Owning your own home

I'm looking to get a kitchen designed and fitted. As far as I can tell, fitting companies have pretty opaque prices / discounts so I want to get a couple of them to quote me for a basically identical kitchen. We're probably going to get the fitting done separately as there's a bunch of other work that needs a builder to do, who would also fit it at the same time.

I've had a design / quote from Howdens - has anyone got a decent company to get a competing quote from? I've used Magnet in the past, and don't really want to again. I'm in West London.

Cheers!

We are looking at kitchen quotes as we speak too...

Our thoughts are:
B & Q\Wickes: Cheap, flat pack, not worth it
Howdens: Good prices, decent quality
Wren Kitchens: Similar price to howdens, some fancier components, all down to timing the sales
Magnet: Not worth the money
Ikea: Good for modern style kitchens, but fittings are a bit odd
diy-kitchens.co.uk : Cheapest for decent quality, but need to know exactly what you want...

We are going with Wren kitchens with worktops from http://www.worktop-express.co.uk/ as it worked out cheaper and better quality

Wren Kitchens have cashback through quidco too it seems...

I don't know if that means that the forum may also have a cut through them if you buy from a link from here too though...

They were prevented from using the money until they had paid debts. This was supposed to stop the obvious abuse by councils that could otherwise take place. I'm not making a case for the success of the scheme.

For ineptitude, although it would be harder to prove that they are not inept. Hammersmith and Fulham mortgaged their graveyards and then used an interest rate swap with the yen which ended in disaster as just one tiny example. Housing Benefit fraud in Hackney council during the 90's. On a more personal level I spend a lot of time dealing with my local council and even if we provide them with money through grants for local infrastructure projects they can delay by months or even years, all the time the money sits in their bank account. Believe me these are just the tip of my own personal iceberg of inept/corrupt council stories.

Do you work for a council?

oh good spot on the quidco... that 1% could be worth a lot

We used diy-kitchens.co.uk and you're right you do have to know exactly what you want but their support team were good in explaining things to us and we got a lot more for our buck than what Wren/others were offering (though again, you're right with timing sales etc).

Didn't spot the quidco cash back offer though - snazzy @MrDrem

We tried rated people to get kitchen quotes and got three. One was leagues ahead of the others and while a bit more expensive it includes someone project managing it and knowing all the things that need to be known. If I was doing it myself I'd no-doubt miss out on things. They have another job at the same time so it's a bit slower than it might be but I suspect it's also cheaper by sharing the labour between another site.

Yes, we haven't fully decided who we are going for yet, as its all part of a renovation project. One thought we had is to find a really good kitchen fitter and then get them to help with ordering everything from diy-kitchens

Seriously how the hell are we meant to work on this? I've saved for years and finally have a £15k deposit and I'm earning £40k + a year, and there is NOTHING in East London-ish that I can afford. How do people do it? I am completely at the end of my tether.

You may have to accept that you can't buy in the area you want and look elsewhere.

We rented in Shepherds Bush for years. When it finally came to buy, we realised quickly that there was nowhere in the area we could afford. We moved to Hither Green (SE13) where we could afford a two bed flat at the time. We were priced out of there when it came to get a house but moved down to Bromley where we could afford a house and garden.

If i look back 5 years to living in Shepherds Bush, i would never have seen myself living in Bromley but we couldn't be happier.

What he said.

I thought I'd live in Finsbury Park, near Essex Road or East somewhere near Bethnal Green. Prices went up.

When we actually started looking we searched further out. Bounds Green and Forest Gate. There was nothing in Bounds Green that we wanted to live in and could afford - maybe some places next to the North Circular but then you're too far from the station. From Jan to mid-May nothing that was actually for sale ever even came up in Forest Gate.

In the end we went for Borehamwood because everything in "London" was too much of a compromise. Our place doesn't quite fit our lives at the moment, but in the future I think it should. And its so nice to have a proper garden, rather than feeling lucky to just have some sort of shit terrace that's always in shade.

