Good looking no stress eating

Ey up my faithful blogworms, had a couple of people ask recently ... why blogworm ? So if you're new to following my blogs, it's a term of endearment ... bookworms like books, blogworms like blogs ! Simples.

I've been asked just this week, you say you can make anything, can you make me a dining table to go with my kitchen. Strangely, we were only talking about this the other week so I thought I'd feature this week, tables we've made for other people.

One thing that's always puzzled me about dining tables is that you see so many where folk are scared to really use them properly.

A nice table sitting in your dining room permanently covered up with either a padded cover or a tablecloth, to me, is largely pointless. Some of these tables folk are so scared of marking that you never get a chance to use it in all it's glory.

If you're going to keep it's beauty covered up then it might as well be made of some nasty chipboard !


Well ..... like a lot of other puzzling dilemnas in kitchens, we've found an answer to that too !

Here's a couple of examples of two tables we've made which are designed to be used and abused and definitely not covered up !

By making basically a big frame out of hardwood, these two are Oak, and dropping a granite panel into the centre, shimmed level on battens, you get the most desirable and practical table top you could ever imagine. If you've been following my blogs lately, you'll understand our approach to oiling hardwood worktops properly and these tables are no different. 

You can serve hot pans etc. directly onto the granite panel .. no worries, no covers, no mats for your pans or any of that malarky ! Brilliant for a good family get together where everything is served directly on to the table and you all tuck in. No stress or anything to be scared of concerning your precious table top !

Our next cunning plan, to move this up to the next level, is to use Dekton as the entire table top for a more contemporary look, as shown here. 
(See my earlier blogs to learn all about the amazing properties of Dekton)

This will really raise the game for the future of the ultimately practical table top.

And as with everything else at Milestone, there's always "more than one way to skin a cat" ... ( and don't get all animal rightsey on me for that, it's just a turn of phrase ..OK )

You can have:

1) A complete table built from scratch in the wood / granite combo of your choice 

2) A new table top made as a 'cover top' for your existing table 

3) Keeping your existing table chassis and making a new top to fasten to it

So really there's no excuse for not getting yourself a good looking, eminently practical, useable, everyday dining table ! There's enough sources of stress in this world without worrying about your dining  table as well.

All you've got to do is ASK !

So, right, now, pick up your phone, ring me and let's change how you look at dining tables forever !!

Jules (J2)

Lizard and Banana ???

Ey up my faithful blogworms, My topic this week is split in two. As far apart as lizard and banana. Why those two ..... no idea ! two random images that came into my head two minutes ago, is all !

First, lets think about the kitchen industry for a minute. 

1. When a company says "we pay your vat" .. no they're not. They're working to a price list that already includes vat, calling ex vat, then and they're adding it again to knock it off !! A con trick that people fall for time and again

2. When they say "free dishwasher" .. not it's not, they've hidden it in the price of your furniture and claim to give it you for nowt ! Sneaky.

3. Free Worktops ... as above !

4. free anything else .. as above !

They repeatedly get away with this because of your perception of what you think the kitchen is worth. Dress it up right and any cheap kitchen looks worth more, leaving them room to hide stuff


5. When you go to these places and they say "sign today and we can do you a better deal " they're lying ! Go next week or the week after, you will be offered the same deal. Fact !  ... Sales targets ring any bells ... this is what they are preying on.

6. Pay for the whole thing up front, DON'T DO IT !. You have no defence left if you don't like it. 

You can guarantee the more you seem to get for free, the cheaper the kitchen actually was to start with. Remember: BUY CHEAP, BUY TWICE !!


Second: At Milestone, everything we do is genuine ... nothing hidden, the value of each item is the very best we can provide for what you want to spend ! 
We are independant and rely on satisfied customers to recommend us to their friends. 
 We have a vested interest in making sure that we give you the best advice and the best kitchen we can for your budget. Don't take our word for all this ! We've been doing this for 27 years now and have 100's of satisfied customers to prove, that's why we're still in business when many others have fallen by the wayside. We learned our craft over those years and would put our fitters up against the best of the rest and still come out on top !

 When we provide you with an estimate, we do so on the basis that both you and I have understood what you want and done the best we can to provide it.

We are sick of the phrase " If we give you the job, what can you do for us ?. We already done it, so don't insult us by asking.

It would be a massive help to us to learn your budget early on in our discussions as we can then tailor products available to us to suit your requirements better. We're not in the business of jacking up prices to what we think we can get away with !

