When good plans go bad....ish

[Streetrod]

Hi folks I wanted to add this little thread as a warning to all you all. About a year ago I finished my home cinema, you can see the details hear:
My first real attempt at Home Cinema
Anyway recently i thought it might be a good idea to add a small screen and sounds to my kitchen. The kitchen is the same one that came with the house and is very much a country style kitchen, butler sink and all. Not my style I'm afraid but I have not been in a position to replace it due to a huge mortgage etc.

So I mention the idea to the other half, and too my surprise she thinks its a good idea. By the time she had finished her sentence I was out the door down to my local Hi Fi shop to order some new kit before she had time to change her mind. Moments later I had an order in for an Arcam Solo and a pair of Kef in ceiling speakers. I would leave the TV order too later when I had a better idea of what I wanted.
Feeling chuffed with myself I returned home and thats when things started to go wrong.
As I walked in the door Jacqui (SWMBO) called me into the kitchen and hit me with the killer line " Look if you are going to get a new TV then i would like a new kitchen!"
After i picked myself off the floor I tried to get her to explain how a TV equalled a kitchen, but female logic came into play and at that point I new i had lost the augument.
I tried to look on the bright side, maybe I could upgrade to a bigger TV, fat chance.

[putbinoot]

Mind get the AV goods before she spends on the kitchen as you no women, she will end up saying there is not enough left after she has wondered round some kitchen shops.

[Dr Force]

Nice one streetrod.

I remember your superb thread, awsome set up

you should know by now that women have a tendancy to manipulate without the need, therefore,of constant nagging and persuasion, to eventually get what they want.

I am having an exstension built in Feb for a HC and guess what.............................................. .................................................. ......................................Its fine on the condition that we have a new kitchen

[Streetrod]

Anyway, we stated to plan for the new kitchen and how we wanted to use it. After a quick think we came to the conclusion that our current dinning room was currently wasted space as we normally eat in the kitchen and only use it when family or friends come round. Also a small consevatory on the side of the kitchen and behind the dinning room which the kiids used could also do with updating. So we decided at that point to knock them all together to make one large kitchen dinner.
You can see where this is going, my initial £1500 budget has taken one hell of a leap.
So Plans were made, builders contacted and work started.

Here is an early photo of the back of the house, just after we started, My HT is in the extension on the left, the builders have taken out the back kitchen window and are stating to take down the conservatory:

[Streetrod]

Looking down on where the conservatory used to be:

The first of the RSJ's arrive, this thing is over seven meters long and weights well over a tonne. Two more of these were needed as well as some steel pillar and two smaller steels to hold up the house once the internal walls were taken out. Oh and by the way, I do not have access to the back of my house from the street, luckly the guy next door let me use his side entrance and take down the garden fence.

[rupees_al]

and at the end of it all when you fancy getting something for the cinema (like a htpc if you aint got one) then there won't be any money left in the budget as YOU spent it on the kitchen, not because you chose it but because it was YOUR idea really... lol... they learn how to do this manipulation at school i'm sure, in those private lessons that the girls had.

and how much is a htpc??? but i need some shoes...

[Streetrod]

Originally Posted by Dr Force

.

I am having an exstension built in Feb for a HC and guess what.............................................. .................................................. ......................................Its fine on the condition that we have a new kitchen

Dr Force, welcome to the club.... LOL

[Streetrod]

Here you can see the new foundations going in, the big square hole is a metre square and a metre deep and we had one at each corner, these will support the new steel pillars that will hold up the back of the house

[inzaman]

I can see this is going to be another great Streetrod thread, however i think i should change the title to most expensive kitchen TV ever

[Streetrod]

Now I have to admit, at this point we were a couple of weeks in and I was starting to enjoy myself. I had been sucked it. I have always liked building things and this was like a big jigsaw puzzel. As you can see the kitchen has now left the building. The builders put in a small kitchen to keep us going'

They then started to prepare for the first steels to support the outer wall.

[Streetrod]

Originally Posted by inzaman

I can see this is going to be another great Streetrod thread, however i think i should change the title to most expensive kitchen TV ever

Inzaman, you have read my mind, that is exactly the other title I had in mind

[Streetrod]

Ok, here we can justt about see the external beams of which I have two which are sandwiched together, they are supported by two new brick walls and two steel pillars, you can see those better in the pic looking out of what was the dining room.

And this is the start of the new roof over the old conservatory.

Its at this point that things started to go bad. Like most plans things change. The problem with us was that they just got more expensive. We were originally going to have one smallish Velux in the new roof, but having looked at it for a bit a bad case of upgrade itis set in and the order for two of the largest Velux's with rain sensors and remote control electric operation went in instead.
For some stupid reason I got the idea into my head that if i gave Jacqui all she wanted then I would get all the new kit I wanted... you can see where this is going cant you....
By the way the Arcam has by now arrived along with its new speakers, the new tele has yet to be ordered.

[Streetrod]

Here we can see the internal steel work going in. The main support was made up of a picture frame steel structure. A one and a half tonne steel beam was lifted in by hand and placed under the floor level. This was then buried in eight tonnes of cement. The main pillars at each end when then bolted and welded in place. And hear comes the fun part. We had to manually lift the One and Half tonne cross beam onto the pillars as we were not able to get the right sort of jacks on sites. This took over four hours as we had to lift it up inch by inch. Not a job for the week of heart.

This pic shows the connecting beams that will disapear into the ceiling.

And here is Jacqui planning how to spend more of the AV fund

[Streetrod]

Anyway, lets jump forward a couple of weeks. The new floor joists are starting to go down in preparation for our new under floor heating, well it seemed like a good idea at the time, and whilst were at it why not redo the floors over the whole of the gound floor, yes why not dear

At this point we were landed with an unexpected bill for £4500 to cover the cost of insulating the floor before the underfloor heating could be put down. I had no idea we needed too So at that point i decided to take a holiday whilst they installed the new heating.

A week or so later they the first fix electics started to go up and the builders started to board out the room. I also steped in and run the new speaker cables and started to plan the TV install.

Me looking a bit glum as i search my pockets for the money to pay for Jacqui's wish list.

[Streetrod]

It was at this point that Jackie hit me with her latest bombshell, and I quote:
"Colin do we really need another TV in this room?"
"Sorry, Yes dear of course we do, all the best style magazines say so"
"But you already have the cinema room and the tele in the lounge, why do we need another"
"Well this is going to be the biggest room in the house and we will spend most of our time here, it logical to put one in and any future buyer would expect one in here as well"

As you can see i was trying to cover the angles here...

"Colin I dont think we need one, you already have the new Hi Fi"
"But you said......."

I will let you guess where it went from there.

My £2000 budget for new sounds and TV for my kitchen had turned into a £50000 at that point refurbishment project now with no TV., And we were only half finished.. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

You can see one of the Kef speakers in the ceiling. We went with a square speaker to match the square downlighters.
A word of warning hear, square downlighters look cool but are a bitch to line up