It's Saturday 9th July and with just 4 days to go until building work on the extension begins, I figured now would be a good time to make sure we didn't need the conservatory anymore.
So the important job is to move the washing machine into the current kitchen. I'll figure out where to put the dryer and the fridge later.
As you can see, there's not exactly a space for the washing machine right now, so something has to go. That something is the oven and hob. They will shortly be available for purchase if I know Tracy!
The oven itself came out quite easily. However, the electrics caused me some fuss. Back in the fuse box there's a fuse for the hob, but not for the cooker - that was on "downstairs sockets". Yeah, of course!
2 hours of faffing about with trunking, switches and identifying cables later, I had both the oven and hob out. Nowhere to put it, mind you, but that's a tomorrow problem. We're dealing with the washer.
The cupboard containing the oven now needed to be removed, but if I did that the worktop would have no support. So I chopped it off. Well I tried to, but I couldn't get my saw all the way to the wall (because of the metal splash back thing). So I did what I could, then removed the cupboard in the hope that the tiny bit of wood would just snap off. For once, the plan succeeded nicely.
It turns out that underneath our kitchen units is where woodlice come to die. That was an unexpected discovery!
Anyway, tidied up (including chopping off the now too long kick board and fitting a section under the cupboard going to the wall, which I'm particularly proud of the neatness) and began thinking about how the hell I'm going to connect the washer to the existing plumbing.
Water pipe into the washer should be a "simple" job of disconnecting one pipe and attaching the washer's pipe. Essentially just shifting the joint closer to the toxic (made of lead) mains pipe. I tried to undo some of the nuts but I needed a second adjustable spanner, which I don't own.
The drain pipe wasn't going to reach the existing plumbing. It was likely to be short by around 20cm. Damnit!
Checked some local DIY stores but they didn't have any pipe extension kits in stock. They had online ordering available, but nothing I could get right now. Amazon to the rescue it was then. Should be here by 1pm tomorrow, along with the spanner.
I drilled some holes in the cupboard units to accommodate the waste pipe's journey to the existing plumbing. Luckily the existing plumbing has a connection for a washing machine's drain pipe, so I just need to hook it up. So when the kit arrives tomorrow things should come together quickly. Hopefully. But we'll see!
Eagle eyed readers may well be wondering how I managed to drill anything with the downstairs sockets all switched off. You're right to ask. It's because the sockets in one wall of the kitchen are actually on the conservatory circuit and, as such, were still active.
Oh, I nearly forgot, some of you may also be wondering how we're going to live without a cooker or hob for a few months. Well that's a sensible question and, unlike a lot of the attitude above, this was not a tomorrow problem. We have purchased an air fryer to replace the oven. We also have slow cookers and a microwave so we should be sorted. The hobs took too long to get up to temperature anyway so we didn't use them much at all. They've been serving us well for the past couple of weeks so we should be fine.
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