However, I can understand reluctance to do this as many other companies would simply hike up their estimates to fit what you want to spend. WE DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS PRINCIPLE. With us what you see is what you get !

One of our strengths lies in our ability to tailor individual units within a layout to make the kitchen fit properly without resorting to unsightly filler panels. Sometimes just this ability alone is enough to make the difference between a kitchen that looks wrong and one that looks perfect.




We've always said that when anyone comes to see us "the answer's Yes, before they ask the question"

We can and do, make anything !

If you went into a Sandwich shop and asked for say: A Lizard & Banana sandwich, where they would look at you as if you were stupid, we would say "Yes, Certainly, how many ? "

Still got no idea why I picked on Lizards & Bananas .... but there you go !

Just felt the need to re-iterate what we're all about after a week where I've heard of other people getting lousy service and lousy quality from big supposedly "reputable" kitchen companies.

 If they get to read this .. boy, am I in trouble, but I don't care, I hate to see customers treated badly and lied to ..... the customer always comes first at Milestone !

OK, rant over. Jules (J2) 

You can't legislate for Stupidity !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, todays tale is a tale of woe caused by stupidity and a lack of understanding.

Whatever you think of builders, when they build houses, they do things for a reason. Today I'm concerned with the dreaded damp !! Every house is built with a damp course of some sort and airbricks to allow airflow under your floors if you have suspended floorboards on joists.

Block these up at your peril !!!

We were called out to a house just recently where a lino fitter had gone to lay some new flooring in a kitchen and when removing the washing machine to floor under it the floor collapsed completely nearly sending the machine into the void space.

Not just the floorboards but the joists were riddled with rot and woodworm !!

 We had to remove half the kitchen, the worktop, the tiles, all the plumbing and nearly half the kitchen floor. The first joist near the wall crumbled in to dust, the second one was nearly as bad, the third one was full of worm  and the next two were rotten to half way along. The left hand section of the underdrawings was basically a pool of mud. The drain is outside this section ... read on for how this was affected !


You can tell by the pictures that the first three layers of bricks are soaked, all the plaster fell off and the damp had jumped the damp course. Using a damp test meter, we were nearly up to the window cill before we were showing reading close to normal !! 



The only course of action is to replace all the affected timber with new, membrane wrap the new joist ends to protect against damp again, we applied 4 coats of 3 in 1 Woodworm and rot protection. 







We wiggled and fed the new joists into place and treated them again. High as a kite by the time we'd finished !

All the joist were re-levelled, bedded on slate and cemented back in place, ready for putting the new floorboards back in.

New boards going down ready to start thinking about re-fitting the kitchen.

New worktops were opted for along with new tiling to bring the kitchen back to life again.




NOW, the reason for this was that some idiot at some point in the history of the house had decided in their infinite stupidity to raise the path to the side and along the back of the house using concrete. We reckon it's been like this for at least 15 years, which is when the current owners moved in. 

Not a problem .... you think ... it bloody is when the concrete goes half way up the airbricks and one of the airbricks was contained WITHIN a little retaining wall put round the outside drain to keep to water in check !!!!! I could not believe anyone could be this stupid !

This is one of a pair of semi detached houses and when you notice that next doors airbricks are at least 4"  (4 inches)( 100mm for the metricated among you) higher than the pathway, it gives an idea of how big a clown the guy who did this really was !

The airbricks are now cemented up and a local builder is fitting telescopic vents in to wall to correct the problem, the kitchen is back together and looking splendid

BUT and it's a big but, this affected wall runs along the back of the house ..... we've sorted the kitchen out but the room next to the kitchen along the same wall ..... it is the lounge ???


We were asked just to sort the kitchen out, we've not looked at the lounge .... I'll let you make up your own mind as to what state that's in ??

Airbricks and damp courses are very important .... make sure yours are OK and clear .... if you don't want this to happen to you !

T-I-M ...B-E-R Revisited

Ey up my faithful blogworms, on the 25th April my blog was all about the bringing back from the dead of a kitchen with badly fitted and maintained timber tops, refurbish the units and doors and re-tile the whole thing.

Well, not often I revisit an old blog but we've been back the the same customer again to finish the concept off with a new floor. I thought it would be nice to be able to show you all what the whole thing now looks like, so here it is, complete.

Those of you who've read the other blog will instantly recognise the kitchen and I must admit, the family are now really looking after it well.

It's a big space of nearly 30 sq.m. incorporating the dining room. 

