Bittersweet

Ey up my faithful blogworms, with so many positive things happening here at Milestone HQ, to some, my blog this week may seem negative. 

So really this weeks offering is probably a little bittersweet ! We have experienced stuff in the beginning quarter of this year which has made us look deeper at how we do what we do and the document content below reflects things that we see happening around us.

Costs are rising in all areas of our lives and to continue to run our business successfully and keep being able to provide the first class Eco and Traditional kitchens that we create, we need to be more efficient with our time. This we feel will enable us to focus more on productive time management.

Guidelines relating to planning & appointments for Milestone kitchen projects

It is with regret that we find that we have to implement the following guidelines regarding how we charge out our time. Genuine enquiries, we’re sure, will understand and appreciate our position.

Due to the unique way we can create kitchens here at Milestone HQ, a proportion of our enquiries are simply using our skills & experience to achieve planning & design which is then taken elsewhere.

If we achieve the results you want and you place your order with us then some or all of these costs are refunded, as you will see.

 Thank you for your understanding.

Planning and design guidelines

 As company policy, we do not release plans and layouts to customers prior to a deposit being paid to book the work in. This applies to internet enquiries as well as local enquiries.

However, we will release plans prior to a deposit being paid on payment of a fee of £120.00 inc.vat which will be wholly refundable when you place your order with us for your kitchen.

Appointment guidelines: Distance

Zone 1: Our local appointments for site surveys within our normal operating range are free of charge.

(defined as 40 minutes travelling time from our base in Ilkley, measured by AA Routefinder calculations)

Zone 2: 40 minutes to an hour, the appointment cost will be £75 inc.vat. This is refundable on placing your order with us.

Zone 3: Over an hour travelling time, the appointment cost is based on our national rates dependant on postcode. Where this is used, we will keep the fuel cost to get to site and back but refund the balance on placing of your order with us.

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As those of you who know us well will appreciate, we don't do things for no reason and our planning, design and costing is open and honest. This is why I'm posting this first to you our faithful followers. 

Jules

Comprehensively green !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, I did say that last week's story was the first of two parts ..... well, here's the second !

We had the pleasure of creating another totally Eco kitchen last week for a lovely lady local to us and here it is, encompassing a whole range of materials: eco & sustainable, reclaimed, reused & recycled. 

The kitchen furniture, throughout, is from our Eco2 stable, manufactured in U100 Mussel 60/40 FSC / Recycled mix board material.

Once more I'll let the pictures tell the story 

You can tell this that the "newness" was just beginning to wear off the existing units .... time for a change !!

The new sink area brings in several elements:

Recycled - a 12mm Yoghurt pot worktop with 18mm edge sections to give the appearance of a 30mm worktop overall. Making the upstands from the same yog pot board.
The underside is backed up on 18mm Medite Ecologique to add substance and strength to the worktop
Re-used - the existing fridge was used in the new layout
Recycled - the sink is a Blanco high recycled content stainless steel

The hob and cooker section of the kitchen features:

Sustainable - French Oak worktops, also in 30mm with ...
Reclaimed - Oak floorboards machined into upstands at the same height as the yog pot ones around the sink.
Eco - the under unit lights are the new 3 watt ... yes, just 3 watt Cobb GX53 lamps, great light output with extremely low energy useage !

Oven, Hob and Hood

Eco - these are all from the Gorenje range of appliances, probably the most environmentally conscious appliance maker in the market at this time, they've got way too many awards to list here so check out their website for the whole story.

This area of the kitchen looked "untidy" shall we say, so the best thing to do was create a housing for the boiler to go into with space at the side for a small larder unit.

With the whole thing finished, the boiler area now looks neat and tidy. The correct venting was cut into the cabinets for safe boiler use and still with good access for servicing.
No-one would realise the boiler was there and we've incorporated extra storage capacity into the kitchen ..... Bonus !

This kitchen, once again, was a joy to create. It's use of Eco materials is about as comprehensive as it gets and it's created a kitchen that's just simply a nice place to be as well as making best use of the space and an efficient place to work. The whole project was carried out to an affordable budget ...... who says recycled products have to be expensive !!

I feel a huge "big up" for the lady of the house is in order, who dilligently seperated all the waste from the project into different piles to take down to the local waste site to be, itself, it turn, recycled !!

I love a happy ending. 😊

Jules.

Thoroughly Modern Eco

Ey up my faithful blogworms, really nice to get a totally Eco local kitchen for a change and this is the first of two on the trot. 

A lovely couple with an Eco conscience, shall we say not in the first flush of youth, showing that it's not just the younger generation who are Eco aware. More power to them, I say !

A Cashmere Grey kitchen with matching doors from our Eco2 range, with Eco E1 grade board laminate worktops, high recycled content stainless steel sink and finished with Johnsons 35% recycled content tiles. At base level, making a very affordable totally Eco kitchen.

I'll let the pictures speak !

Oh how I love badly 'out of square' rooms, still that's why scribing was invented

Wall units going up with the trendy 'masking tape' handles

Proving that my mate actually does earn his keep !! He'll not thank me for this picture !

Can't help it, I'm "tidy plumbing" obsessed, control over water is essential in my book.

This is where it got really weird, an out of square room where we had to scribe the cabinets to make sure all the lines and edges were true. Once we got to cutting the worktop joints, NOT ONE BUT BOTH of them came out perfectly square, still scratching my head over how the hell that happened ! But, I'll take it as it makes cutting the joints a lot easier. 

Re-use and recycle was another of the principles used here as we refitted all the existing appliances into the new kitchen. Saving money and saving waste.

Very smooth modern look, their colour choices, provided by the recycled content tiles.

The sink was the only new 'appliance' we fitted.


What is there left to add, thoroughly modern, totally Eco, budget kitchen.


Tune in next week for the next gripping installment of local Eco.

Same place, same time, different location, different style, different client but still totally Eco

Jules !