Owning your own home

I made the mistake of reading all the replies on a question about Howdens v DIY on the DIY Kitchens Advice Facebook group - it's just full of people going on about how much better they are than Howdens, and it's giving me similar misgivings.

I guess it will help my negotiating position if they can't make it affordable.

Fwiw we put a howdens kitchen in at our last place, and after ten years it still looked and felt pretty new. I was pretty happy with that if it was indicative of their quality.

My coworker suggested this place, possibly owned / started by an ex-Howdens person: https://www.benchmarxkitchens.co.uk

I've booked an online design session tomorrow

Send the DIY quote to Howdens and they’ll (pretty much) price match. It’s a farce.

Source: our kitchen purchase in the middle of last year.

Are you happy with your Howdens kitchen?

Happy Howdens kitchen here, sorted by the builder. Ended up in the same ball park as every other quotes in the end after the usual pushing and shoving. Went for the dirt cheap Lamona appliances knowing that we would get something better when they give up.

Best bit is the worktop. About 12mm thick, polished edge when finished and the textured surface has resisted stains and knocks completely…..lava something was the design

I went for howdens in the end the price was too good, service wise it was fine but the kitchen designer at my place was a useless cunt and made a few balls ups, just make sure you double check what they are putting in.

Overall it's fine and tbh working in loads of houses with fancy kitchens that are lot its no better or worse than them. As long as you have a good kitchen fitter you'll be fine

+1 for Howdens.

what are the likely causes of flies..? not fruit flies, big annoying flies.

this week we’re finding multiple flies a day inside, no windows are open, its freezing..

tried sniffing around every room and i cant find anything that appears to be rotting, bins are kept in the garage

.. my first thought is drains?

Cluster flies like to just be there - they hibernate inside in winter.

Could be cluster flies, but unusual for them to come out now although if the heating is on I guess it can confuse things. They usually stay put when it’s proper cold. Autumn/spring is when they appear.

We had shit loads come out of veluxs in September. First sept in this place so hoping it’s not an annual thing!!

Doubt it’s drains. More likely vents, soffits, cracks around windows etc.

Went for Howdens, got a mate with an account to order it and fit it and saved loads over the other quotes I’d had. 10 years on and not had any issues other then the Lamona dishwasher giving up the ghost recently but was an easy swap

Yes, although we did the majority of the design ourselves so didn’t really get much out of the design service (did get persuaded to go for the under plinth drawers, certainly don’t bother with those!).

Ours is a matt Clerkenwell which went in easily and looks like we expected once it was installed.

We saw the plinth drawers in the Howdens Expo, I thought they looked really good - not worth it? I thought the more storage the better.

we have too much storage

said no one ever

They’re so shallow, that’s the problem - we thought we’d get tins/cans into them but they’re only about 7cm deep.

The pull-outs in the corner units on the other hand are magnificent additions.

Here’s one of the plinth drawers under the 600mm oven unit, A4 manuals inside (for reference)…

1 Attachment

They’re so shallow, that’s the problem

I thought they were for baking trays and chopping boards and the like.

I found they were okay for tin cans lying down (I used mine for dog food), and one was the perfect size for oat milk bottles (or any other tetra Pak)

I'd love some for

• two folding stools
  
• spare extractor filter sheets
  
• light bulbs
  
  

My folks have one their kitchen which houses a folding stool.

I hadn't seen these before! I'm going to see if I can put them into my plans. It doesn't look like they're available on DIY kitchens.

Do they get in the way if you ever have to get under the worktops?

I want to know how you then get to the tangle of wires, surface mount socket boxes and plugs strewn behind the kick panel for all the appliances that seems to pass for ‘electrical installation’ these days?

My old kitchen was done this way with all the fused spurs fixed to the back of one cupboard.
All unlabelled so scrawled on with a sharpie once I knew what was what.
Mate who’s an electrician raised an eyebrow and said “well I guess it’s technically fixed to the fabric of the building but not how it should be done”