How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

What's 2023's time capsule going to include?

Just sense checking a quote for furniture board alcove wardrobes to be supplied and installed. 2 X alcoves either side of chimney. Colour pre-covered from Egger selection (or can get it primed onto veneer and we paint ourselves). Various shelves and drawers and clothes rails inside each. No electrics/lights/mirrors etc.

What would you pay? I looked up a few of those DIY 'add in the exact measurements online and we'll build, deliver and you assemble/fit' sites (e.g
Fittingly) and they're comparable in price to what I've been quoted once you add all the upgrades like drawers / colours etc. Roughly 1600-1700 per alcove. In fact my quotes for having someone supply an fit them are closer to 1300-1400 each.

Ok? Furniture board ok?

Now you've said you supplied it, they seem to be going above just fitting it which is decent.

@stevo_com did a self install of wardrobes from one of those companies - from memory it was curbside drop off and lots of pieces to carry but he was overall happy with it…

Personally that doesn’t sound outrageous but you’re in Devon - so would’ve minused out any London premium

Yes, full width/height (5m x 3m or thereabouts) wardrobes around a chimney breast was £5k from fittingly or £11-14k from a carpenter (various quotes). Deliberately left out drawers as that adds complexity and costs pretty fucking quick.

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For fittingly, they usually have a 15% or so sale on. Like one of those places where you'd be stupid to pay RRP. Book a "design consultation" once you've designed your shit and are about ready to buy, ask what they can do about the cost as you are ready to pay. I got 30% off RRP, valid for that day.

Thanks (and @Tenderloin)
What are the Fittingly cabinets made of? Do they seem solid?
I'd assumed stuff would be actual wood or potentially MDF but am a bit stumped by the offer of furniture board from the local guys (two options, both offering the same approach at near identical prices), which to my knowledge is basically chipboard with some kind of wipeable cover. Just worry it'll feel/look cheap. Yours look v. nice.

Edit:
Some stuff from one of our guys around the 3k mark
pic 1
pic 2
pic 3
pic 4
[pic 5](https://scontent-lcy1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/344045821_752138703111644_2188279571229601467_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=9267fe&_nc_ohc=akgV7gDHcWsAX8ZAbeW&_nc_ht=scontent-lcy1-1.xx&oh=00_AfBDKZOikVHOrVpSepLZC4BcFOsWwpAlJDhoFdvP5SBOFA&oe=64C5C20E](https://scontent-lcy1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/344045821_752138703111644_2188279571229601467_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=9267fe&_nc_ohc=akgV7gDHcWsAX8ZAbeW&_nc_ht=scontent-lcy1-1.xx&oh=00_AfBDKZOikVHOrVpSepLZC4BcFOsWwpAlJDhoFdvP5SBOFA&oe=64C5C20E)

Main issue is - I'm shit at finishing projects (as the kitchen we started in January 2022 shows).

It is chipboard but seemingly more dense and in most places thicker than IKEA. All of the custom carpenter quotes were MDF. Fittingly also have a bewildering array of finishes/colours. I went with a white oak for the wood looking bits and primed for the rest that I then painted with F&B eggshell. Went on well.

Adjusting 60 cabinet hinges is not something I fancy doing again any time soon.

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Adjusting 60 cabinet hinges is not something I fancy doing again any time soon.

This is what I dread.

It's one of things that if we ever sell this place and I do the viewings, will mean buyers will be subjected to a 3 hour viewing.

My 2p - Pay the lads to get it done - will be finished in a fraction of the time, you won’t be spending your weekends on it or screaming blue murder when you bollocks something up. You’ll stomach the cost and in the long run you’ll forget about it. The fittingly one @stevo_com built looks the business but have you seen that guys shed?!

Thing is they're cheaper than fittingly. And I wouldn't have to do anything. But are they going to be shit? Tell me the future, JoederLoin

Fittingly are pricing in 15-30% discounts so they would be a cheaper alternative but DIY. The first picture you link to looks good to me. If they’re local and well reviewed then that would be my choice.

For comparison we paid £4k about 6 months ago for these two custom wardrobes. MDF with oak veneer and the painting done.

Nothing is square in my house so had no thoughts of DIYing it.

