Budapest X

Kitchen floor tiling is well under way and I expect to have it done by Thursday. Also to be done by Thursday is refinishing of the parquet at least near the kitchen area, all plumbing and electrics in place, and wall tiles grouted. I also expect the affected walls to be painted, but this is less critical because the parts inaccessible because of the kitchen units will of course be covered by the said kitchen units.

Following an issue with the parquet floor that neither I nor the builder had anticipated, although we should have, the kitchen was further delayed by a day. The old wall between what is now the sitting room and Bedroom 2 left a gap in the parquet about 100mm wide. The gap had to be moved to the new wall by relaying three more rows of parquet blocks.

In anticipation of IKEA’s requirement to arrange delivery exactly two days after arranging it, I went to the store on Monday evening and pulled the trigger. I paid an enormous sum of money for a kitchen and some bedroom wardrobes for delivery on Thursday. I look forward to seeing a big pile of flat-packed boxes to be delivered, comprising mostly METOD, RINGHÜLT, PAX, KÖMPLEMENT, and NÅRNÏÅ.

“We can deliver on Wednesday, and fitting will be on 15th February.”

Oh, FFS… They refuse to allow me to arrange this a week in advance and then impose a week’s delay. I said so (cleaned up for language, obviously), and after several phone calls the fitting company agreed to start installation on Thursday as previously agreed. They can’t do Friday, but I have been informed that the fitting will be completed over the weekend. IKEA’s delivery and fitting subcontractors have proved 100% true to their word so far, and I therefore have every confidence. For some reason, payment for delivery and indeed installation has to be made in cash. Actual, real-life C.O.D.

As it’s a monster delivery of boxes, I went ahead and also arranged the fitted wardrobes for both bedrooms. There’s going to be a small sink in one of these, so it’s important to get the NÅRNÏÅ fitted sooner rather than later. An irritating water meter pokes out of the wall behind one of the wardrobes and this will need to be concealed by a small bathroom cabinet.

Now, bathroom cabinets. I have been trying and thus far failing to find a suitable bathroom mirror. I want a big wall-mounted mirror over the wash basin with a light and shaver socket, and that doesn’t look hideous. There must be a Venn diagram somewhere that illustrates the impossibility of this combination. Failing a mirror, a wall-mounted cabinet with a concealed power socket, perhaps? Alas, despite visiting every bathroom supplier in both Buda and Pest, the only one that would have been remotely acceptable was not available in white. Only in brown, and that wouldn’t match anything else in the bathroom.

There is something bizarrely wrong with a bathroom cabinet with a power socket inside. How do you look at yourself shaving when the mirrored door has to be open for the power cable?Beloved Wife has now vetoed a cabinet, so we are back to a mirror as the only acceptable option, with a shelf below for brushes and toothpaste.

After failing at this task, the builder and I drove over to the wood floor supplier and I paid the balance of monies for skirting boards and dado rails. And then it turned out that they’d deliver everything, so there had been no need to drive a large pick-up all over town.

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Budapest IX

It’s now 1st February, and there has been significant progress on the walls. Final plastering is nearly done and wall tiles are in progress. As of today, work on the wood floors has commenced. I went to Dubai for a week, and as is inevitable I received urgent messages requiring my immediate attention as I was in the taxi on my way to the airport.

“Oh, Mr Goat, we do not understand the tiling layout that we previously agreed was completely clear from your AutoCAD drawings.”

The problem completely evaporated upon my return and a ten minute meeting on site. But this serves to illustrate why I’m doing this from Budapest and not attempting it by remote control from Dubai.

Having agreed a date for kitchen installation, the builder is now under pressure to complete the walls, floor, electricity and water in the kitchen area. The gas pipe supplying the stove had to be moved because it’s not allowed to be inside a cupboard, and the builder put the thing in the wrong place. He also needs to dig through his new plasterboard wall to regain access to electricity outlets that will supply the oven, stove ignition, and extractor hood. It seems that the plasterers and the electricians do not talk to each other despite my reminders. 

Bedroom 1 has got plastered

Kitchen entrance

Kitchen tiles

That gas pipe needs to be about 300mm to the left

This will eventually become a shower cubicle

The scary rats' nest of unfinished electrickery

I paid for IKEA’s kitchen fitter to come and check the measurements that obviously have to match the final surfaces. He agreed that my layout was good and wished all his clients were this well organised. I get the money back, and the kitchen planning fee too, when I actually pay for the kitchen.

