How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

3 days a week, one more in city center office and one NWD with kids at home

Not sure about opening up the hallway tbh, I feel like it's important to have some seperation between the upstairs and the downstairs. I also dislike the idea of having people walking straight into the living room from the front door?

That's good, at least you know you don't like it that way!
Personal.

I also dislike the idea of having people walking straight into the living room from the front door?

FWIW I looked at some houses like this and I thought it was awesome but where do you hang your coat?

In the cloak room under the stairs. ;)

Might be worth chucking images into SketchUp or what ever program you prefer to make a 3d visual. Not sure if I'd like decking on the main route into house, won't it get scratched to shit?

I also dislike the idea of having people walking straight into the living room from the front door?

I agree with this, don't like the look of it at all. Also a massive heat sink having your living room so open and your tv noise etc carries upstairs which you probably don't want with young kids.

not really -the main 'in' door from the rear will be the one next to the boiler. So it's only a small area of decking that'll be used for that - easy enough to stick some matt or other protection there

definitely keen to check on clever closet or whatever they are called for nice, neat integration on under stair storage

Assumed that was an additional chest freezer for frozen sausage bulk buys.

with my wife being german, we only have frozen wurst in my household

Wir sind alle Deutsche heute ; )

+1 for keeping a bit of a hallway, only just noticed that so double vote for option 2.

natürlich

Combi boiler in loft of a two storey terrace house. Will I curse the slow-to-get-hot kitchen tap, or is it fine and will save space & flue woes?

We moved our boiler into the loft when we had a loft conversion last year, there's probably a couple of seconds difference in the time it takes the hot water to come on in the kitchen but I can't say I really notice. getting the thing out of the way of living space is far more important imo.

We've just done this, will let you know once the sink is fitted in the kitchen this week, but plumber said its not a problem really

Nice, that's that sorted then.

Who sands his floors/concrete and doesn't take the paintings down or at least covers them beforehand?

LOL, I though the same thing!!

. Will I curse the slow-to-get-hot kitchen tap

Yes! You really, really will. You'll never wash your hands or face in hot water again.

Who washes their face in the kitchen sink?

It will take fucking ages to get to the first floor bathroom as well.

Ah we’re just ground and first. Bathroom is first floor, will be close to the boiler. Kitchen won’t be that far away anyway so I reckon it’ll be fine. The alternatives are bad.

We have a rocket shaped foam insulated tank just now too with immersion heater. I’m inclined to get rid of all the old shit, but is there an argument for HW tank + combi?

Can you get a combi that has an integrated storage tank? Our old vailant did something like this, so at least it would start shoving warm water down the pipe as soon as it was called. Still meant a couple of basins worth of cold water getting ditched before it got warm; I just gave up in the end and only used cold water for anything other than a shower.

Combis tend to be installed in weird locations because their small size allows it (think ground floor kitchen / attic / opposite side of house from bathroom etc) so the epic pipe runs required + the lower pressure means a wait measured in eons.

FWIW our system boiler and tank is right in the centre of the house (top of first floor landing) with almost equal pipe runs to each tap and you get hot water quickly enough to make it worth waiting for it.