Giffnock, East Renfrewshire
Kitchen fitting in Giffnock
Giffnock is mostly inter-war villas and bungalows with a scattering of newer building in between, and the older properties share a particular problem: a kitchen at the back of the house that was designed when a kitchen was a room one person worked in alone, with a separate scullery or larder attached.
Absorbing the back-of-house rooms
In a 1930s villa there is often a small store, an old scullery or a back porch immediately off the kitchen. Those walls are frequently non-structural, and taking one out is a far cheaper way to get a proper kitchen than extending. Before anyone talks to you about a rear extension, it is worth finding out what you already have inside the existing footprint.
Bungalows and the ceiling above you
In the bungalows the constraint is different. There is usually room on the ground floor, but the roof structure above limits what you can do with ceilings and lighting. We work out where the joists and any purlins sit before committing to downlight positions, because discovering it afterwards means either a compromise or a patched ceiling.
Period details worth keeping
Some of these houses still have the original deep skirtings, picture rails and panelled doors elsewhere in the house, and a kitchen that ignores them entirely looks bolted on. We tend to carry the skirting profile through and match the door and architrave style, which costs very little and makes the room belong to the house.
Managing the rest of the trades
Older properties here often need the electrics brought up to date at the same time, and occasionally the heating pipework rerouted. We bring in and manage the electrician, plumber, plasterer and tiler, so the sequencing is our problem rather than yours.