So, we're cracking on with the living room and have now had the wall knocked out between the hallway and living room - which I said I definitely didn't want to happen to start with... the walls have been replastered and we finally decided to go with opening up the fireplace. We ended up being really lucky actually and the fire surround (from MIL's house) fits perfectly into the fireplace aperture and on peeling back the carpet we found some beautiful dark green tiles forming a hearth flush with the floorboards.
We're now going to put down an engineered wood floor in both the hallway and living way, paint the room and the end will be finally in sight - and baby will be allowed to arrive! (35 weeks now so still cutting it quite close).
Anyway my final question is that as the beautiful tiles are flush with the floorboards, how do we work the flooring around them? We will be getting someone in to fit it, but how will it work? Do we just have the flooring up to the edge of the tiles, stop and put a beading strip along the join? As usual, I'm completely clueless 