Owning your own home

Tile everything?

lel

My parents have installed carpets in every bathroom they've ever owned. They know it's weird but they won't have it any other way.

Do you think they would approve of this?

Christ, that reminds me of playing Wolfenstein

Floor:
Cork (warm, sustainable, needs occasional maintenance, only comes in brown)
Linoleum (warm, sustainable (made of cork and linseed oil), needs occasional maintenance, comes in lots of bright colours that will remind you of primary school)
Vinyl (warm, made of plastic, hardwearing, can get it to look like anything, if you want photorealistic pebbles etc go for it).

Walls: Umm...
You only really 'need' tiles in a shower. Rest of room can just be paint. With paint, you either go with the Kitchen and Bathroom style stuff which is hardwearing and might have some mould resist, but means everything tends to get quite condensation-y, or you can go completely the other way and have a more absorbent finish that takes water vapour out of the air and releases it later, reducing condensation (eg. hempcrete and wallpaper, clay-based paint and plasters maybe). It's a bit of a niche approach though. In my imaginary future house, I'd have hydro-buffering everything, no extract fans and no condensation, that's the dream... In Italy you see oiled/waxed polished plaster in bathrooms, I imagine that would be difficult to get done in UK.
You could also vinyl sheet up the walls...
Or move your shower/bath away from the walls entirely and use a curtain.

I'm a big fan of cork for a floor, the gf needs persuading though. I need to get some samples. I didn't know lino was made of cork.

It's the walls i'm concerned about. I've seen tile-alternative sheet materials, most recently these https://www.recosurfaces.com/gallery/. I'm a bit concerned an entire room in it would look a bit odd. Maybe like a kill room or something. I would be able to do all the bathroom myself then though and hide the old tiles underneath.

My parents have installed carpets in every bathroom...

I just removed the carpet from the bathroom of our new house where the previous owner must have pissed on the floor for a good three decades. Your post made me gag.

Oops made a couple of minor edits while you were replying...
You could do the sheet stuff just where you need to? eg. shower/bath
Or I'm sure you could get in in more neutral tones.
Seems a bit wierd to me to have it over the tiles though...

£2438 will probably be £500 for the engineer and £1938 for the insurer.

Theirs was avocado colour!

That particular outcome is avoidable but in general I agree it's an awful idea.

Legitimate case for use of violence. Two things that drive me mad, people who drop littler and people who drive oversized vehicles. Cunce!

Removed the cream coloured carpet from my bathroom that previous owners had put down and found lovely cork floor tiles underneath.

Wierd...

How big is oversized?

My wee 4x4 can stand a couple of bikes upright in the back without having to drop the seat posts or remove any wheels.

Too big?

We've had a quote through for our extension that we're happy with, any tips on approaching a payment plan with the builder?
From what I've read he shouldn't ask for a deposit, first payment on the day groundworks begin and then regular instalments when certain milestones are met (bricks laid, roof on, etc).
We've already had a detailed breakdown of what's included and more importantly what isn't and he's come very highly recommended.

We've not done an extension, but we have done some heafty work on a couple of places now.
Our rule of thumb, stolen from architect friends, is that anyone who can't float themselves for materials and labour for the first 4 weeks doesn't get the work.

So yes...
Plan out your milestones.
Something like...
Ground work complete - 20%
Structure topped out - 20%
First fix - 20%
Second fix and fitout - 20%
Snag list cleared, certification and paperwork in place, job signed off - 20%

You need to agree clear definitions of these stages with your main contractor before you start.

From what I've read he shouldn't ask for a deposit, first payment on the day groundworks begin and then regular instalments when certain milestones are met (bricks laid, roof on, etc).

And final payment some time after completion / independent inspection.

[edit] and what wjprince wrote

My home buyers report has come back. The artex may contain asbestos. This seems worrying. What should I do about it? My head says negotiate with seller about proving there isn't any. My gut says skim then forget.

There is scary and non-scary asbestos, as far as I am aware the asbestos in artex tends to be white asbestos, which is of the non-scary kind and therefore can be removed without license, just following sensible guidelines.

Removing Artex however is a pain in the arse, so I would be of the skim and forget approach, but just remember if you ever drill into the wall or rip it down.

Always worth trying to negotiate with the seller either way.

Bike room ready for paint:

How it used to look (with girlfriends mother in foreground):

I think we can all agree that turning a kitchen into a bike room is a positive.

I'd leave that plaster to dry for a bit longer if I were you ;-)

Probably about two years.

No need to rush these things.