It was laid with a nasty laminate floor that had seen better days and they wanted to tie the room space together with a floor that was hardwearing & durable with no real maintainence required. 




The timber look was important so we chose a vinyl plank floor tile from TLC Massimo called simply 'English Oak'

Odd choice, you may think, as the worktops are Beech but using the vinyl plank idea you can get colour variances that you can't get with the natural timbers.
The one we chose has a warm of colour which just looked right with the worktops.

The other point to revisiting this particular old blog is that it also illustrates very well a concept that I always try and get across to folk designing a new kitchen project and that is :

Rule 1: Always try and blend your horizontal surfaces with each other and the vertical surfaces with each other to create workable bands of contrast.

Rule 2: Always stick to no more than 3 colours, one of which can be your metals and the room will always be elegant and stylish without becoming visually messy.

I use the work blend deliberately because they don't have to match ( unless you want them to ) but they need to complement each other in tone and colour concept.

Follow these two simple rules and whatever your colours of choice are, the concept always works.

I don't know ..... all these "Top Tips", I don't know how I do it for the money ????

Jules or J2 ( One of my faithful blogworms, in particular, knows what J2 means )

A real Eco Showcase

Ey up my faithful blogworms just to warn you, this weeks is a long one, so if you're sitting comfortably then I'll begin !

My feature this week is a recently completed kitchen that represents each and every discipline we strive for in a Kitchen Of Recycled Content. Recycle and re-use being the key !

The cabinets and doors are from our recycled content Eco2 range, customisable with soft close everything.

Recycled content stainless steel handles

The worktops are: Sustainable Solid Oak prepared and finished properly according to our developed system
A peninsular unit topped with a 100% recycled Yoghurt Pot worktop.

Some re-used appliances from the existing kitchen where their sizes are still currently to make replacement easy, a principle often overlooked when getting a new kitchen.

So without further ado, here's the pics to illustrate the principle ......

Starting here with benefit of custom making base units. We were able to sneak a small base unit in between the peninsular unit and the tall housings to usefully fill a space allowing us continuity of cabinets. The housings themselves are reduced depth to hug the angle of the wall and provide a home for a microwave & loads of dry goods storage. The mainstay of most good kitchens.




A picture showing how the base units run into the larder cupboards around a corner, illustrating the home for the microwave.

Placed at worktop height with the worktop just to the right, it's an ideal spot for the microwave for ease of use, off the main worktop run and can be used without getting under each others feet in the kitchen.

Base and walls going in now with the corner wall unit having a reduced leg on one side to make it tuck in nicely at the right hand side of the window, maximising use of the wall corner.

Most of the units in now and starting Oak worktop machining. The wall unit in the top left of this pic is 540mm wide to ensure we tuck up to the side of the beam running across the ceiling without compromising the rest of the run of units, isn't bespoking wonderful ??


Peninsular unit in place on the left, showing the run towards the fridge / freezer housing on the far end. Small drawer pack to the right with the dishwasher to the right of that.

Using Solid Hardwood for worktops has many benefits, not least of which is that you don't have to buy overwide worktop to create corner solutions and pay the premium that goes with it !

You simply join an offcut onto the back, cut it to shape, glue and bolt it into place and no-one will ever know !!

This next little group of three pics, above, I had to include as they are a personal joke between ourselves and the proud owners of the new kitchen, they'll know what I mean !!

Oak worktops machining nearing completion, all cut outs in place, sections glued and bolted together, all the backs have had 3 coats of oil, the sections joined together and ready for oiling the top surface.

First coat of oil now on the top, allowing sufficient time to dry before applying more coats. Minimum 3 coats needed but sometimes we'll give them 4 if the oil soaks in really quickly. This really is now to give the desired appearance as the real work is done by the first three.

My God ! it's starting to actually look like a kitchen, Getting goosebumps now as standing here and thinking " I don't care who you are, no-one could have planned this kitchen any better that this " We've maximised the storage while making it easy to work in .... what more could you want ?





Recycled Yoghurt Pot ! ..... Recycled Coffee Cups' often forgotten companion, which is a real shame as Yoghurt Pot has just as valuable part to play as it's more popular sister. 

It looks fabulous on here, adds interest in aesthetics and textures. Blending in with the colour scheme perfectly !



So design friendly, very tactile and, as with the Oak, can all be cut and shaped on site without paying any template and installation costs like you do with granite.
Both the Oak and the Yog Pot are practical, long term worktop solutions and by following the common sense instructions we provide will last for 'donkeys years'  

Doesn't this look fab ?? .... a damn good practical, well designed kitchen that's just such as nice place to be !

