The kitchen dilemma – to change it or to wait? [AD] – Mummascribbles

At some point in the near future, we are going to find ourselves a dilemma. We have now lived in our house for almost five years (I can’t actually believe that), and when we moved in, everything was pretty much pristine. Over time, things are clearly getting older and more worn, and the kitchen is one of those things.

Slowly I am noticing little things – the wooden edges around the wall of the sink area are practically unattached now. The side of one part of a worktop is peeling. The tiles are looking a bit ropey, and the sink and taps could do with replacing. Oh, and when we moved in, I absolutely loved the kitchen units – but now? Well I’m starting to feel like they could do with an update too, and I certainly keep hinting about it to the other half!

So what’s the dilemma?

Well in the long run, we have no idea what we are doing.

My long term aim is to move house. Sounds simple but we all know that isn’t the case. And with Brexit looming, we have absolutely no idea what is going to happen to the property market.

The other half? Well he’d be happy with an extension. He sees it all mapped out with a single storey one, extending the kitchen and having a much bigger space to manoeuvre around.

And so the main problem is, is that if we are going to end up extending the house, then there is no point in updating the kitchen before we do it.

And the same with moving. If that is going to be in the pipeline at all over the next few years, there is no point in updating the kitchen before we do so!

But equally, both of these things may be way in the future, so what do we do with the kitchen in the meantime?

Right now, thankfully, we have other stuff to focus on. AKA the wedding. All of our money is being ploughed into that and so in reality, any major updates to the house won’t really be thought about until at least late next year. Of course that doesn’t stop me dreaming and browsing places like Kitchen Warehouse for ideas on what I would love (hello shaker style!).

I love thinking about what colour we would paint the walls, what style tiles we would have, what style of taps we would choose. Because when you do start to look around and start realising that things need updating, you can’t help but think about exactly what kind of updates you would make – well I can’t anyway!

For now, it might be a case of fixing the few things that are actually wrong with the kitchen, rather than dreaming about the big things that I would really like, like new kitchen units.

Some big decisions will need to be made about our house in the coming years though. Whether we are going to stay put and improve what we already have. Or whether we decide that with the money that will cost, it’s better all around to just buy a bigger house.

I’ll keep dreaming though. Because as parts of the house age around us, and I remember that not a lot of it has had our stamp put on it; it’s nice to think about what we could do, how we could have it. And one day, it might just happen.

I’ll focus on getting married first though!