A friend has almost £650k (if he uses the help to buy) and he is struggling to find a 2 bed within easy commute of the City/Central.

It seems insane to need £600-750k for a decent 2 bed. But that's where we are.

Ok, thanks, that's helpful - I'll maybe give Wren a call. I think doing it / ordering myself is out as my kitchen is an odd, four different angles in each corner - I'm happy to pay (to a point) to get someone to draw / plan it out and remove any of that risk from myself.

only annoying thing with Wren is that they wont give you a detailed layout once you get a quote, so they stop you easily doing a like for like comparison.

You can buy a 4 bed house with a huge garden in my road for £650k. 20 minutes by train to Victoria, or 30 mins to Charing Cross. Your friend needs to up his searching game.

I'm even looking out in Essex though, I don't think I'm being too strict on criteria - everywhere from Shoreditch to Chingford is in my search area. There's just nothing unless I move literally a few hours out of London - which is neither practical for work, or acceptable to me as a native Londoner. I'd sooner smear the streets around Clapton in dogshit. I think someone got there before me actually.

I think I'm mostly just venting rather than actually expecting any kind of resolution. I'm one of the very very few people I know who was actually born here in London - in Shoreditch actually. I don't know why people are so annoyed at immigrants coming to the UK, I'm annoyed at endless troops of middle class cunts coming to London from their lovely little villages to work in the media with their soy fucking lattes and their pugs and their yoga-doing girlfriends

A nice, good sized 2 bed flat in Harringay for £450k-ish and 20 minutes to Moorgate, 30 minutes to central and more organic coffee shops than you can shake a stick at. Cheaper than that if you start looking at the not as nice properties. It's definitely doable for a lot less than £600k

Ok, thanks. Useful to know but hopefully that might not matter too much as we already have a layout in mind and that we could ask them to closely replicate.

Yep, I found them pretty good, not very pushy at all, and they gave me a free bottle of wine, so can't complain at that...

I'm forming the fucking Clapton Independence Party. No more middle class immigrants. Just me and a load of grime MCs and that nice old Nigerian lady from downstairs. We'll fight them on the fucking beaches. Firebomb any cafes that serve gluten free food. The only flavour of coffee you can get is coffee flavoured coffee on pain of death. Teas are a mandatory brown, none of this beige bullshit. NO MERCY

You’re directing your disdain at the wrong people. The predicament you (anyone trying to save a ridiculous deposit) are in is due to Thatcher’s Right to Buy scheme along with each subsequent Government’s inability to build sufficient houses for a growing population. The saturation of London is due to the London-centric economy starving other cities/regions. For what it’s worth I was born in Islington and would be in the exact same position as you are now had it not be for my wife’s dad dying and leaving us some inheritance money back in 2011. The system’s broken and I don’t know how it can be fixed or if it ever will be with Government’s reliance on rising house prices to prop up the economy/stagnating salaries against general inflation.

Have you looked at Help to Buy schemes? I believe you can apply in Boroughs where you live and/or work and I imagine your deposit would go some way?

How do people do it?

Most people buy in pairs. Even on your decent salary the mortgage you can get solo just doesn't stack up well against the cost of housing.

This is good advice, and the shared ownership schemes could also be of interest. There are
quite a few interesting and useful discussions about the pros and cons in this thread.

Seems a bit rich. We're in SE10 so 15 mins from London Bridge and 15 mins from Canary Wharf. Plenty of decent two beds available for a lot less than £750k. Prices start at £400k for a small two bed and go up to £750k for 1250sqft flats with views of Greewich Park or Blackheath.

^ Also worth mentioning that a forumenger I know bought a reasonable sized one bed in Brockley in the conservation area for £200k about a year ago.

Tbf I think he has quite a specific wish list in particular being fairly central. If we had £650k then I don't think we'd have moved out.

That said I'm not 100% convinced about this:

A nice, good sized 2 bed flat in Harringay for £450k-ish

A very quick rightmove shows 3 in-between £435-450k. Maybe the markets shifting down a bit but I think in around there you still need the -ish as well as the £450k.