Efficient to work in, everything to hand and top of the tree in Eco credentials .... Sometimes, I love my job !!!



Needs tiling and flooring but with loads of Eco choices now for these elements, this should turn out to be a real Eco showcase, it not often we get so many eco and sustainable elements together in one kitchen. Needless to say, all the lighting is energy efficient aswell, all based on the new generation low energy / high light output, Cob lighting.

What more can I say other than all this could be yours too.  As the proud new owners of this kitchen will testify .... it doesn't need to cost a fortune either !!

All you need to do is give us a call !

Jules.

Why are you still reading this ?

 Ey up, my faithful blogworms, update time on our voyage of discovery with ... Dekton

We've been trying everything to ruin our samples but without success, this stuff really does what it says on the tin !!

So far:

We've put it in the freezer, taken it out and warmed it up with a blowlamp ! Not a mark, that's got to be the ultimate thermal shock test and it passed with flying colours !!

Poured white spirit over it and set it on fire, used gloss paint and burned it off with same blowlamp, poured battery acid on it, poured brake fluid on it, .... shrugged it off like we weren't even trying !




In the kitchen we've tried:

Red wine, beetroot, bleach, cumin, vinegar, toothpaste, coffee, tea, hot fat, olive oil, food colouring and curry .... no effect whatsoever, dammit ! we can't seem to do any damage at all.

All this does is grow my confidence with the product massively, I do like to try stuff at home where possible if I'm going to recommend it to our customers to be sure it's right for them.

As I said last time, I've been doing this for over 25 years now and finally I've found a worktop product that actually ticks more boxes than I need to tick and that only happens once a lifetime if you're lucky.

I want to rip out every set of quatrz or granite tops I've ever fitted and put this in straight away. Clearly that's not going happen but it gives you an idea of how convinced that this material is so the way forward for kitchen surfaces to go

DEKTON .. It's a name to get used to looking for, it's what all the clever kitchens will be wearing sometime soon, trust me ! I'm going to do my bit to make it happen. 

Contact me to learn more and get a price, even if you don't contact me .... contact someone or even Google it to start with, just do something to learn more about Dekton.

Why are you still reading this ?, DO IT , NOW !

Jules.

Love Wood, Love Life !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, We are slowly restoring badly installed timber tops and restoring peoples faith in them. 

Timber tops are a fabulous, practical, long lasting and gorgeous set of worktops but keep getting bad press because 'muppets' install them with no understanding of exactly how they should be treated, this puts people off owning them and THAT'S WRONG !!

Here's another set we've brought back from the brink :

2 runs, Hob side and Sink side, hob side badly grease marked and dented, some splits and cracks caused by lack of know ledge and maintenance

What misguided fool stuck this obscene mass of tarred paper underneath this one ?

It was only over a fridge and freezer ! not as if it's gonna get damp ... is it ?

This mess took some getting off for us to thoroughly sand it back and prep it properly. You can't sand it back and oil it as it should be with this crap stuck all over it ...and they'd stapled it for good measure !!!!

The sink side had to come off too with even more of the tarred crap all over it .... for God's sake !! That's it flipped over sitting on the left after we'd got it back to bare wood.

Sink run, sanded and prepped and with it's first of three coats of oil on the back. As important to treat the back just as much as the front to create a moisture balance between the two. This prevents drying out and warping of the timber




 
Diligent and thorough oiling all all surfaces puts all the hard work in at the installation stage to make maintaining the timber later a doddle. We even provide full instruction sheets on how to machine & install with how to look after your tops when we've finished printed on the back.
2 pages, in simple English that anyone can understand that ensures the long term success and durability of these fantastic worksurfaces.


Both sets fully restored and being re-installed. Leaving the last oil coat until everything's back in to give us that final flourish in the finish. Look at picture 1 and then this last picture ..... the results speak for themselves !! 

A bit of TLC and careful attention to detail and these worktops will live on for many years to come.

DO NOT be influenced by negative people when looking to buy hardwood worktops ! 

They ARE brilliant and they WILL last for years if installed by people who understand what they're doing !!

Any doubts, contact me, if we can't install for you for whatever reason, I will still happily email our 2 page guide to make sure that whoever fits for you does it properly and you will have worktops that you love and will serve you well for years to come !

I LOVE HARDWOOD WORKTOPS AND YOU CAN TOO !

