The Falcon is dead, long live the Falcon !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, 

I something sad to report this week, the mighty Falcon range cooker, which is a British brand built in Falkirk in Scotland and a brand I have loyally supported for many a year, is no longer British owned. 

No longer built in Scotland and no longer a true Falcon cooker. The parts are all made in a factory in the Midlands.

Falcon joins the ever growing list of Good British brands that have fallen to being bought by foreign owners. You are no doubt familiar with the brands I've listed below who have met the same fate !

HP is the famous brown sauce of the Houses of Parliament (hence the name). Nevertheless, it is owned by Americans: Heinz purchased it in 2005

House of Fraser is owned by the Sanpower Group, a Chinese corporation that bought it this year for £450 million ($716 million)

Branston Pickle was also acquired by Mizkan, last year for £92.5 million ($147 million).

Weetabix, the famous breakfast cereal, has been in Chinese hands for two years.
Hartley's Jam was bought by American corporation Hain Celestial in 2012
The car manufacturer Jaguar was bought by India's Tata in 2008. Before that it was owned by Ford 
A third of the milk drunk in Britain is owned by foreign companies: Wiseman Milk is now part of the German group Müller
Tetley has traded on its English heritage for decades. However, it is owned by India's Tata Global Beverages.
Boots UK is the latest British brand to defect: Walgreens, the biggest pharmacy company in the world, bought it this August for £5.65 billion ($9 billion). It was previously owned by Stefano Pessina, an Italian entrepreneur.
And so the list goes on, to list them all I'd be here all day !!

Falcon is now part of the group AGA / Rangemaster / Falcon / Fired Earth which in turn is owned by Americans: The Middleby Corporation.

The Falcon cooker itself is now basically a Rangemaster clad with "Falcon looking" panels. The Falcon typically costs £3500 and the Rangemaster £1600.

So it is with much sadness that I would suggest when looking for your new range cooker, save yourselves a load of money and buy a Rangemaster ..... they're essentially the same machine. 

My faith has been shattered ..... Now, don't get me wrong, I feel that the Rangemaster cooker itself is a well made, competent cooker and good value for it's money but a Falcon it ain't !!!

The Falcon is dead, long live the Falcon ! ...... Jules.

Raindrops keep fallin' on me head

Ey up my faithful blogworms, Up here in the frozen North it's been rather less than frozen for a good while now, in fact, we've been absolutely wet through !! 

However, despite the devastation caused, there's been one aspect of it ( and probably only one ! ) that's been useful !!  Rainwater harvesting ! .... Water is a precious resource, although up here at the moment that would probably be a hard idea to sell, and it should be used wisely.

Gathering up and using rainwater off your roof for toilet flushing, clothes washing, outside garden use, running an outside tap, washing your car and general rinsing of stuff makes sense. You don't need pure clean water to do this. You get, on average 100,000 litres of the wet stuff fall on your roof every year and it's free ! use it ! .... I do, and here's how.

You don't need to spend thousands on burying tanks in your garden or any of that malarky unless you actually want to !   

It can be done on a tight budget and save you money on your water bill.

Bring it down off your roof, a few pounds here spent on guttering fitting and fall pipes. Borrow a ladder and a mate if you need to, it's easy to rig up.

Send your lovely free water across to some tanks to store it. I've used a mix of old water tanks salvaged out of lofts and IBC's, which stands for Intermediate Bulk Containers ( basically a big plastic cube inside a pipe framework ). You can also scrounge old IBC'S from factories etc that are usually glad to see the back of them when they've been used.

I've also taken a pipe off my garage roof to to add more supply, waste not, want not !

Send it through via normal plastic plumbing pipe into your house, I've sent it into my utility room which is on the end of my garage as it was convenient. As long as the pipe coming out of your tanks is 600mm or 2ft. higher than the tap you want to connect it to, you'll get a flow.



Here I've put in a filter to simply get rid of colour and sediment so I can use it to supply my washing machine.
From the filter to a small single shower pump to drive it and it works a treat !






This pic shows a water meter I put in just to record how much I use but you don't need it, I was just curious as to how much I could save from the roof.
It shows 157,332 litres used off the roof since I put it in in May 07, that's 17,481 litres a year I saved since the system went in. This equates to 28% of our water bill !!. Worth saving, you decide !

