Big Renovation Update! Kitchen, Extension, Bedroom, Garden & Driveway

Working, living and parenting two small children here throughout the process of having our side extension added, kitchen ripped out and a new one added in, back garden and front garden re-done and Logan's room made bigger has been a bit crazy. We did it on a smaller scale when we had the loft converted and the kitchen was probably our biggest challenge yet. But we did it! - Or we nearly have.

We're so close to finishing now. The kitchen needs to be painted and some electrics need to be done in there too. And then we have the furnishing part to do. We've ordered a new table and chairs, we need to decide on a sideboard and Adam wants to get a keyboard for our new dining space too as he loves playing the keyboard and wants to show the boys how to play it too.

We're thrilled with the space we've gained from having the front two storey side extension added on. It's opened up our kitchen dining space so much and Logan's old room feels like a completely new room! I watched our before video back earlier and I realised just how spacious it all feels now. Our house really does feel like a home we can live in for the foreseeable future as a family now.

Below I've shared some photos to show you where we are currently up to with the renovations and the space that we've gained from having it all done. Once the rooms and garden space are all finished I will be sharing room tours and a full garden post and video to show you how we've decorated and to  let you see all of the finishing touches we add.

Please ignore all of the plaster on the walls and the unpainted door as it all needs to be painted, but this is where we are up to now. Our kitchen is from Howdens and it's the Clerkenwell Gloss range. Our worktops are the pure white quartz work top from Maxtop and I absolutely love them - they're so easy to clean and are really, really solid. We looked around at a few different places for worktops we loved and nothing came as close as the Maxtop Pure White Quartz worktops. We're thrilled with them!

The flooring that we have down in the kitchen is from our favourite flooring brand - Quickstep and it's their Canyon Oak Grey from the Livyn range. It's waterproof and so is perfect for the kitchen in case of any spillages.

I am also so happy with our brand new built in oven and built in microwave oven, as soon as they went in I felt like the room was instantly transformed. Both applicances are from a brand called Gorenje and though we've only been using them for a little while, we're really happy with them. One of the things I've recently discoverd about our new oven is that there it has a light and sound signal which informs us when the temperature is right, it's really clever! 

Our new island extractor hood is also by Gorenje as we wanted everything to match and we love it! It   has three powerful settings and even comes on/off and adjusts automatically when it senses that it needs to. It's also has touch control and a nice LED light. 

We opted for tall cabinets in our kitchen as we wanted for everything to appear 'built in' and our kitchen fitter NP Mead has done an amazing job at creating that look for us throughout the whole kitchen.

Above is the other view from our kitchen - it feels so open now. Our new table has been ordered, we've opted for a solid wood table and we've ordered new grey chairs from Next Home. We haven't yet decided on a sideboard for under the window, but when we do it will hold things like puzzles, games and bits for the boys that they can do up at the table.

Our new internal door pulls in light from the porch. We specifically opted for this sort of door and a front door with window side panels to make sure that we got as much light in as possible. If you saw my before photos you'll know we used to have a really large window where the porch is now and we were worried about losing the light from it, but it's not been a problem as we also have the two windows to the side of the porch and a backdoor with a window in the top which all bring light in.

Our porch area is really hard to photograph - it appears much smaller in the photos but it's actually a great size. We are currently planning the porch area to ensure that we get the most out of the space we have in there.

 The other side of the porch and view of the new back door in the dining area.

We're so happy with our driveway, it was done so quickly too! Obviously the corner isn't yet finished and the reason the driveway doesn't run all the way up is because there is a drain there. So instead we're having a patch of artificial grass with some plants under the window there and then the blocks around it will be rendered white. To the side of our house there will be a gate and then an alley way to the back garden but patio slabs need to be laid down first. We're also having the brown tiles up on our house replaced with grey cladding to make it appear more modern.

We absolutely love our new composite front door - it's exactly what we wanted. It wasn't cheap but we don't intend to ever have to replace it. The planters by the side of the new door we put together ourselves and you can see a video on them here. Our front door lights my Husband got from Amazon I believe.

The garden is still a bit of a mud pit at the moment, it got held up a bit but it should be hopefully complete in the next couple of weeks. We've so far had our new fences put up and they are (mostly) painted, we've had our planters put in ready to be rendered white. All of the old grass and bushes have gone and the decking is ready to be laid. After that we'll be having our artificial grass go in and then the paving laid too. It looks a way off yet, but I think once it starts moving again it shouldn't really take much longer. 

Logan's old room has completely changed shape. I can't tell you how nice it is to see how much more spacious it is now. It was so worth doing the extension even just for this. This will be Ethan's new room and I can't wait to get started on it. It needs painting and some electrics in it first, but I have a feeling it's going to be such a lovely space once we've finished with it. 

The flooring is the same flooring that we have throughout the rest of the upstairs of our house. It's our absolute favourite laminate flooring from Quickstep and it's the Creo Tennessee Oak Grey laminate. The colour is the best I've found and the quality of the laminate boards themselves are fantastic. We've had ours in the other rooms for over two years now and they look as nice as they did when we first laid them, so we knew from the offset that we wanted to use the same flooring again in this room. 

And that is where we're up to currently! It's all getting there now and we're so pleased with it all so far, the new space we've gained especially. I will be sharing our finished room tours and garden as they each get completed so keep your eyes peeled for those. :)

Thank you for reading. 

Alex xo 

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