How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

Yeah it's possible but a bitch. Stone walls, rendered /mortar on outside but 'mud mortar' inside.

Thanks for tip on extractor. I might go without and retrofit if needed. Or fit in conjunction when doing the second bathroom in room next door.

Definitely an obvious one, but make sure the floor does slope in the right direction.
We stayed in a place where you end up with 3 cm of water on the side opposite of the drain after a shower.

this is less of a retrofit thing but i have a walk in shower with a good slope but i squeegee the whole thing after every use. Just helps the water along, manages moisture and protects the grout too.

New front door and glazing is almost done

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Yes! I intend to buy a kit, seems easier than trying to screed it in.

Not. Bad.

I thought I’d share a previous kitchen build.
We had the rear wall of the house removed along with the wall that separated the dining room from the kitchen. The outside toilet was also knocked into the room and a small extension was added to take the back of the house level with the os toilet wall. We only went out just over 1.5m this meant we could have a patched roof, which was really important to us. What a difference it made, previously there was a tiny galley kitchen and a small dining room, we ended up with a lovely living space with views over the garden and a snug for watching movies in.
Not too bad for £20k all in (6 years ago). That includes the kitchen with bamboo worktops, oak floors and panting all the way though the down stairs. The builders got it water tight I did the rest.

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You tease...

I dunno about UK but at "my" construction site there is a company that only does "Kernbohrungen", large diameter drillings. Probably not cheap to only to get them to do a single hole though... Otherwise some tool rental company could have the goods? You have boels in the UK?

Looks like this for a handheld with obligatory pot bellied tradie.
There are also rolling/standing ones or ones you bolt to the wall.

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Sorry, 2oK all in?

I think he just means the party wall solicitors/planning/architects fees…

Fees? What is fees?
I did the drawings myself, no party wall involved, I kept a little bit of wall on the neighbours side and used that as the side of one of the built-ins. The only professional was the structural engineer to do the maths for the steels, they way over specced them though. We also kept costs down by getting the builders to salvage the roof tiles from one of their previous jobs. The floor was odd boxes/ends from I think 6 different places. On the kitchen cupboards we used plinths instead of end panels where they wouldn’t be seen. We used one deep long panel cut below the counter top on the tall cupboard and used the left over for the fridge end. We reused the windows and doors. Got a ‘broken’ range off marketplace and had it refurbished, just needed a fan and a service. If there was a way to trim the cost we did it.
I think it turned out pretty well.

It did turn out very well.
I was being flippant and commenting on doing an extension and kitchen for 20k. Something people can only dream of with todays trades/materials prices.

So true, I think I’d struggle to do it for £30k now, that’s with doing even more myself.
And cheers.

Try http://www.classiccornice.co.uk/

They're good on the phone, and can work off photos.

Oh I could do it. Just rather find a better solution before banging a hole in a beautiful old stone wall and having a vent on the outside. We're not talking bricks but granite stone.
I'll go up into the loft and then hide it behind a false wall up there.

Just beautiful

Reusing stuff can also make decisions easier.
Good approach. And that steel is quite big indeed.

Phwoarr. Can we see more?

It’s a bit messy around the edges and we can’t paint the render around until it’s a bit warmer, but yeah, I’ll take some WIP photos today.

I'll raise floor so sound insulation isn't an issue.

I'm presuming by this you mean it won't be an issue to put some sound insulation in the bigger floor void, not that raising the floor in itself will deal with it?

Just if it's the latter and you increase the air gap but don't put anything in to dampen and absorb sound you'll effectively just increase the size of the area sound can reverberate in.

Sorry if this is obvious!

I also investigated extractor fans a lot for my last house. UK though. I decided inline fans in the loft were the way to go. Bigger capacity, quieter from the room, can be sound insulated, and can expel in the most convenient direction.

Same. The builder we used found the most powerful inline fan he could and it was great, we had it extracting for a shower/bath on one side of a wall and the toilet on the other.

Your standard 'UK bathroom extractor fan' is so shit, noisy and does fuck all (mainly because the fan is too small and they're cheaply made). You're better off just opening a window.

I can’t remember which one I found was best!

Unfortunately also this, I don't have the details of the one he found but I would go for max airflow while still reasonably quiet. Although it wasn't terrible with hindsight what I would have done was decouple it from the joints and fit more acoustic insulation around it.

I think the Soler & Palau ones come fairly well thought of and have good m3/hr extraction

@Mr_Smyth I seems to remember you had a good price on kitkat tiles - would you be able to share pls? thanks