This shows a simple manual system of isolating valves to switch the system between freewater and mains. Very important as for a of couple of winters, I've had some a the biggest ice cubes you've ever seen this far south of the Arctic ! and we've needed to go back onto the mains. That really is the only drawback and in our terms really only a minor setback to this very low cost system for harvesting water from your roof.

Now my system has capacity for 6,100 litres when full ( or around 1,350 gallons in old money ) and with that I no longer run out in dry spells but your system doesn't need to be that big.

To use a minimum of 1 x IBC of 1,000 litres, 1 x filter unit, 1 x small pump and a selection of pipes and fittings, you could have a useful system for under £400 depending on how and where it's located and add to it over time, like I did, if you need to. 

Anything you save and use is free, it all comes off your water bill, you have your own supply during a drought and you're helping to put a lower demand on the grid. 

With how I started this blog off, maybe, if loads of people start to rainwater harvest then there would less of it trying to get back into the rivers and cause flooding ! 

Pipe dream ? You decide ! And if you want a low cost rainwater harvesting system without spending thousands of pounds but still make a difference ..... Call us, we'll come and have a look for you.

Dripping wet, soggy and growing webbed feet. Jules.

One trick pony ??

Ey up my faithful blogworms, If I ever wanted to shown an example of incompetent timber worktop fitting, this would be a good one !!

I was called out to have a look at this poor homeowners worktops and this what I found, spot the deliberate mistake ..... but more importantly, the ridiculous, idiotic way they put it right. 

You cut the hole the wrong size, ie: too big, you replace the section of worktop .....simples ! You don't bodge it up by nailing a cheap beading round the edge. 

Any reasonable kitchen fitter knows that the worktop should overlap the edge of a Belfast sink so that the water runs into the sink.

Needless to say, this doesn't, I wonder why ?

Other points to note are:

Looking at the front of the sink, the corners don't line up left and right, one overlaps, the other is set back. 
That means the joint into the next piece of worktop is in the wrong place by about 40mm.  You can see it clearly in the bottom photo.

The tap is too far back and the worktop leans back at this point so the water runs the wrong way, hence the sitting water damage behind the the tap.

The worktop section to the left of the sink is badly cracked partly due to the stupidity of the beading and partly to the fact the worktop is only oiled on the top, no oil is to be seen anywhere on the underside of any of the sections of this worktop layout. 

Massive fundamental error on the part of the installer ! 

Every part and I mean EVERY PART of a set of timber tops must have a minimum of 3 coats of Oil applied to it so it creates a humidity balance that minimises ( or stops completely ) the tendency of the wood to crack when it dries out. 

This layout was clearly fitted by someone who has absolutely no bloody idea what he's doing and what makes me the most annoyed   ......  is due to his incompetence, it's another person to add to the growing list of people who don't like and wouldn't have timber worktops and someone whose paid good money for a crap job  !

I am feeling a bit like I'm banging on about a single subject for too long in my blogs at the moment and next week, I promise, we'll have a change of subject. Trouble is, is that I only saw this mess earlier this week and it was too good an opportunity to pass up. 

Please, please, please don't despair over timber tops but do check out previous similar work carried out by anyone you're thinking of employing to do this type of work.

I'll even email you my instructions and care leaflet F.O.C. for you to use as a guide to how it should be done !!!!

I'm definitely not a "one trick pony" but I felt this story needed to be told !

Be careful out there ! Jules

Talking Eco in the Yorkshire Dales

Ey up my faithful blogworms, Happy New Year and let's make 2016 a good 'un !

Just to start with a weird fact ..... During the month of December my blog stats show the 42% of the people who read my blog came from .... Russia ! Now if any of that turns into business, it would be a hell of a trip to site ! 

Anyway, trivia aside, for 2016 I'm prepared to make an offer to you, my Eco kitchen supporters, and it's this .... We are aware that our business has spread nationwide and consequently we are making deliveries and fitting over a much larger distance than ever before. So, how can we make it easier and a more pleasant experience ??

Here's how .... For all enquiries through our website for Eco kitchens, we're offering you a weekend break away to sleepy little Ilkley, nestled in the Yorkshire Dales to come and see us at our expense ! 

If you would like to come and see us, we can arrange a stay at a comfy pub with good food in the heart of town, putting you in the centre of all there is to see and within two minutes walking distance of our showroom.

