Moving into our first house soon, I need your advice re.kitchens, bathrooms etc...

[GuyMartinsSideburns]

Tbh we never thought we'd ever be able to own our own home, but after a couple of years of saving hard etc we should (hopefully!) be completing soon. Weve never had to look into buying a kitchen or bathroom etc before and so I'm freaking out and I need some help...

It's a terraced 1900's cottage though the rooms are pretty substantial, and the kitchen is a galley style one. The whole place needs sorting - the owner is a woman who has lived there for years and it is all very old fashioned. Basically I need the place nice and 'clean' looking in as short space of time as possible. Dh and I can crack on with the donkey work of ripping out the built in cupboards, the kitchen etc. I figured that if we can sort the flooring, get the walls re plastered/whatever it is and new internal doors and skirting then it would be liveable enough, bar a new kitchen and bathroom. As so much needs doing we're trying to keep costs down but don't want to go too cheap.

Can anyone give me some ideas for a kitchen - I've read that ikea are good for the price? ive read some good things on mumsnet and I'm trying to make notes but I've now got choice fatigue going on and I feel clueless I don't think I want gloss, I'd like something nice and solid that won't date too quickly.

Bathroom - it's a fair size, certainly bigger than what we have at the moment. Can anyone recommend me a good place to look? I'd love a roll top freestanding bath after years of our cracked council one but a question I do have - how do you shower?! I appreciate that's silly but we couldn't fit a cubicle in the room too and im imagining trying to shower with an attachment and just getting water everywhere...

Flooring - dh is after real wood in lounge and dining room and tiles in kitchen and bathroom. What would you have/recommend?

I'm also mega confused regarding tiling the kitchen and bathroom walls - how far to tile, or not at all.... I hate so much choice!

So basically I'd like a nice, clean kitchen and bathroom, tidy cosy cottage but on a budget. Any help most appreciated, I need to run now for pickup x

Ikea is good for the price, also have a look at DIY Kitchens. We used them and our fitter was really impressed with the quality (usually works on much higher end kitchens).

We used Victoria Plumb for bathroom fittings, but lots of people recommend using a local bathroom supplier / shop.

Tiles - have a look at wallsandfloors.co.uk - again, lots of budget tiles but better quality than Topps Tiles (although you used to be able to use Tesco Clubcard vouchers at Topps Tiles so if you use Tesco, that might be worth a look).

We've gone without tiles in the kitchen (just upstands), but completely tiled in the bathroom, but its a relatively small room (did it previously in a large bathroom and it was freezing so think carefully).

You can get shower rails that fit over roll top baths.

Flooring - I don't like tiles on the floor - we have solid bamboo throughout downstairs which I really like. Vinyl in the bathroom.

Tbh it sounds to me like you are rushing too much. Why does it need to be sorted straight away?

But if you are starting with the kitchen we got ours in IKEA and chose a matt white door -cant remember the name.

What's the current kitchen like? If it's basically sound you might be able to spruce it up a bit - new work top, new flooring, new tiles and either new doors or prime and paint the old ones.

Thanks for replies - didn't realise I had any! They are most appreciated.

Poo- I'm not trying to rush, but whilst we don't need to move in straight away it seems easiest to get all the work done in one go (we know builders, tilers, etc) and the current bathroom and kitchen really is grim!

Thanks again, I shall make notes

We've just had to do our house up, we got our kitchen from ikea, it's really lovely it cost around 4k but 1k was a solid wood work top. The bathroom suite was around£500 from an independent shop, we fully tiled to the ceiling round the bath, and about 3/5 up the rest of the way round. I've also had a good experience with an independent carpet shop, really made a big difference. Ikea do 0% interest free if you spend over a certain amount.

Thanks Root, that's all helpful