Home extensions 2017 - Christmas is coming

[Believeitornot]

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That was meant to say my dyson broke!

A weekend in Harrogate sounds a plan, the diy kitchens do look lovely on website and @whatashower the kitchen is just do die for

I think the shark one that's cordless is highly recommended. It's an upright and handheld in one.

Whisky utility looks good. I'm going to redo ours as cheap as possible but it's also an awkward layout. I can't get a tall cupboard in, so I'm considering a dresser unit to create a unit for 3 laundry baskets to make sorting it easier. (There's 3 of us) I'd post a pic but apparently I'm over my limit today despite not posting any pics!) 🙄

filo thank you 😀 Re doors, your call of course but the DIY doors are the best bit as it’s the quality of the spray finish and your choice of bespoke colour that adds to the premium feel (IMO).
Cost was about £1k less than reasonably comparable IKEA plan. Just over £5k if I recall, including extra utility units. (Island is 2 runs of 2.5m - 3 sets deep drawers one side, 2 sets drawers and cupboards the other so a lot of units!)

We have the shark cordless and I actually love it! It has two batteries and so easy now the house is big

filo the reason I am rather evangelical about DIY kitchen is that our entire build project was a gritty head not heart thing - as we too will have to sell up in next couple of years. 🙁 I just could not justify a Devol or some such, but also didn’t want to be disappointed with the kitchen units when we had invested so much in the extension build.

You will all laugh (or groan) as the reason we will have to sell this house is we are planning to renovate our other* Scottish home. It’s Georgian. It’s Grade 2/B listed. It’s big and all remedial work is expensive . It’s in an area of depressed property prices and values. (So can’t remortgage on equity). We are utterly mad but love the house. And I get to plan another DIY kitchen 😀

• circumstantial fuck up not stealth boast

whatashower - Oh my God, you glutton for punishment, you!

The Scottish house DOES sound gorgeous, though. I have probably bored you all senseless with my love for Georgian architecture before, so I totally understand that decision, even if I can't possibly ever contemplate so much as getting a decorator in ever again after this is done. It will be a money-pit, a project like that, but my God it will be lovely!

Aren't you in London at the moment? I can't see a house like yours being on the market very long - it's so gorgeous - and hopefully selling it will give you the cash you need for this amazing-sounding project.

The new project sounds great whatashower although I do think you are a bit mad doing it all again.

whatashower your kitchen pics are what keep me going as affordable
Inspiration too-it’s easy to get swept into a Houzz frenzy of design which stretches the budget way beyond the means.

Hope the back is getting better whisky don’t be afraid to medicate yourself regularly whilst it’s so acute it’s really important you’re comfortable enough to be able to keep moving.

redjelly I’ve found diy kitchens really helpful so far. All of my (many) units and delivery have come in at less than £6.5k and they’ve been responsive to questions via online support and on the phone.

We should start work on Monday, we are away for the week but that should keep me away from the neighbours hostility.

Thanks all. It will be easier I think when we have one place to worry about. And a lot less driving.

On tidiness, feel free to resurrect my utterly damp squib of a thread at
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/3024429-The-Slightly-Obsessive-Storage-Thread?pg=1

whisky I had quite forgotten we shared a Georgian thing. It would be an absolute thrill and pleasure if you were around for hand-holding and wisdom - not for a while yet, so you have time for a breather 😁

This is what I want to do with the cloakroom, we are turning the current dining room into 2/3 utility room and then a cubby like this. I just want to get started!
The DIY kitchen looks amazing, I’m desperate but can’t afford Devol the other thread suggested the DIY carcass and then Shaker doors that you can have painted. So hard and such a chunk of the budget.

whatashower I wouldn't miss it for the world!! I can vicariously enjoy your Georgian gorgeousness from my much less poetic 20s semi!! You are an old hand at this now, and I'm sure all that knowledge that went into renovating your current place will really come in handy. I know you said that you'd ended up with two houses by accident, but sometimes mistakes give you a dress rehearsal that turns out to be highly valuable a few years down the road.