The deal is .... we will book you into the pub for 1 night on a Bed and Breakfast basis, you pay your bill, bring it to us and if we get a kitchen order from you then we refund the cost of your stay off the cost of your kitchen work. This offer is only open to full kitchen orders, subject to our discretion. For a more complete set of offer terms, email us and we'll mail you back a detailed leaflet.

You get to enjoy a weekend away, see the sights, talk Eco and we pick up the bill ..... How many other kitchen companies do you know that offer such a great deal in such relaxing surroundings. 

We are number 19 on the map, bottom left corner and our proposed pub is number 38 in the middle at the bottom.

The Dalesway is the best located pub for visiting us but we do have alternative choices still within town just in case there are any issues with availability.

So now your brand new Eco kitchen comes with the added value of a a free weekend away, chill out, eat and sleep well, take in the sights and talk Eco with us in a more relaxed atmosphere without rushing around and being restricted to timetables.

Hoping to see a lot more of you in the coming year. Jules.

Please check out:    http://www.ilkley-online.co.uk/shopping/ for more info on things to do while you're here

Dear Auntie Milestone

Ey up my faithful blogworms, there .. that's better.. words in the right order after last weeks blog.

Sitting here doing my blogs, week after week, feels a bit disconnected from real life !!

I get lonely ... Aaah, Bless ! ... there is a comments box on here but I never get any ! 

I'm here to help with any questions you may have...... Yes, really ! .... I appreciate that the world of the internet is a massive one and I can't hope to get to a lot of you to help out but I can answer any queries you may have ... free of charge .. over the ether, then why not ?.


Why would I want to do this? .... To save a lot of you making the mistakes I talked about in last weeks blog, that's why. AND because I'm a nice guy !

NOT, as the more cynical of you may think, so I can grab your details and bombard you with spurious advertising and other general annoying detritous that you get so often over the internet !

I feel that if by answering any questions you have about the crazy mixed up world of fitted kitchens, I can save any of you from making stupid mistakes, then I will have made a little bit of the world a better place.


I can appreciate that some of you may think there's a catch here somewhere ... WELL, THERE ISN'T !

I'm not even close to the biggest authority on kitchens in the world but I've been doing this for 27 years now and believe  me, I've seen pretty much all there is to see and feel qualified to pass on any valuable tips and tricks that I can. 

Like a lot of skills that are dying out, if you're knowledge isn't shared and passed on, it's wasted !

All I can promise is that if you feel it's important to ask me something, then it's important for me to give you the best answer I can. It's then up to you to decide whether my advice is valid or not.


Try me, you just might learn something !!

If you need me to come out to you to solve a problem, I will, if you want a second opinion on a layout and perhaps a re-work that makes more sense, I can do that too but these will cost, I can't work for nowt, I'm a Yorkshireman !

But if you want advice that I can give over the internet .... It will cost you nothing, zilch, not a penny, sweet F.A.

Go - on , Ask Auntie Milestone, we're here to help 

Don't nip a currant in half !

Faithful up my ey blogworms ! .... What ?? You're all familiar with my opening phrase by now. This illustrates what happens when you get the order wrong ! The phrase goes wrong, it's sounds like a drunk Yoda from Star wars and it takes some sorting out !!

 Exactly the same is true in the world of fitted kitchens !! It's come to my attention this week about a project that's left people in tears because things were done in the wrong order and badly. ( these pictures are not from the project, they're just representative of the stupid things people do ! )

Aside from kitchen suppliers who just make a balls of supplying the goods wrong in the first place ... that's a whole other argument and I'm sure we all know horror stories on that one !


A kitchen where you've tried to cut corners and save money,can and frequently does, go wrong. Organising the right people at the right time with the right skills to ensure a successful project is absolutely key to the whole thing. 

You wouldn't want a car mechanic doing a kidney transplant on a member of your family anymore than you'd want a double glazing salesman fitting your kitchen BUT people do !! in a manner of speaking.

Wake up people !!!!! These pictures just represent some of the idiotic things that happen when you make bad choices. AND the last picture is completely beyond me .... did the bathroom fitter and the kitchen fitter get their wires crossed or what ???

Am I going to help out with the project that went wrong , I hear you ask .... nope !  I understand there were some bad choices and decisions made against good advice, they thought they knew better, so basically they got what they deserved ! It's down to the suppliers to sort this one out.

