Village Hall kitchen refurbishment
Monday, 07 February 2011
Users of the Village Hall cannot fail to notice that the refurbishment of the kitchen is now complete and how bright and clean this all looks. Reports from those that have used the new facilities are that they cannot believe how old and decrepit the old kitchen had become.
Users of the Village Hall cannot fail to notice that the refurbishment of the kitchen is now complete and how bright and clean this all looks. Reports from those that have used the new facilities are that they cannot believe how old and decrepit the old kitchen had become.As is the case with these sorts of projects, it was important to enlist the engagement of those most likely to make significant use of the facilities. To achieve this, for the planning and overall design stage, we enlisted the services of Eileen Cross and her band of helpers who work very hard and give their time to running the very successful Luncheon Club in the Hall. And what a good job they did. I know from personal experience how much time and effort needs to be devoted to this part of the work and getting it right - a job made more difficult by the fact that they had to consider that there were other people who were to use this facility as well as themselves.
The Committee applaud the group most heartily for their time and commitment to this phase of the work.
Having got the planning and provider bit resolved it was then necessary to get competitive quotations from kitchen fitters, to choose a contractor and organise a work date. This had to be far enough in advance to give notice to the users of the hall because we needed to close it for the week that it would take to do the work.
As many of you will know, it is not until you start to pull old thing apart and uncover hidden bits that you can resolve anticipated problems, like connecting old cast iron waste to modern plastic plumbing or deciding exactly where you want the new electrical sockets. And I bet we are not the only people to suffer a leak when testing the plumbing, in the most inaccessible place!
The most significant change to the plan was the total remodelling of the serving hatch area. It was clear as we finished the rest of the kitchen and started modifying this area that nothing other than a complete rebuild to match the rest would be acceptable. Unfortunately this did cause some delay in completion as we had to wait for the additional worktops, which until then, we did not realise were not stock items but special delivery! Ho Hum.
One of the most immediate and significant benefits of the refurbishment is that the Luncheon Club have now been able to remove all their plates and cooking equipment from various cupboards in the back kitchen and keep them directly to hand in the new areas.
This will now enable us to progress to the next and, I think, final significant area of work which is to set about demolishing the old cupboards and the refurbishment of the old back kitchen and to install a new floor that will be easier to keep clean and provide some more appropriate storage structures. The committee hopes that this can be tackled in the near future.
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