Moving into our dream bungalow 27 years ago Bron and I had taken out a maximum mortgage leaving us little by way of spare money for home improvements; nothing unusual in this as many couples do the same. However six weeks in our dream home we suffered a mid summer cloudburst which brought part of two ceilings down; not to worry we were insured paying rip off prices through the mortgage lender to Legal & General insurance company. The loss adjuster eventually arrived and a few days late we were told to get lost because the problem was down to lack of maintenance and not only did the ceilings require replacing the entire roof over the bungalow and the two roomed extension roof needed replacing as well. We had no money to fight not trusting solicitors anyway and we could not borrow more money and we didn't have funds in place for the estimated £6,500 re-roofing. We lived with buckets and bowls collecting water for 18 months whilst we took extra jobs on to save for materials. Without any outside help whatsoever we researched roofing then installed the roofs ourselves. Thank you for nothing Legal & General; we now don't have any insurance cover on our home; if it falls down we will rebuild it.
Having finally got the roofs sorted and new ceilings installed also doing the ceilings ourselves were broke once again but now we had a little cash to spare each week. Through my work I was in regular contact with the owner of a large timber yard and could buy hardwood offcuts cheaply; by now I had bought scrap woodworking machines such as saw table and surface planer rebuilding these machines very cheaply; we also had a Citroen 2CV so things were starting to come together at last. I would buy a car load of offcuts handing over £20; the offcuts were indeed offcuts and came in unusual sizes mostly of Meranti.
My plan was to install a fully fitted kitchen made mostly of these offcuts; it only took another 20 years or so because the kitchen has evolved over this time; I've done the work as money and time permitted whilst I worked in a highly stressful job. I had restored a vintage cast iron surface planer and bought a plate attachment which converted it into a very crude thicknesser; it was incredibly hard graft feeding timber through this but in fairness it dimensioned the timber; the table saw was very old; another beast in cast iron which I converted from fast and loose pulleys by installing a single phase motor. No dust extraction so whilst machining it created a fog in the garage; I wore one of the Martindale masks and each time I removed the mask its shape was clearly seen on my face; it also grew darker as machining progressed due to dust build up on my glasses; it never occurred to me to quit and walk away from this kitchen job.
The original kitchen units were horrible being made of Sapele; the finish was varnish but applied without the timber being smoothed hence it could take skin from our hands it was so rough. Little by little the kitchen progressed through fierce determination on my part and patience on Bron's part. One full height from floor to ceiling cupboard had upper and lower sliding doors; the upper doors were dangerous in that they were heavy block board and would detach from the track coming crashing to the floor.
I beamed the ceiling; there was an original extractor fan so I designed the cooker hood around this; Bron bought me a Freud biscuit jointer and a Record Power DML24" lathe as Christmas presents and both these were put to good use. As the basics went in I started to become a bit more creative and once all the base and wall units were installed (internal Contiplas shelves) the cooker hood went in and I then designed and made a fancy spindled gallery shelf to hold display plates; each small spindle being turned on the DML lathe. The shelf is double thickness of 3/4" softwood moulded at the front edges the top being a bit wider than the bottom and faced allowing tiles to be added; complementing tiles were added to the cooker hood.
The dreadful sliding doors were replaced by a pair of standard sized side hung doors which I made from more Meranti and added fielded and raised panels; above the doors to ceiling was plaster boarded and skimmed. The cooker unit was cheap imitation wood Contiplas and I didn't fancy trying to remove the built in oven on my own and disrupt the cooking arrangements whilst doing so; I added new facing to the cooker unit. Bron always wanted a nice Welsh dresser so I made her a bespoke one to slot into the wall gap between oven and wall units making the dresser full height to the ceiling.
The last job I did a few years ago was to add wall panelling by the cooker. and I made two new full sized doors but glazed the upper sections in safety glass to let some light in. As money became more available I actually bought some Meranti boards. Plywood I had to buy throughout this being 1/4". The kitchen unit doors and panelling are Meranti frames with plywood panels but rather than leaving the panels plain I added interest by running grooves to imitate individual boards; the grooves were hard work because each groove was a case of clamping a batten as a straightedge guide then carefully running the front teeth of a tenon saw against the plywood until the teeth cut through the outer ply; there is nothing like blisters on hands to cheer a job up but the end result has been worth it. The edges of each groove were hand sanded using folded abrasive paper to soften them.
All timber and plywood was subjected to staining in dark oak then varnished using a brush this also applied to the softwood beams. Work surfaces were very carefully measured and cut to accept the sink and hob. New spotlights and centre pendant were wired in by me as were all power sockets.
Our kitchen looks good and is made to last; it's been a true labour of love but it is a genuine fitted kitchen; Bron loves it and it's a welcoming place to be in with a good feel factor and warmth to it. It's of a style and materials which never date. Over the 20 years installing it the hardest part was lack of funds; my restored machines have been replaced by better and more user friendly machines but even these newer machines have been restored by me.
One major blessing is my lovely wife Bron who never complains and is always by my side with encouragement rather than criticism and she isn't a demanding wife who wants every modern convenience immediately; we work together and discuss what we want to achieve, Bron is very artistic and adds the feminine touches like choosing colours; adding pictures and decorations; I'm colour blind so Bron is a huge help.
I've also made a lot of our furniture both free standing and fitted costing very little monetary wise; now we have money I've no intention of ever giving up doing jobs myself the main problem now is our dire climate.
I took the pictures last night so they are a bit dark with a washing machine reflection in the oven door glass but if I had taken then today they would still be dark because it's like a black hole outside with high wind and lashing rain; this is why I'm here adding my kitchen story which I hope is of interest.
Kind regards, Col.
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with the jobs I still tackle around the bungalow and gardens but hope I'm still going up big trees when I reach 74? is the delta wing a model? I'd rather build a plane than a boat because I can't swim? I've laid up plenty of GRP whilst employed as a laminator many years ago; there are few companies left these days who produce GRP items; the one I worked for was Hippo Glass Fibre Products of Horbury near wakefield and this was over 40 years ago.
