How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

could get one of those fancy japanese style plunge baths ? not sure how pricey they are. wish we'd gone with one of them

@EstelleGetty have you had any experience of using Tadelakt in a bathroom? The wife is keen on it but I’m thinking it could be £££

I have although no idea on pricing unfortunately. Clayworks is also nice although I don't think it is suitable for use in showers. Microcement is also worth looking at, and can also be used on floors. I imagine they will all be very similarly priced.

I know that installers generally like to round the corners on Tadelakt/Clayworks installation as it cannot be as easily remedied if knocked/damaged. If you like that appearance great, if not consider where you will be applying it.

I've had black taps in my downstairs loo and the kitchen for well over a year now and no issues with hard water on the finish.

I'm thinking of getting the structure of the loft done by professionals then do all the fittings and finishing myself... to save money... crazy talk?

£Iwillneverfinanciallyrecoverfromthis?

Don't think the film is too bad actually.

Depends on your time.

One of my mates did their first bathroom. He's a practical guy, but not a trade or anything. He had a bit of help from a builder mate who also lent a few tools. But pretty sure any advice imparted could now be found on YT.

I'd say go for it.

I have very little time but even less money, I feel doing things in stages/DIY could save around 20K.

Yep rounded edges
We have some nice arches with rounded walls in the house which I think could be a nice reference point. Also reminds me of holidays in the Cyclades.

Seems worth it, especially for something which is not currently an essential part of your living situation (right?).

If you have time, you can also save on materials, because understandably trades tend to work in the fastest, most efficient way possible.

Something worth considering though is the dynamics with your partner. To give the most extreme eg the adult sitting room friends I mentioned, the husband did pretty much everything on a major renovation. He is very handy. But that plus a full time job meant he did no childcare and spent effectively no time with the wife.

My OH wouldn't be happy with that. But other couples are much more chilled about time apart, or sole parenting.

The key thing is having the ability to carve out decent size chunks/blocks of time. You can't just do an hour an evening for 2yrs.

I'm thinking of getting the structure of the loft done by professionals then do all the fittings and finishing myself... to save money... crazy talk?

This is my plan for our kitchen. I'm happy with a box, I can take over from there with judicious use of trades.

not sure how pricey they are

Very.

(Seriously they don't seem to be awful if you buy off the shelf, just never attempt custom).

Something worth considering though is the dynamics with your partner

The key thing is having the ability to carve out decent size chunks/blocks of time. You can't just do an hour an evening for 2yrs

This this this.

It's really hard to work on stuff like this when you're also doing a full-time job and living in the house that you're renovating.

At Cupcakes Towers we have managed it* but emotional labour is needed as well as physical; there have been some moments of real despair and frustration.

*When I say "it" I mean kitchen refurbishment, spare room refurbishment, plus various other bits and pieces.

If you can keep your tools and materials in the attic and shut the door at the end of each work shift that will help a lot - much of the stress for us was the fact that, in a flat, working on one room impacts all the other ones due to clutter etc.

better strategy imo

Also worth considering how long you're likely to stay in your current home.
If you take 2 years to finish the work yourself in odd evenings and weekends, and move shortly after, you wouldn't have actually been able to use the space that you've created and have been living on effectively a building site for 2 years.

If you're getting the trades to do everything up to where the scaffolding can come down, and windows/veluxes installed, stairs etc, then you should be able to DIY most of the rest (plumbing, heating, flooring, decorating)

I had planned to decorate our extension myself, but managed to find a decorator for about £1000 to do the woodwork, doors, skirting boards, walls.
With lack of practice, and large rollers, dust sheets, high platform, and all the annoying prep around kitchen units, I estimated around 60 hours of my time.

That's probably about 3 weeks of every spare hour in evenings between kids and other commitments.
My wife and I thought that it was an acceptable spend to avoid having the room pretty much unusable for 3 weeks.

I'm thinking of getting the structure of the loft done by professionals then do all the fittings and finishing myself... to save money... crazy talk?

Depends if it's possible to split the structure from the finish without causing yourself loads of problems down the line. In nerd circles this is referred to as coupling (lose = good tight=bad). I would ask people who have done their own lofts etc.

I'm thinking of getting the structure of the loft done by professionals then do all the fittings and finishing myself... to save money... crazy talk?

How much is all the fittings and finishing? Just second fix or planning to put in the plumbing, electrics, internal walls, plasterboard, windows, etc in yourself?

Guess it partly depends on your plan for the loft, a loft company can bang all that stuff out pretty quickly if you're going standard and have all the trades to hand. If you're going architect and builder and project managing then there is more scope for stopping at whatever point.

Unless you're not working/have loads of free times then the cost of getting someone to do it is probably a fair bit less than the cost of you doing it rather than working and will almost certainly be quicker unless you're particularly handy.

Right, answers for everyone...
This is our forever home, or at least the next 5 years, plus doing a loft adds about 100K value round here so even if we move in 2 years I want it done.
We are surviving atm but more space would be good. I am imaging second fix all done so it would be decorating and fitting a bathroom to do, which would save 10-15K hopefully. We find it hard to get a large lump of money to get it all done at once but if Mrs.116 goes back to work we should have enough income for slow piecemeal work, either done by myself or a trade.

I'm rarely impressed with cheap trades work, so would rather just do it myself, slower but to a higher standard.

If I had the money I would obvs just spend it, but we dont and prob won't.

And yeah, would just close off areas of the loft and have all tools up there.

liquidate entire property and move to pile in provinces imo. we have gordal olives, spelt loaves, natural wines/cremant, and single estate coffees now (no ocado tho)

We did this; no regrets as we fritter our London property uplift money on heritage grain sourdough and £3 pains aux raisins.

Never moving to the provinces, went to them once, was hell on earth. Not ready to look like a potato and start every sentence with “I’m not racist, but…”

outrageous smear against esteemed user 6pt

Someone I work with, who lives in the provinces, was telling the whole team about a fancy meal he had at Bella Pasta and everyone from The London struggled to keep a straight face. I can’t live on Bella Pasta and All Bar One, I need my champagne button.

me reading posts from users in the (bad and hated) london

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We did have a really good meal at prezzo the other day now you come to mention it. But we did have to drive a town over for the privilege, mind.

(We went for a Nando’s but the queue was too long 😩)

A solid 1/3 of the viewers for our flat (in Glasgow) were from London and had done the exact same thing