Oh dear, more problems

When the plaster-work men started working on the interior of my house we had a conversation about the kitchen. I emphasised to them that the dimensions had to be precise because I’d planned them so standard size kitchen units would fit exactly into the spaces. I even went so far as to do a print of my original plan on my computer which I gave them to refer to.

So you can imagine my dismay when I went around and checked all of the measurements and found that ONLY ONE was actually correct! But that’s not the worst part.

One of the kitchen walls, the one along which I plan to have the oven, hot plate and fridge, is offset into bedroom 3. The size of the offset is not random – it was carefully calculated to allow the fitted items, the oven and the fridge, to fit under the worktop with the proper amount of worktop overhang in the front, and the hot plate to go on top with a proper amount of worktop around it on all sides.

Standard under-worktop units are 57cm deep and items like the oven and fridge need all of that. So I decided on a worktop depth of 60cm which means that the wall has to be offset by the same amount, or even just a bit more, and that measurement is critical. But see the image below. When I measured it I found it to be only 58cm.

So that was when I went around and checked all of the other dimensions and the image below shows what I found. Only one, the wall marked B in the image below, to the right of the sink, is of the correct length. However, because the length of the run in which the sink unit will be installed is 6cm too long (166cm compared to 160cm) it means that the wall B has been placed 6cm too far to the right, into the living room.

And there’s more wrong with wall A. As the wall offset is 2cm too small, it means that the wall has not been set back far enough into bedroom 3, but as well as that, it’s also 2cm too long at 284cm rather than the 282cm it should be (not shown in the above image). I can live with that difference but I’m not sure about the 2cm difference in the wall offset and hence the depth of the worktop.

I’m having to see how much can be trimmed off the backs of the frames of the base units yet still leave enough space inside to accommodate the oven, fridge and hob unit while still having a reasonable front overhang. When I say ‘reasonable’ I’m only talking about 1-1.5cm which isn’t reasonable at all really, because so as not to look weird, it’ll have to be repeated all around the kitchen.

Today I went to Brico Marché in Le Bugue to check out the exact dimensions of their base units as I’m (slightly) interested in one of their models. Tomorrow I’ll do the same at Brico Depot, but if things go pear-shaped I’m afraid that the plaster-work boys (and Didier and the builder) will be told on Monday that they’re going to have to take down and move a wall because there are limits to how much I can, and will, compromise with my kitchen.

But sadly, that’s not all. When I looked at the photographs that I posted yesterday I noticed something that I hadn’t been aware of before. Whoever prepared my house’s technical plan has obviously never previously designed a kitchen because the outlets for the under-worktop units have been specified in completely the wrong places ie behind the units to the side of the ones housing the appliances.

Take a look at the next shot which shows the outlets for the oven and hob units and where they are in relation to the wallspace (in red) at the rear of the units in which the units will be housed.

OK, so what does this mean? It means that when the base units are secured in place and you come to install the appliances there won’t be any access to plug them into their power outlets as they’ll be behind the base unit next to them. I’ve shown in the above image by how much the electrician will have to move them on Monday.

And the following image shows how the same has occurred with the power outlet for the dishwasher – except this time the error is even greater!

It’s a pretty fundamental error and it’s a pity that I didn’t spot it previously when I was scanning the technical plan. It won’t take much to move the cables but even though the existing holes will be hidden behind the base units when the latter are installed, I think I’d still like them to be patched up.