Back to IKEA, and I attempted to buy a planned kitchen. There were some minor modifications to the original design, including deletion of the breakfast bar. It had previously turned out that the bar worktop is a special order with a six-week lead time, so I organised this well in advance. It will be delivered well after the rest of the kitchen is in, but I reckon I’m capable of drilling four holes in the right place and screwing for bolts up to the specified torque – which is “good’n’tight.” I am suspicious that the washers as provided are too small to spread the load, so I bought some ginormous washers.

So the kitchen is finalised.

“I’d like to pay for it now and have it delivered next Monday. It can’t be any sooner because the floor won’t be ready.”

“Oh no, Mr Goat. You have to order it two days in advance. We at IKEA are actually incapable of sticking you in our diary for seven days’ time, Come back on Friday night or Saturday morning if you want a Monday delivery. Oh, and delivery and installation are payable in cash to the guys doing the work.”

A brief perusal of my blog post dated 24 November notes how a wobbly and uneven parquet floor would need to be taken up and relaid. There was a guy in today to deal with the parquet, and I found him listlessly cleaning and stacking parquet units. His boss contacted me today to advise that fixing the floor levels would take two days, and therefore IKEA’s kitchen delivery should be correspondingly postponed. He’s only known about the floor issue for ten weeks.

So it’s next Wednesday for the kitchen; not next Monday.

As an aside, I have designed and fitted a kitchen before, which is why I’m getting someone else to do it this time.

Meanwhile in the hall the floor is way too bouncy to carry large slate flagstones. More expense: it has to come up and be replaced with concrete (and reinforcing mesh that is pretty much for anti-crack purposes) as was done in the kitchen and bathroom. Redoing the hall floor will help with finished floor level consistency throughout the flat.

As for shopping, I have all light fittings ready and waiting. The place will be fully furnished, so I’m looking for a reasonable telly that’s not cripplingly expensive. Also microwave, kettle, iron, washing machine…

But I now have a completion date, or at least a date when it will be possible to move in with actual power and water working and some furniture.

The middle of February. Two weeks to go.

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Budapest VIII

A month has passed. The festive season intervened and, as one of my friends put it, “The Budapestian builders have achieved nothing over Christmas.” Indeed they didn’t, having all sodded off to their families in Bulgaristan.

But they’re back now. The plasterboard wall between the sitting room and Bedroom 2 is nearly complete. It needs a second layer of gypsum board for stiffening and to support a wall-mounted telly should one ever be attached. I have specified six (yes six) power points plus data outlets. Telly, DVD player, cable TV decoder, WiFi transmitter, stereo system… It soon mounts up, and it’d be nice not to require a load of power strips. This is similar reasoning behind the excessive number of power outlets in the kitchen.

Speaking of kitchen, plasterboard has appeared here too. The triangular box-out will be the backing to the cooker and the extractor hood will be mounted on it with an exhaust to outside through the real wall behind. I really want to keep things tidy. Naturally, the plasterboard guys buried the cooker and extractor power outlets, and put a metal bracing strut immediately behind where the exhaust duct has to go. I have had a word, and it’s to be fixed.

At last the front door has arrived. Partly because Beloved Wife got burgled when she was staying in an AirBnB where the miscreants jimmied the plastic door open, I have specified a steel security door with multiple locks and shoot bolts that go into the frame on all four sides. This should at least discourage the sticky-fingered oiks and have them looking elsewhere for their drug money.

Meanwhile, I’ve been shopping. The current residence is piling up with lighting, ceramicware, and even kitchen hardware. Better to carry this back from the shop when Beloved Wife is in town than to carry it all myself. On the Metro.

A decision still has to be made regarding lighting for the bathroom and hall. The local DIY megastores carry a bewildering array of light fittings for wildly differing tastes. Looking to match an existing light fitting, I went into an Emporium of Expensive Designer Lighting and showed them the photo. Paraphrasing, I was told that “That’s cheap Chinese shit. We don’t stock cheap Chinese shit.”

Indeed they don’t. I asked where their stuff came from, and was advised that everything comes from China these days. Designed in Germany; made in China; yadda yadda. So they only actually stock expensive Chinese shit. Glad that’s clear.

Anyhoo, back in the flat, the floor tiles are going in from next Monday, to be closely followed by wall tiles and the kitchen, which is designed but I have yet to pay for and arrange delivery and installation.

As for bedroom wardrobes, beds, and other furnishings, these will have to wait. There’s not enough room in the flat for everything in one go.


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