Contact me before it's too late. Jules

'On the Buses'

Ey up my faithful blogworms, been out a lot lately with working away and holidays, you know what it's like, but anyway back now on following a Yorkshire theme this week. 

Our area, Yorkshire, as any local will tell you is 'Gods Own County' in England. Getting around our county there are some spectacular sights to be seen. A lot of people do, believe it or not choose public transport !!

Which brings me too todays topic ..... Bus Blinds !!,, what's a bus blind I here you ask ?

A bus blind is the fabric roller that revolves in the front of bus, above the windscreen, showing the different destinations that route goes to.

See pics below: 


We've managed to get hold of a genuine late 1970's, early 1980's Bus Blind complete, coming off a Leeds 'First Bus' route, it has dozens of well known Yorkshire destinations on it and we are slicing them off and framing them up as great nostalgia pieces to grace any home.

The destinations are too many to mention here but go as far east as Skipton and as far west as York, Wakefield, out to Bradford area and over to Wetherby, Boston Spa and loads around the main Leeds area.




We also have blinds which are non geographic such as : Park & Ride, University, Private and Out of Service.

The top blind is framed in Leeds 'First Bus' colours as an upgrade to the basic ones shown below framed in black.


Unless we have ones framed up and in stock already, as these 3 are, you can order and have your favourite destination framed up either way to suit your preferences.





Some of you may have seen these framed mainly of London area destinations but why should Yorkshire be left out ???

Many, many people have fantastic memories of holidays spent in our humble county and why shouldn't we celebrate that with Yorkshire Bus Blinds as reminders (or even Milestones) for happy times spent here. 

As I said, we have dozens on the complete blind so why not contact us to see if we have your favourite location available ???

To grab hold of your fabulous Yorkshire Bus Blind, email me on: julian@milestone.uk.net or go to our facebook page and message me:  www.facebook.com/MilestoneEcoKitchens

Your favourite is within your grasp but bear in mind ! ... we only have one of each, so it's first come, first served !!!1

All aboard ! Jules

THE REVOLUTION STARTS NOW !!

Ey my faithful blogworms,

I'm going to shout this week about an absolutley fabulous new product, the like of which I've waited 25 years to find !!

DEKTON  .... Probably the most remarkable worktop material ever yet invented by man !!

Why, I'll tell you why !

Back to normal now, all this shouting's making my thoat sore.

Buy granite tops and you can put a hot pan on them but they will stain in time, buy Quartz tops and they won't stain but you can't put a hot pan on them.. 

Wouldn't it be fantastic if you could get the advantages of both types with none of the drawbacks ??

Well now you can !! ...... Dekton is the answer !!

 Dekton ... Resists everything in it's path

# Extremely resistant to scratching .. cut on it and it will ruin your knife !

# Virtually zero porosity .. pretty impossible to stain it .. with anything !

# Very highly resistant to aggressive chemicals, certainly nothing you've got in your kitchen will affect it !


 # Relentless in it's resistance to heat, and .. Yes .. that is a blowlamp !! so a hot pan isn't going to be a problem !

# Totally UV stable, impervious to wind, rain, ice, sleet and snow, you can even clad buildings in it !

# It's strong enough and hard enough to use as flooring .. Indoors or Outdoors, it makes no difference !

# It's fireproof, colour stable and superb dimensional stability !

Big key question .. Is it prohibitively expensive ? 

Answer .. No, definitely not !

Coming in at around price group 2 for quartz materials, it's very affordable for such a superb, multi application, worktop material.


Just imagine having a set of worktops that are going to pretty much laugh off anything you can throw at them !

You can do all the things you shouldn't do with 'ordinary' worktops and not have a care in the world. 


Totally stress free worktops that will last a lifetime no matter how much abuse you throw at them ..

Bliss !  Come on .. you've got to agree ... worktops don't get any better than this AND they're guaranteed for 10 years to start with !!

Worktops in a kitchen, bathroom and outdoors, Indoor and outdoor floors, Indoor walls, Bathroom walls, Exterior walls and even STAIRS.

This really is the material I've waited all my time in the kitchens business to find.

It ticks every single box I would want to tick 

Interested, and let's face it, why wouldn't you be ??

Talk to me Blogworms, let's start the Revolution together !!

Jules 

Baku Airport, Azerbaijan .. Outside approach and all the way through inside the airport, surely the ultimate test for any material in all weathers and temperatures, kinda makes home worktops a piece of cake really !