How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

And from inside.

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Is your neighbour having an extension at the same time?

No. He had a temporary wooden shed thing, that was almost the size of the house, built right up to the boundary. When I moved in and spoke to him about party wall stuff he said he'd like to have an extension too, so I agreed to build the wall in a way that would let him do that in future. But currently he doesn't live there, the windows are broken, there's no floor and the kitchen extension is separating from the main house enough to fit a fist in, so....

I thought I remembered seeing here a brief explanation of why you might want a RIBA contract over a JCT one, but all I found was the possible loophole that @t.o. had builders try to exploit.

Is there anyone who could briefly explain the difference, and whether an FMB contract is also OK?

The FMB website says theirs is 'shorter and more straightforward to use.'

The FMB contract is short and easy to understand. Plain English and tries to be fair in my view (touch wood). I’m using it now for some minor works (lintels, sills, new windows, doorway blocked in, non supporting wall knocked down).

The other two are much more comprehensive, and cover a lot more. There is a book from RIBA that explains their contract, and the JCT one is used where all the parties are doing it professionally. I wouldn’t ever use the jct one now personally.

What work are you having done?

We're having a ground floor extension with a new kitchen, dining space and utility room.

Planning and drawing are done and we're going through a list of (currently) 8 builders.

Builders can be a bit funny about quoting if you're also speaking with 7 or 8 of them

I wouldn't mention that to any of them and deffo leave a good length of time between one quote and the next turning up. You don't want their paths crossing on the way in and out.

I've heard it enough times that clients seek 8 or 9 quotes, some of the builders find out and then decline to quote.

This is why people ask 8 or 9 people to quote.

We did consider organising an open house for them all to come at the same time to try to use market forces to drive down the price.

Finally I was weak – but have a project where I need it – and bought a (used) Festool Domino dowel joining machine. Really awesome, it may be like a 'Thermomix' in the kitchen, but it is so easy to use and the joining is en pointe, no measurements at all I had to make when using it for making the first drawer with it. Plan was to sell it after a while again, but... nope.

Very nice. Given how expensive they are I've always shied away from them. How much did you pay if you don't mind me asking. And how " used" is it?

No problem, I am wearing the clown mask now, ~£730 – but in really good shape. I was also considering its resale value, probably sells for more or less the same. This was one of the first things to do, mount/glue this vertical piece above the dado cut.

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Brilliant. Now I need a project to justify one

Kitchen Worktops, what should I be looking at?
Marble - I assume too delicate?
Granite?
Quartz?
One of the newer artificial types?

I’d like it to at least appear like a solid material rather than printed with a pattern…

Stainless steel. You’ll never look back

We’ve just had a hanex one fitted (not started using it yet). Happy with the look, but it’s only 12mm thick so the oven had to be lowered so it didn’t foul the bottom of the induction hob. Worth knowing, not particularly a recommendation

corian

Fenix seems good.
I'd probably go for that or stainless.

Fenix was good, even better once we discovered magic (melamine) sponges removed any stains. Did matte sanded stainless in our current place and it’s 🔥

^ the first scene on their website clearly shows the surface scratching? Seems bizarre to keep that shot in

How about quartz?

What’s the difference between quartz, corian and Fenix?

What's wrong with wood?

quartz, is good value, but can stain.

corian allows you to have seamless moulded sinks and whatever those mini lip splashback things are called. Together this makes it an incredibly practical choice for hard water areas where you inevitably get lime buildup in small cracks and crevices. It can also be repaired.

What's wrong with wood?

It's survival is directly correlated to how time rich you are. And is almost always not installed correctly - eg Correct cut outs under sink lip, and sloping drain cut outs.

Granite/ quartz. If you are SE based then Imperial Marble and Granite in SE6
A few on here have used them.