A kitchen is a big ticket item and you want the very best for the money you're spending ... so stop making stupid decisions and research your project properly, don't get your friends cousins mate's uncle to fit your kitchen for £20 less just because he fitted one for a relative 30 years ago... It's absolute bloody madness !!  

You need to be talking to a company who:

Employs their own fitters, not subcontractors

Takes the whole project into consideration and only uses qualified plasterers, electricians, gas fitters etc who can work to building control standards.

Has someone who can organise and place the right person in the right place at the right time during the installation work.

Get this right and it works pretty well, most of the time. Houses, new and old, can throw up challenges at the most unexpected time and you need a company who just shrugs it off, gets on with it and sorts it out. You don't need someone who says" S'not my job !" You need 'Can do' people not 'Can't do ' people.

If you've had a project go wrong from circumstances beyond anyones control then my heart goes out to you BUT if you've had it go wrong through trying to nip a currant in half to save money ... them I'm sorry but I have absolutely no sympathy for you, you are a victim of you're own stupidity !! End of. 

Your money is hard earned .... spend it wisely ! 

Rant over. take heed. Jules

Roman Engineering

Ey up my faithful blogworms, Simplicate .... strange word but when broken down it makes sense. Most things in life can be complicated, if you let them, but any project can be made simpler when you set your stall out right.

Take something complicated and simplify it .... Basically what I've said for a long time. Look to the Romans for inspiration, they created some stunning stuff with limited tools, knowledge and experience but a creative mind and an attitude that kept things simple but very effective ! .... Roman engineering .... simple and functionally spot on as the main aim, but always with an eye for design, the aesthetic followed and let's face it .... what they created lasted for centuries.

Here's some more concepts based on our 5 element 'Simplification' process showing how working with the 5 material palette can be so successful.
Wood grains can be used horizontal as well as vertical to contrast with pale / white plain colours.
It only start to look wrong if you over complicate things by using different colour woodgrain in different directions

Simplicate !


 However, same colour woodgrains work too if not overdone and balanced by single colour worktops and splashbacks. My only comment here is that I personally would have gone for a plainer floor and in this room set, I think the oven is too low !

Simplicate !

This one, I feel, is a classic where plain solid colour doors are brought to life by the framing effect of the wood grain, very simplicated, elegant standard which is still very much the main stay of the market at the moment.

A new kid on the block is the idea of reproducing a 'concrete' look into your worktops. Still keeping the natural materials feel about it, put with a white kitchen it just adds some character to the mix. 

Using a contrasting floor here, as dark as you like, provides a great platform to really show off a light coloured kitchen.


Using the ability within our 5 material simplification, to install matching, complementing or contrasting splashback / worktop combinations always makes for a cleaner, more contemporary feel to a kitchen project and is eminently more practical in terms of cleaning than using tiles.

Don't get me wrong, I still feel that tiles can play an important part in a kitchen project but it very much depends on the style you are trying to create.

Simplicating a process, I suppose, is nothing new as Roman engineering got there first, but for the modern age where life is complicated enough, anything that makes life simpler but still effective has surely got to be a good thing ???

Apart from this .... I've invented a new word .... how fab is that ??

Jules

Simplicate !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, following on from last weeks blog we are going to develop the idea further with the 5 element room set concept. Probably the simplest way yet to plan any kitchen project.

 When planning any kitchen project it's useful, once the design side is taken care of, to have a colour base in your mind as a starting point.

This start colour is typically the doors or the worktop and build from there. 

'Mood boards' have proved to be useful for a lot of people, often comprising pictures clipped out of magazines etc. 

This is where we're coming from with this 5 element concept. We have a materials palette now that provides us with all the elements listed in my previous blog: see 'Holistic calm'.

Building a picture of colour elements from materials sat in front of you helps enormously to visualise the finished project. 
In a lot of cases this involves dashing in and out of various shops / showrooms trying to carry a colour in your head to match it up to something else. 

This sound familiar ???

Yes .... thought so !

It can't get easier than having all the colours presented in different ways in the same place to fine tune your thoughts. The stress alone this saves, let alone the shoe leather in trailing round losing patience and getting increasingly annoyed.

Second huge benefit is that you don't have to source and contract seperate tradespeople and co-ordinate them, you can simply say to us ... Love that, perfect, can you crack on and fit it ... to which, of course, the answer is Yes ! All taken care of in 1 go, how much easier is that ??