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If I had had similar priced quotes for a pro to do it (and not double the price of fittingly), I would have absolutely got a grown up in. @Tenderloin flatters me but it's no harder than any large IKEA stuff I've put together. In fact, some of the fixings are better thought out. The hardest bits were getting the top units lifted in place (I had to ask my neighbour to come in and help me with the last one as the wardrobes were as tall as the design tool would let me create), and then scribing the infill pieces around the outside. I did a shocking job of cutting those so I'm glad I'm handy with a skeleton gun and filler.

Took a long time to get it all done because A) I was doing it solo (manhandling 2.4m x 1m side panels and getting the fixings in place by myself was hairy) around work and parenting, B) I had to paint all the doors with a couple of coats of F&B eggshell and C) they sent one of the top cabinet doors without any pre-drilling (they sent another no questions asked but it took a few days to be made and sent out).

I will say though, that the end product in terms of size and appearance, is EXACTLY what I specced in the design tool (I really wanted to maximise the storage space as there's fuck all here for such a big house so I was cutting it fine between the two side walls and around the chimney breast, while also trying to keep a uniform width per unit - the two left hand units JUST fit into the laft hand alcove without having to chop into the skirting board). And the online support folks were super helpful during the whole process. They jumped in a few times and just fixed things on the fly in whatever design I was working on as they could obviously see right away which one it was. Eg. I was trying to add one of the top units and it just kept snapping to be stacked on one of the other top units instead of the wardrobe. A few seconds and a clumsy description of what I was trying to do and they sorted it. The delivery guy also carried everything up to the first floor. Which is no mean feat as they use minimal packaging (another bonus over IKEA) so it was hundreds of pieces. I could have paid I think another grand for them to put it together.

Last thing, if anyone does use them, the design tool works best on Chrome. Knowing that would have saved me a few frustrations early on.

Yeah. I guess it's a good lesson in the advantage of using someone who also supplies. However, the alternative company who supplied and fitted was a good £3k more (i.e. >£13k).

The counter is that they disregarded some tiles, so they were doing QC along the way.

Overall I'd probably recommend the fitters but wouldn't recommend our wood supplier. In fairness though, by the time we came to purchase the wood, it was incredibly hard to find engineered tiles with >5mm wood top layer in stock anywhere. So they were basically the only choice.

We need to get our bathroom done ASAP (non-functioning bath tap, leaks, bath resting on asbestos cement cutoffs, water-damaged floorboards, etc.)

I quite like our existing bath - I think it's the original 1930s cast-iron bath, with nice art deco feet. Quotes for getting it re-enamelled are much less than a new bath of similar spec.

However, bathroom fitters aren't minded to mess about with it - apparently it's hard to fit a waste in a way that doesn't leak, and they're understandably not that interested in moving it out of the bathroom while they tile the floor.

Is it worth keeping?

I feel like I was dead set on it till a bathroom fitter yesterday talked a bit of sense into me. Now I could go either way.

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Get a new bath which plays nice with modern fittings and which can be properly plumbed in and fixed in case of emergency.

I have no idea what a skeleton gun is but it sounds cool as fuck.

Life's too short to spend it fixing leaks and convincing new random trades to work on a standard that was designed before they were born, get a new one.

I would say if you had a nice space to have it free-standing then keep it, but as it's anyway jammed in then you won't really get the effect of a freestanding bath and it'll just look unfinished. Sell it for profitz on Etsy and live easy.

Thanks nerds. Gonna go with a grown up and just suck it up if it's shit.

He's also offered to do shutters but we have a choice of either hardwood in any paint or 'faux wood' in white or white, which appears to be some kind of sawdust and resin thing. But again I worry the latter will look cheap. Hardwood may be an issue as that room gets mad condensation even with dehumidifier dehumidifying. I just want samples and a nice bedroom. Is that so challenging? I guess I'll wait and see on the wardrobes before agreeing the shutters (and presume I'll want windows installed before shutters). And why does all the money need to be spent at once?

The kitchen ceiling came down yesterday and the 6" x 2" timbers for the new suspended floor arrived. Quite a few leaks have been coming through from the bath above so that'll need some new silicon. Despite there being a dust door, there's a very fine layer of dust all through the house and the novelty of cooking dinner in the pissing rain on a small camp stove has worn off 😂
I have realised that I'd never be able to cope with a new build or extension. Thoughts and prayers to all the heroes that have.

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That dust door is only going to be as good as the seal around it. Which doesn't look great!

I'm ordering 30sqm of floor tiles - is it usual to ask for a discount on the list price and if so what would be reasonable? There's a column for discount in the quote so made me think this might be a 'thing'