So, the builder arrives in, oooh, less than 2 hours to start work on the kitchen and I've suddenly realised we've made a mistake. We're not just having the kitchen replaced but having some building work done too which means we lose the wall where the radiator currently is. In all the designs we did, there wasn't an obvious place for the radiator so we ended up going for electric mat underfloor heating (we couldn't do wet underfloor heating as the floor is incredibly uneven). We had wanted vinyl flooring as we felt this was the most forgiving for a toddler, a baby and a very clumsy me. About a month ago, when we finalised the kitchen plan, we lost the final 600mm unit to give us a bit more space for around the table... a week or so after this, I realised that this then left us sufficient space to have a radiator on that wall. This has cheered me up as I had been worrying how much the underfloor heating was going to cost to run. It was only yesterday evening when our toddler dropped a plate on our existing laminate floor and it survived rather than smashed and I made a comment about how that wouldn't happen with the tiles that it suddenly occurred to me that, as we have a radiator, we don't need tiles and so we could have vinyl. Is it too late to change?
I think my options are:
a) stick with the existing plan - in which case reassure me that we'll be fine with tiles and my toddler won't bang her head and I won't destroy all of our crockery and glasses in the first week!; or
b) stick with the tiles but get rid of the underfloor heating and just rely on the radiator... my concern with this decision is that the radiator is going to be even more towards the end of the long, thin kitchen than it currently is and I don't remember the existing radiator doing a particularly good job of heating the whole kitchen but we haven't had any cold weather recently for me to check that (in the cold spell in mid-Dec, our heating wasn't working properly anyway). The end of the kitchen furthest from the radiator is where the work surfaces, oven, hob etc are so where most heat is going to be generated and where you're going to be most active anyway; or
c) get rid of the underfloor heating and the tiles and go with vinyl instead. The flooring isn't being laid until mid next week so I have a few days to find a fitter and chose a vinyl. We have paid for the tiles but they're still at the showroom and were "stock" tiles so they will take back any leftovers (although that may be different to taking them all back).
Help!!!! When I vaguely mentioned this to DP last night, he just looked at me as though I was mad. I've hardly slept though as I've just been going round & round in circles with it all night so thought I'd turn to you, wise M'netters.