what do you wish someone had told you before you redid your bathroom and/or kitchen?

[Heathcliffscathy]

following on from the awesome breastfeeding thread, and on a much smaller and less important scale obv, i'm looking for your collective wisdom as i embark on major building works in my house.

weirdly not only am i going to hopefully benefit from your bathroom and kitchen wisdom...but as i'm preg AND undertaking building works of doom i'll be benefitting from the bfding thread too...

so your dream kitchens and bathrooms linked please...and also things you wish you'd known.

TIA

[Heathcliffscathy]

awwwww.come on guys...i know you've all had your kitchens and bathrooms done and that those that haven't got round to it have their dreams....

[Beetroot]

having left London a while ago I am of little help

although have you tried House elf? they may well know of people and are amazing

[wilbur]

Don't have a pale, smooth, one-colour kitchen floor. Have some texture or colour difference in your tiles as otherwise every single flipping fleck of dirt shows.

[never again emoticon]

[Heathcliffscathy]

no no no...i want kitchen and bathroom porn! and i want advice and tips based you your experience of doing any kitchens or bathrooms that you've done!

not looking for builderS!

[MrsSawdust]

Ok, I wish we'd realised how simple it is to fit a bathroom yourself, we would have saved nearly £2000! Helps if you're handy with a few basic tools but it's really not rocket science.

[wilbur]

[hello beetroot - haven't seen you on here for ages]

[Heathcliffscathy]

ahhhh wilbur, wise wise words...prob going with travertine for the floor so lots of speckle.

[wilbur]

Otherwise my kitchen is my dream - am v happy with balance of shiny things and not shiny things, plus it's got neutral cabinets with coloured walls - works well, IMHO. Some friends have all-white property porn-style kitchen and it's like walking onto the deck of the starship enterprise.

[Heathcliffscathy]

am preggo and not doing it myself sawdust but take your point and will be watching my labour bills accordingly.

[Beetroot]

Hello Wilbur - I am rarely here! Nice ro see some familiar names though

[nigglewiggle]

We paid a lot of money for a big company to project manage and install our bathroom because we knew it would be a lot of hassle. I was pg at the time too. It was a complete waste of money. They brought the wrong stuff, said things weren't available when I could find them on the internet. They subcontracted the tiling and the tiler who came wasn't equipped to do the job etc etc.

We eventually got some money back at the end, and we were happy with the finished product (though it took 3x longer than estimated). We are now project managing the renovation of our other bathroom and it's a pain, but at least we're not paying something for nothing.

[Heathcliffscathy]

thinking pale blue blue painted units with white walls stone floor cream aga, OR white painted units with pale blue walls etc

[nigglewiggle]

Also underfloor heating is a must in both.

[wilbur]

Beetroot - I'm not here much either, but dip in and out. Hope your small musicians are well. [hijack over - sorry sophable]

[Heathcliffscathy]

good point niggle...i think even if i got someone in i'd be project managing it cause i'm a control freak so no point. and also have a builder that wants me to supply most of the stuff which is good

[wilbur]

I like the sound of white units and blue walls. We have found that our pale green walls have at least hidden a small amount of the abuse they get from 3 dcs. Can't look too closely though. Plus pics and noticeboards etc look nice against a colour.

[Heathcliffscathy]

wilbur given that i am queen of the hijack i'd be a massive hypocrite to mind in the slightest!

niggle we're doing electric underfloor in the small bathrooms and water in the big open plan downstairs area

[wilbur]

Oh yes, underfloor heating. It is truly a invention.

[Beetroot]

under floor heating is a must

Wilbur - they are not so small now and s=doing very well!!!

[bran]

When you are working out how many boxes of tiles you need don't let the person with the loudest voice decide. I should have stood up to DH, I have a maths degree ffs and I actually measured the room and worked it all out but he did a rough reckoning and said to would be a waste of money to buy my estimate. That meant that we had to go back and buy 2 extra boxes of tiles which were from a different batch and a very slightly different colour.

[wilbur]

Oh, and don't buy a Liebherr fridge. We thought it would last forever and be brilliant, but it was brilliant for just long enough to be out of warranty and we have now been waiting 5 months for parts from Germany to fix it.

In fact, if you can, have a free-standing fridge/freezer. Built-in ones are pants, even though they make everything look nice and neat.

[another never again emoticon]

[Heathcliffscathy]

if there are any lurkers on here, please chip in please!

[Heathcliffscathy]

oooo bran that is infuriating...i hope that you didn't let him live that one down for a while!

[Strawberrycornetto]

I love my kitchenn. I also vote for underfloor heating, hadn't realised how great it is until I walked barefoot on a tiled floor without it. If you like cooking, make sure you get a good oven. I don't know much about agas but if you have one you might also want a normal oven too. I have a falcon range and its fantastic. I am moving and am to be leaving it behind. Don't go to one of the big chains for kitchen units, they are a rip off. We have twice bought (2 different houses) wooden kitchen units which we have painted from a small company online and both times they were fab.

Your colour scheme sounds really nice. We had pale blue cupboards and white walls in our old kitchen and it looked really good. We went for cream this time for a change but having a colour is good I think.

[Heathcliffscathy]

company that you bought from link please strawb...

love cooking and will definitely also have an integrated oven, and gas hob (i'm right about gas hob if i love cooking aren't i? i hate the ceramic hob i'm on at the moment)?

why do i have the impression that neff is so good?