Kitchen advice

[Ralph]

Appreciate any help on this.

We have an oven in our IP kitchen that needs replacing as well as an separate Island bench top that was water damaged. We also need to replace a cooktop on that Island bench.

The WA based IP rents for $400 per week and is a family sized home. Does anyone have a recommendation of value for money appliances that they use for their investments. I'm looking for mid-range, something that will be relaible and last, but certainly not top end.

We had a quote through our r/e agent for $2k to source and put an oven in. They had to do a small amount of tile and plastering due to size difference - the oven itself was only $720, all the rest of the cost was the handymans time and an electrician, feels expensive!

Also appreciate advice on what sort of material we should go for on the island benchtop. This will house the cooktop (not oven) and so will likely want to be tough enough to not suffer from hot pots or pans. The wrinkle with this one is that we'll possibly move into this IP in a year or so to do a fair bit of renovation work and at that time may do a fair bit to the kitchen. As such I wouldn't want to spend alot on the island benchtop as we may get rid of it in a year.

Thanks,

 

[bespoke]

We bought a full kitchen on e-bay that a home owner was replacing. It was only 4 years old and had a 1 year old oven and stove top. We were going to put it in a IP but it turned out to be better than the one we had at home so guess where our oven went?

How damaged is it, have you seen it. One persons idea of damaged may be different from yours. I would suggest that if you are moving in in a year and replacing the kitchen anyway (and the house is being renovated) either reduce the rent by $5 per week to compensate for the kitchen or get the absolute cheapest bench top you can get (if indeed it is too badly gone). You will rip it out anyway wont you? Dont get too precious about what it looks like for a year.

 

[RumpledElf]

Relatives just had an oven (some overpriced European brand with a billion functions that they can't figure out) and cooktop put in and also paid around $1000 to have them installed - again, the oven wasn't quite the right size, and they had to get a panel fitted below the new oven. It looks, frankly, awful. You can see the raw edges of the white melamine they used to make the panel with as it is so gappy.

They wanted a top of the line European horribly expensive cooktop but none fit so they had to settle for a (much cheaper and the right size) Westinghouse, which I'd consider to be mid-range.

As to the benchtop, how big is it? You can get standard island benchtop sizes from Bunnings, I think, but the colours of the standard stuff is limited. Generic Formica/Laminex stuff comes in literally 400,000 colours (or something equally obscene - the folder of samples is HUGE) and you can get it any size from any random cabinetmaker. You could get it replaced in a nice colour now and then do the rest of the kitchen the same colour when you move in.

 

[Ralph]

Thanks to both of you for the responses. We have had the oven checked out and told it definitely needs replacing. The benchtop is in the same boat so we'll do them both.

Any view on the benchtop material? Existing size is 900mm by 1.5m but I'm looking to repalce with a standard bunnings or ikea size around 620mm by 1500 - seems I can get one of these for a couple of hundred so will go for a color that we'd use later, but if we can't reuse it then it's not too big a waste if we turf it in a year.

 

[RumpledElf]

Your choice really comes down to granite (real or reconstituted), timber, or the modern stuff which is essentially chipboard with pretty colours on the outside (laminate). You can get tiles too but you rarely see them in Australia. Ikea is only going to get you timber or laminate, Bunnings probably only gets you laminate. If you're going timber (which you probably won't) go for hardwood. Modern benchtops are all pretty good - the difference in quality across kitchen suppliers tends to be in the doors not the benchtops

We got our new kitchen in at the start of the year and the choice of benchtop colours, door styles and colours, and handles was mindboggling.

 

[Cherry Pro]

Hi Ralph

Just wondering whether your property is insured and you've been able to claim this against your insurance policy. A friend recently had her newish kitchen water damaged and were able to put in a new kitchen (cupboards and dishwasher) through their insurance pay-out.

Good luck !

 

[Buzz]

When i was in IKEA last week Syd I noticed that they had Whirlpool ovens and stovetops for less than $500 with 15% discount - not sure how long the sale is on for.

Also I picked a new dishwasher last month from 2nds world Syd - they delivered to Melb for less than $50 and the DW was less than $600 rrp $900 ( not a second or damaged and with 3yrs warranty for an extra $100). Got a F&P due to their great service for IP's

Jane

 

[Ralph]

Thanks all for the responses, guess we'll just go for a neutral laminate.

Yes, we did get insurance to payout about 2k for the roof leak that caused this. They 'settled' as they argued they didn't strictly cover this due to cause of the leak, but for good relations etc. offered a 2 k settlement. I think that was code for "we think we've got some laibility, but not clear so try and make him go away for 2k"......I took it.

Re appliances, sounds like you got a great deal, wish I lived in Sydney!!!