Owning your own home

I agree - I haven't had the boiler serviced for the past 2 years, before that it was brand new.

Electrics, again I had an electrician fit a new consumer unit when the most recent work was carried out.

I guess I'll get the ball rolling with the boiler service.

Not at all...
The original was 8m sq (3.3m x 2.4m) and new one is 13m sq (3.3m x 3.4m) and a bit too narrow/small to squeeze an island in.
I used home.by.me to help my early visualisations.

Seems like a good alternative to floorplanner, the fact they do the floorplan for you is a nice touch.

Yeah its mint, and dead easy to pick up. Sketchup was way too complicated for me but I've smashed out 100 plans in this.

Just got our feasibility study back from the architect - some excellent options but jheeze the final estimated costs. Going to have to mute the watch thread for a while...

Back on kitchens.

I have a work surface of this stuff. Fucked if I can find out exactly what it is though.

I'm planning on adding another work surface at the other side of the kitchen (the developer skimped on work surface/units so one wall is just blank). Decent sized work surface of 180cm x 80cm probably.

The issue is that I can't exactly match the surfaces. There are a lot of close matches and I've done a lot of emailing suppliers (with far fewer responses coming back) but I can't find if they're exactly the same as I can't find anywhere convenient stocking them to compare.

So the question is what work surface to go for? Can either take a gamble on the one I've identified or go for something either slightly or completely different (but god knows what). This is really bugging me now.

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Just go for a nice wood worktop. Should compliment. Even if you find one that 'matches', will it match perfectly if yours has aged?

Hah, and there was me just routinely getting it done because it's only a small cost to catch problems early.

Annual services are worth it, totally.

The upsell bells and whistles aren't (powerflushes being the obvious upsell), unless they are actually needed.

Service / care packages are a waste of money.

source: Which? magazine at some point in the past few years

Looks lovely, looks like Corian (it comes in all sorts of colours nad patterns).

also quite often your boiler's warranty will require an annual service

Just go for a nice wood worktop.

Just don't tell @TW

Ha.

Caitlin Moran has it right when she described her wooden worktop as looking like something refloated with the Marie Rose after a couple of years

I'm glad I've scratched the wooden worktop itch then sold the house less than a year after installation.

Caitlin Moran has it right when she described her wooden worktop as looking like something refloated with the Marie Rose after a couple of years

Yup. Mine will be granite... because ugh, unless you're actively maintaining the wood (who is?!) and also never putting anything hot or that might stain on it (and we all burn it at some point)... well wood is a dumb choice for a worktop.

I think they are lovely things but people just don't expect to or cannot give them the tlc and care in installation that they require.

Repairing mine has got to be the highlight of my DIY career. Totally emotionally invested in it now.

Then I left a fucking wet 20p coin on it that was in the washing machine.

we have fenix-faced ply (of team alpecin-fenix fame). holding up well so far, 6 months in. it's apparently a super material in that you can heat-treat/remove any scratches with a domestic iron. we've not had to test those qualities yet though, thankfully

We had the same. Paid £150 someone saying it was all ok. Bit of bs

We had them for 6 years in our place including a Belfast sink and they looked ok at sale w/ a lot of sanding and danish oil. Never again.

redditch

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAA

The Evesham / Stratford / Alcester triangle is lovely tho

This reminds me it's time to do mine.
I just need to get the family out for the day....

full electrics testing is not a routine thing

I believe a test every 5 years is recommended.

I'm all for wooden worktops. They look/feel nice and are affordable for most. No 40k kitchen for me.

Are concrete kitchen worktops a thing? Feel like I've seen them on YouTube when planning for a house I don't own.