Well, you may ask, "You're Milestone Eco Design" ... where's the Eco bit gone ?. 
Surely you know us better by now to know it's there somewhere ?

Yep, course it is, all the materials we have here to use are all high recycled content / Fsc mix materials. So now you can take the whole project to the Eco level if you choose.

Good eh ?

We are still looking to work closely with green builders, Eco minded retail stores, green architects etc. where this concept works brilliantly in providing reproduceable room sets as we already provide for H & M Retail Stores and Lush Stores.

We put a package together where all the elements are supplied time after time in a complete set, 1 load, 1 drop, everything's there you need, job done !

Putting together a project as big as opening a new store or refurbishing an existing one is huge, so the reproduceable room set saves them time & stress and we GUARANTEE that everything they need will be there, on time, no excuses !

We've taken something complicated and simplified it .... and the word for this is .... 

SIMPLICATE !

For the very best in simplicated kitchens ... you know where we are, contact us now !

Jules.

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside !

 Ey up my faithful blogworms, 

"Oh I do like to be beside the seaside", ring any bells ?

An increasing amount of us do, it would appear, ourselves included.
Now we may be equidistant between the west and east coast here in sunny little Ilkley in Yorkshire but that gives us easy access to both of them within a couple of hours and we love days or weeks out at the coast.

For the second of our "idea funding" topics we look to Seaside inspired kitchens. Light, airy, welcoming, sunny places to be be giving us a permanent reminder of balmy days on the beach. Cheers you up in the depths of winter and keeps you going 'til the summer comes round. The splashback in the picture shows a seaside scene and is something we can reproduce using our fabulous recycled roadstone splashbacks from your own photos. 

We know from various magazines that seaside themes are very much in vogue at the moment and lots of people embrace the concept. If you're one of them and would like to have your concepts brought to life in our showroom, then the idea funding process could well be for you. Let your 'inner designer' loose and contact us for your moment of fame !!

We find that light and airy kitchens are always talked about, certainly where natural light is not great if your kitchen faces that wrong way to take advantage of it.

Light colours, white, pale blues and Aqua colours always work well contrasted with darker floors and worktops as seen in this picture.

This image is one we couldn't resist, that floor looks awesome !! How weird would it be to walk around your kitchen on your own 'beach' ??

It's a little bit like these trick pavement artists that you see where their work really blows your mind creating images that you can't quite get your head round !!

Our 'idea funding' seems also to have captured your imagination, although no-one has yet to be brave enough to approach us with a view to working with their ideas. Don't forget that this is a huge opportunity to make money from your ideas and have your name promoted as the concept designer !!

I can't believe that we are a nation who would rather say 'we can't find what we like' rather than do something about it !  This is your chance .... don't waste it !

I will cover another topic next week and judge whether I'm barking up the wrong tree ... or pier !

Let me know your thoughts. Jules.

Steampunk: Future & Past at the same time !

Ey up my faithful blogworms,

 My "off the wall idea" about idea funding seems to have struck a chord with a lot of people, so here goes for a suggestion:

Steampunk Kitchens ! .... What the hell are you talking about ? I here you say.

For those of you not familiar with " The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" I will explain. 

Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction and sometimes fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery.

Steampunk seems to have spawned a whole new genre of fashion, furniture, gadgets and even beer !  It's certainly inspired the movie industry with it's creative use of reclaimed materials and metals set against new technology and modern thinking.



The concept of using reclaimed materials in a way not before associated with furniture certainly fits with our thinking about Eco friendly materials being used in kitchens.

To produce a kitchen in this style would be brave, innovative, complex and probably, a hell of a lot of fun !!

 

 We have used odd choices of materials before and this would really stretch our creative ability. We are, however, extremely confident that this could be made to work with input from some of you out there who are already embracing Steampunk as a way of life. 

It's potentially the most interesting concept I've come across in years and one that, with your help and design input, would be something we'd be really excited to consider. 

The thing is .... we're brave enough to tackle it .... are you ???

With this being so diverse a subject, we'd be looking for part funding from anyone wanting to join us and participation in ongoing design with commission based rewards on every kitchen sold.

This could be a massive first for you and us together and very probably the first ever Steampunk display in a any kitchen showroom in the the whole country. !!!!!

Wow ! .... Who's up for it ???

Jules .... ( as in Jules Verne .... maybe ? )