The Cockroach: Made from waste

Usually at Grand Designs there’s something a bit left field, and often I find myself wandering around trying to work out where and what it is. Often though, it’s something you’re really not expecting, which was definitely true at last year’s show. I mean, even if you’d seen The Cockroach in the programme, without a further explanation you’d have been none the wiser, and may even have given it a wide berth, just in case it really was cockroaches.

I don’t expect you’d have been expecting, this I certainly wasn’t - and just in case - approached with care.

And while it was colourful, and fascinating, I didn’t need to worry.

It’s a solar powered, pedal powered vehicle for two which the board says is “capable of transporting two people in comfort over large distances” which I’m less sure about. It doesn’t scream comfort, or even something for long journeys to me, even if i wasn’t pedalling.

It’s very inventive though, and shocking too. Or perhaps less shocking really, which is shocking in itself isn’t it?

It’s made from waste collected across London including old bikes, for sale signs, mobility scooter batteries, pipes and leftovers from last year’s show. There’s even somewhere to store your provisions.

And with provisions, of course you need a kitchen…

There was a loo too, but it was mostly a pipe to a bucket, so definitely not one for the Loo Series.

While I’m not sure it will catch on as a vehicle, it’s clear what should catch on is how we deal with our waste responsibly.

A just in time handmade gift

In Monday’s post I mentioned the Christmas gift that almost wasn’t ready in time, and which only managed to be under the tree with some last minute sewing Christmas Eve evening. MOH was bemused my by last minute industriousness, even more so when he realised it was for him. I was keen to get it finished, so he stood a chance of working out what it was, and of course to get it finished and wrapped so it could be opened on Christmas Day.

It was a bit out of the norm you see, but I needn’t have worried as he got what they were for as soon as he opened them, phew.

They’re mats for the wheels of his bike, for when it’s wet and dark, and so the bike stays in our conservatory overnight. Up until now he’s been parking his bike on some newspaper, which while it serves a purpose and does a job, tends to hang about for a bit and so I thought something more aesthetically pleasing must exist. Then I realised it probably didn’t, but was something I could make.

The trouble was when I had time on my own in the house, usually his bike wasn’t there so what size? In the end I guessed and cut a leg of an old pair of jeans to be approximately 40cm x15cm - I knew I wanted something hardwearing, but I also wanted something softer for the newly varnished conservatory floor, so a leg of some old pyjamas were just the thing, and I had some batting somewhere I’m sure…

PYJAMAS AND JEANS REPURPOSED

But I also knew it’d need to be more than just two pads for MOH to know what it was for. With a flash of inspiration one night I hit on the idea of adding some lettering, but what: bike park, stay dry, clean floor, no mess, not newspaper and so on, but in the end I went with the simple instruction of “Park here.”

The original plan was to embroider both words, in script, and “here” looked to be the easier and more continuous to do, so I started with that using twine. I’d written the design onto the jeans (and you can still see it in both photos) and it wasn’t onerous to do, and there was lots of tracing where the flow of the letters should go with my fingers, I realised I wanted more of the pyjama fabric on show too.

TWINE EMBROIDERY

So a new plan was hatched for the “park” which involved using my die cutter to cut out the letters from fabric ironed onto interfacing, which I hoped would stop them fraying (we’ll have to see how that works out), then stitched onto the denim. I toyed with the placement and went with a more jaunty arrangement, as time wasn’t on my side, and I preferred to have them clearly not straight rather than trying to be straight and failing.

APPLIQUED LETTERING

I’m rather pleased with how they turned out, with more planning I think I’d have quilted them some more perhaps, and given them a wash to remove the red felt tip lettering, but there’s time for that.

What was more pleasing was that when he opened them, he knew what they were for and sweetly suggested I could make these and sell them, however as they often say on Dragon’s Den, I think this is solving a problem that not many people know they have, so I don’t expect there’s much demand for these. They were fun to make, and to give, and as well as their practical-ness they’ve also demonstrated to MOH that sometimes old fabric can be put to good use, and uses you might not have first thought of!

How were your handmade gifts received?

Would you sell your kitchen?

Or indeed, would you buy a second-hand or ex-display kitchen?  We sold our kitchen back in 2013 on eBay, and well, it felt odd. I mean, how do you put a price on something that's been in place for years, has had plenty of use and usually you'd expect to throw into a skip?

We didn't realise selling kitchens was even a thing, for all of the reasons I've just given.  But when our kitchen planner suggested it the idea appealed, not only to offset some some of the cost of our new kitchen, but also because there wasn't too much wrong with most of the units., and so if someone else could make use of them, then that was a good result for us.

If the units weren't that bad you might be wondering why we were replacing our kitchen at all.  A couple were starting to show wear and tear, and the inbuilt dishwasher needed replacing and we knew that as the years went on it'd only get worse.  We didn't want to be in the position of having to put in a new kitchen when the time came to move, that felt a waste, and well, we'd rather enjoy the new kitchen ourselves. 

That said we didn't have a clue about how to price this. As you can see there were a few units, as well as two tall larder cupboards that aren't shown. We quickly learnt that we'd priced it too low, when it was snapped up almost immediately on eBay. But it was a price we were happy with and we had time constraints on when it could be collected. Our kitchen fitters removed the old kitchen and our buyer collected it the same day. 

Looking back at these photos I'm struck by a couple of things. Firstly how tidy our kitchen was, but I think this is an illusion and we'd cleared the worktops to make it look super smart in the pictures, like you do and secondly how dated it looks compared to our new kitchen. We loved this kitchen though. I loved how it didn't match, and that's something we've replicated, but with lighter colours. 

From this kitchen we also knew that we didn't want tiled splashbacks and you'll know instead of the laminate board used here we've gone for a glass splashback instead. And one of my absolute musts was to have the boiler enclosed. It used to be, but then the boiler was replaced for a new model and the existing cupboard didn't work, that left us with a sparkling white appliance amongst a row of bottle green base units, and really jarred with me, e-v-e-r-y-t-i-m-e I saw it. 

I do wonder what became of our kitchen though. I know the person who bought it was hoping to use as much of it as he could, but that it was going into a smaller space. It's unlikely that it would end up in the same horseshoe formation, but I imagine there's so many combinations that would have worked, that it would be like a life-sized jigsaw puzzle. 

I've recently become aware of a company that could not only help people sell their kitchens, but also help people buy used and ex-display kitchens, which if you want to get value for money sounds ideal.  The Used Kitchen Exchange are a family business who specialise in just that and was founded after they purchased a pre-owned kitchen themselves. So they have first-hand experience of buying a kitchen online and also managed to bag themselves a bargain at the same time, and the realisation that enabling people to source quality kitchens at a cheap price from a sustainable source was possible.

The Used Kitchen Exchange also offers a free kitchen valuation for kitchens that meet their criteria, and as part of their service they offer free professional photography, free advertising, the selling part (obviously) and ensuring kitchens are professionally removed, packed and delivered to their new owners.  There's more information about the full process on their website.

And they've saved thousands of tons of carcinogenic MDF from going to landfill. You can't say fairer than that, can you? 

Oh, and if you see ever see a kitchen with bottle green gloss base units and cherry wood wall units, let me know as it could be my old kitchen, and I'd love to see it settled into its new home!

* This is a collaborative post, but all views are my own.