
peanuts. One of my mates recently spent 32K on his kitchen!!!! it
looks real impressive but Im not sure you couldn't of got something a
third of that price which would of basically looked the same.

Can someone tell me if there really is that much difference in quality
to justify spending 10K on a new kitchen. We plan to stay in the house
for a long time and have plenty of other things that we could be
spending our money on as we have basically renovated the whole
downstairs thanks to a lot of help and advice from you folks.

My mrs was telling me that on one of the DIY programmes recently it
was mentioned that the average proce paid for a kitchen is 2K.

What questions should I be asking?

Any comments greatly appreciated as usual.

I have boufht tow and tow haves kitchens for this house.

The cheapo stuff is Hygena - got from currys and MFI. Its not too bad,
all plastic/chip ofcorse, but looks OK and will last about 10 years or
so. Cost was about 500 for a kichen, 150 for utility room and about 350
for my workshop...including worktops, but not of course fitting, or
inits,which I had, apart from a nice ceramic hob cooker I picked up S/H
opr £100.

I got teh more expensive stuff from www.aerna-kitchens.co.uk - solid oak
shaker style doors, and better caercaes than teh wbove, sort of 15-20
year life expectacy.

I think the units were a couple of grand for a very big kitchen with oak
block worktops. I fitted most of them myself, but about 600 quids worth
of carpenters time was needed fo the worktop, and fettling in details.

Theres 6 grand of aga and electric companion in there too, 700 quid of
built in fridge, 400 of built in washing machine and 500 of water
softener. Plus a cheapo belfast for about the ton with taps.

I spent about a grand on slate flooring. So maybe £13k for a complete
installaton in a 35 sq meter kitchen. The absolute lot including aga.
Frankly, the Hygena one is entoirely adequate functionally, it just
looks a buit plastiky. Some nice tiles have helped...

To have the big one installed would have probably taken it up towards 20
gtarnd. Its hard to see how one can spend more other than on hand made
solid wood units, or over the top ditzy appliances. Or granite etc.

So what is teh difference beteen '8-10 grand' and about 2 grand?

The doors look nicer.

The stuff will last about 15 years instead of 7.

That is IT. Otherwise its no bloody different!




Cheers

Richard