Of Kitchens, Washing Machines and Cowboy Builders
Today was washing day. I put the first wash load in the machine, pressed the button, and away I went to get on with something more interesting. But not for long. The washing machine had stopped and the red light was flashing. Okay, it was probably just the filter that needed cleaning. No problem there then …. except …. Our washing machine is housed in an alcove, specially designed for the washing machine and water heater and it fits in there very tightly.
As I’ve said before, our house is pretty small. The house we bought consisted of a living room,with a very small room off (now our ‘computer room), one bedroom and a very wide, steep staircase. 
(it looks a little better now..)
The previous owners had built on a kitchen and bathroom, but these had been ramshackle contraptions, so they were knocked down to provide space for an extension.
(you can see why we knocked it down …)
Our new extension consists of a new kitchen and bathroom, and a lobby at the top of the stairs leading to a new second bedroom. Stairs also lead from the lobby to our new roof terrace above the second bedroom. Because there wasn’t a great deal of ground space for the extension and we wanted an extra double bedroom, both the kitchen and the bathroom had to be on the ground floor. This meant that we would end up either with a small kitchen or a small bathroom. As neither of us enjoy cooking that much, we opted for a reasonable sized bathroom and a galley-style kitchen. The original design of the extension was mine. I wanted to provide as much extra space as possible, but had been thwarted in making a simple design which just extended full-width from the original house because the roof of the church next door overhangs our property; hence the lobby which actually has part of the church roof in its ceiling (but the less said about that the better …).
The builder-come-project manager we hired agreed that my design would work and gave us a price which we agreed was fair. But he also had a few ideas of his own.
“I know you have decided upon a small kitchen,” he said, “but what about all those appliances you need space for?”
Well, we had already decided that the fridge-freezer was to go in the ‘alcove’ between our house and our neighbour’s, but we did still have to find room for the washing machine and cooker, but our design had incorporated them into the workspace in the kitchen.
“I’ve got a better idea.” Said our project manager. “I can design a small extension at the back of your kitchen that takes up a little bathroom space, but makes another alcove - this one for your washing machine and water heater.”
“Hmmm,” said my husband, “that’s all very well, but how do I get the washing machine out if I want to repair it?”
“Hadn’t thought of that one.” Said the project manager. “But let me make the alcove and we can fit the kichen around it, making sure that you have plenty of space.”
“Hmmm,” said my husband again, “…. if you are sure this is going to work …”
“Of course it will. Leave it to me. It’s gonna look great!”
The ‘kitchen’ that was then built consisted of nothing but a sink unit, oven housing, and two floor units either side (one of which is fully taken up with our gas bottle), plus two wall units. Well, we could just about get at the washing machine, but as to kitchen storage space, forget it!
When our project manager disappeared before completion (but that’s a story for another time …), leaving us to finish some pretty hard jobs on the house, after ranting a little and despairing a little longer, we took stock of what still had to be done. It turned out that with a bit of forethought, hard graft, and inventive use of paint, filler and chipboard, we could do most of the work ourselves and make the house liveable in (if not quite the ‘palatial place in the sun’ we had had in mind …). We virtually rebuilt the kitchen, installing cupboards everywhere there was space to put them. We even have ‘African scenes’ which I have painted on two of our wall cupboards - we may not have a window, but we can still ‘be somewhere else’ when we are stood at the kitchen sink! We also came up with the idea of a cupboard on wheels, that fits between the washing machine and the sink unit, which we pull out every time we use the washing machine; a little awkward, but it works. All in all, we did very well with that kitchen and we were proud of our work.
But the fact that the washing machine is still in a pretty inaccessible alcove still remained. Especially today when the thing broke down.
It took over two hours, with lots of pushing, pulling, straining, and a fair amount of cursing to get the washing machine out of the alcove, the filter cleaned, the machine tested, and then back into that same alcove. Okay, the washing machine works again now, but the idea of getting the thing out on a regular basis to clean the filter doesn’t exactly fill our hearts with joy.
The moral of this story is, if you move to Spain and buy a property and you have a good design in mind to renovate it, don’t be swayed to change your design by a ‘project manager’ who doesn’t know his kitchens from his elbow.
And Mr ‘Project Manager’, if you are browsing the web looking for posts from your area, as I know you do, and you read this post, then you will know exactly who I am talking about.
Nuff said!
(via No me lo puedo creer!)
1 year ago