Dreamy...but expensive!

Oh jeez. This picking out a kitchen thing isn't as easy as I'd fooled myself into thinking. And it seems to be a hell of a lot more expensive as well.

After spending three hours in the kitchen studio store and deciding on where I wanted things, which sorts of cabinets and shelves, which appliances I wanted, what sort of sink, blah, blah, blah I came up with what would be a lovely kitchen...and have it be about 5,000 euro more than I'd planned on paying. Now the decision making starts. Do I cough up the money and pinch pennies on other things for the next couple years (I mean I can buy it but I hate cutting my available cash to the bone and then spending a lot of months building it back up) or do I start cutting back on my wish list?

One big ticket item is the verticle sliding pantry and the killer is the oven being set into the corner instead of just being flush against the flat wall. With it being diagonal I'd have to have diagonal cabinets and shelves to finish off the range hood and...well...it's hard to describe without the visual aids to go along with it but let me just say that a pair of small diagonal cabinets costs more than three regular square cabinets.

B's caught between a rock and a hard place. On one hand he doesn't want to spend a king's ransom on a kitchen, lovely as it may be, but on the other hand it upsets him to no end to tell me no or to think that I'm being disappointed. And I've tried my best to let him know that if he's uncomfortable with forking out so much money for this that I will be happy with cutting back on things.

We've looked at the drawing of the proposed kitchen and we've come up with a few ideas. First, the range in the corner is a luxury we're probably going to have to pass over. The kitchen planner told us that it's a pretty expensive way to go and having it against the wall in the normal manner would help a lot with the expenses. However I have to have some sort of cabinet in that corner to join with the cabinet I have planned for where my refrigerator sits now so I'll put in some corner job that has a carousel inside. Pricey as well but not like the whole range-in-the-corner arrangement. I'll see at that point how we're doing price-wise and if I need to peel off some more on the price then I'll see about changing the full height vertical sliding pantry for a half height one. There's already going to be on at the end of that same cabinet row so perhaps a half one next to the refrigerator and a wider hanging cabinet will make up for some lost space.

And if all this doesn't whittle down a good...oh...1,500 or 2,000 euro off the price I don't know what I'm going to do. I can't get a different refrigerator and a cheaper dishwasher or sink or oven isn't going to make that much of a difference.

I have an appointment in a week to see this kitchen guy again and so in the meantime I'll write down my suggestions and hope the guy can accomodate them. I like the cabinets and the countertops and how the drawers and other stuff is so I'd like to get this kitchen and come to a good compromise in regards to price. I'd really like to go back tomorrow and see if the compromises are going to be money-saving but I don't have time and on Thursday I have a hairdresser appointment and then we have the whole Easter holiday thing. Everything is closed here on Good Friday and Easter Sunday and Easter Monday.

I wish B could come with me to do all this but we'd have to hire a van to get him there and these kitchen planning things can take longer than he's able to sit up. But the second head around when decisions need to be made would be wonderful.

You know maybe if this all doesn't work out I'll just keep the piece of crap kitchen I have now and just hire a personal chef to deliver supper each night.