Whattodo - I am like the tin man who has just been oiled. I'm gradually unseizing!! The worst time is getting up in the morning when I've been still for a while. I swear you can hear the creaking!

I am having some amtico fitted and I swear the herringbone isn't straight. The fitter swears it is and I'm not sure how to determine who is right!!

Dust re traffic doors: I think it depends on the number of panes you have. With the odd number it's the last one. We have a 3+1 and we wanted the end of the 3 to be the traffic door but they just automatically put it on the single one (which is probably more standard). It should fold with the others... I really get lost with this and haven't fussed about it too much but the way it is currently means it could potentially hit the wall, while as if it's on the 3 end, they can put some door stop thing on it to prevent this.

whiskey A bit reassuring to see there can be issues with this. (I thought the whole thing will come as one assembled unit anyway. :-))

whiskey I absolutely love the colours in your kitchen.

I wasn't totally impressed with diy. We went over on a weekend, no appointment, it was a real struggle to speak to someone. They did answer our questions but I just didn't feel like they had time for us.

Filo: I it's a Titan wet and dry from Screwfix. I'm not sure what thread I saw it on, it's pretty basic but you can clean all the building dust with it. Sizewise it's a monster and don't try to use it on rugs as it'll just fall to bits due to very strong suction.

whiskey I might need to do a similar layout in our utility. We have a low windowsill and two doors and if I just put the appliances in a straight line, I won't have space for the dog. But I won't be able to fit a sink under that windowsill either...

whatashower Your other house sounds beautiful. I would never live in or think about redoing a listed property but I like looking at them. You'll need to start a whole new thread for that one with lots of pictures. :-)

I had an absolute bummer realization yesterday about the guest bedroom. It's a 3m by 4m room and will have one single window facing north, in one of the corners. Quite bad really, for such a big room. This is our current bedroom. I've got the feeling I won't be going in there too often. (I should have realized this a few weeks ago when we discovered another mess up from the 'architect'.)

tika - are you able to increase the size of the window, eg by dropping it down to the floor? Or even adding a bay?

Bedrooms are night rooms anyway, so I guess if there's a space where daylight doesn't matter so much, that is it!!

whisky It's currently about 120cms tall and 50 cms wide and was thinking about 120x120 but will consider the length. It's opening onto a flat roof so I could snap your roof garden idea. :-) Hm...Will have to find out as I seem to remember some building control regulations regarding sill height. Thank you for the idea though.
It's very lucky that it's a guest bedroom but it's a nice big space and would have been another option for my eldest if he chickens out of the loft bedroom. (I don't know why he wants the loft, he's currently scared of going upstairs on his own... )

See if you can widen and drop it and get a tilt and turn in! Your challenge will be to convince planners that you will definitely not under any circumstances use the flat roof as a terrace, because that seems to be an instant "no!". We have a little bit of a step-over on our window (it comes down to about 30cms above the floor) as this helped us make the case that it absolutely definitely was not a door!

Check the loads for the roof garden as the structure below has to be able to support the additional weight, plus snow load. Our walls had to be specially reinforced but we wanted a deep layer of substrate so we could grow alpines. If you're doing sedums they are lighter!

Behold, my friends, my bargainous floor (excuse the tangle of internet wires!). The Amtico was £150 on ebay (I actually spent £300 but the other half is for the downstairs hall), and fitting was £215. This is going to be my study once it's done. With a big long desk down the side with the sockets.

tika - this is my tilt and turn bay window. It used to be a 1.2m x 40cm box room window - we enlarged it. I'm going to put a bean bag and a pouffe in it and use it as my reading flopzone (technical term).

Lovely floor!

Floor is fab!

That floor is gorgeous

The edging bit.. Did you buy that separately?

All the planks are the same, some are just laid a different way. There is a little strip that Amtico sell that you can use to edge the border.

😍 it looks amazing!!! And what a bargain. Our floor is going to be £3.5k fitted 😭. We're doing the hallway too and I'll finally be able to get rid of the awful door mat hiding the faded floor.