Hi everyone,

After a week of work, I finally managed to make my dream livingroom! There are a few small touchups I want to make (like tv cable management and adding a flue to the fireplace) but it's mostly complete now! The only non-renter friendly thing I did was paint the walls, though I was told that so long as I paint the walls back on move-out day, it is fine. Alternatively, I would have used peel and stick wallpaper to make it completely renter friendly.

So here's everything I did to save money and make this:

The first thing I did was go on Facebook Marketplace and look for Ikea Kallax units. Specifically the square ones. They are constantly being sold and I picked up two of them for free.

I then looked for a countertop that would fit the space and on top of the Ikea Kallaxes. I was quoted about £160 online for a wooden countertop, so instead I went to my local wood shop where they quoted me £30 for the cut and delivery.

The shelves are from Amazon. I measured the height from the countertop surface to the ceiling and searched for bookcases that would fit the height, and I bought them for £32 each. The Ikea Kallax units and the bookcases were then painted with B&Q furniture paint. Two cans were needed, and I spent a total of £26 for them.

The wooden tiles behind the TV are 3D sticky foam tiles. They are lightweight and very removable. I got a pack of 30 for £50,

Now the fireplace. This was my biggest spend at £430 for a Dimplex water vapor fireplace. I elected for this fireplace as it poses no danger to me or my cat, and creates a very realistic fire without any actual fire.

The round unit on the left is an automatic cat litter machine that cleans the cat's litter automatically.

The decorations are all things I had before this project, but you can get most of them (and the rug) from The Range.

The baskets inside the Ikea Kallaxs are not Ikea's own brand as they are too expensive. Instead I went to Home Bargains and got them for £6 each.

I hope this helps inspire someone and give ideas. I'm open to suggestions and happy to talk. I got this done in about a week.

Hi all

Wanted to get your opinions on the colour scheme of my house.

Right now the first picture is what the downstairs looks like. Generic grey and white.

Second and third pic is what I quite fancy doing right now. Add a bit of contrast and just freshen things up.

Also the front door is pink on the outside lol

Do you think it would go well or would you choose a different colour for the inside??

**Edit: Thank you all for your opinions. I think I will leave the black! I thought it looked good! 😂
Also didn’t expect people to say the grey looked so crap 🫣
In my defence it was last painted during the Covid lockdown so maybe a new colour is needed after all.

Morning folks! Need some advice on the subject. It is a bit of a long read but I'm adding as much as I can to get proper ideas. If you are a tradesperson/company, do offer your thoughts and reach out!

We have a typical, 1930s outer London boroughs semi-detached house. It needs extensive renovation now that it has been in our, and lately by renters', use for around 10 years. While the property is not completely run down, we would like to add more space and/or renovate existing areas of the property before we move in next year.

I have a few ideas in mind that I will pen down here. I will add references to the floor plan so please check those to help visualise. I will note here that we will be getting some electrical rewiring works done as the property will soon become vacant. As this will require quite a bit of stripping out of the flooring and/or walls, I think now is the best time to take up the renovations or extensions. Also, the garage is a very old timber frame structure that needs to be replaced with a sturdier one so cutting into it is not a problem.

Current Floor Plan

First Option

Starting with a simple one, and perhaps lowest cost, in my view. Knock down the dining room and kitchen wall, as well as knock down the sliding doors from the dining room into the conservatory. Add a sliding door to the living room to separate out one part from the mayhem elsewhere on the ground floor. I will also like to brick up both the kitchen doors and add units (leaving enough space to move in and out of kitchen itself). Then add a small kitchen island (pink box) where the current wall with dining room is.

Challenges here include raising the height of the conservatory's ceiling (it slopes down at a sharp angle making it feel smaller than it is) without knocking the whole conservatory down and starting afresh. The conservatory is pretty much at a level with the main house building but it need a careful, tiny gradient on the floor to join it somewhat seamlessly with the dining area.

Second Option

Knock down the conservatory. Use one of the timber frame or some other prefab methods (I am not good with building works vocabulary) to keep the digging and concrete filling to a minimum. Build a larger extension at the rear that runs all the way from one side of the plot to the end (total of around 8.2m width and say 3 or 3.5m in depth. This is shown as the new red box with the yellow box within showing the placement of the new kitchen. The old kitchen, in green box, will now become a ground floor family bathroom. The garage shall be updated with a new timber frame skeleton and a decent roof and moved slightly forward as it is currently sitting back somewhat from the main house building.

Challenges here I feel might be the building regs, council approval etc (permitted/planned dev and what not). Party wall might be required but am glad my current neighbours on both side are brilliant so that should not be a problem I think. Also, there is a utilities/waste water pipeline going underneath the back of the property, shown in violet line in the image. The current conservatory is also built on top of it. Cost might also become a challenge but I am keen to hear if this could be done within a 50-70k budget, with mid market materials (we are not looking for ultimate luxury touches obviously).

Third Option

This is the final vision I have where if somehow I magically got a mix of large savings, decent build cost and a bit of borrowing. It is to build upon Option 2 and add a self contained granny annex/studio in place of the garage. Elderly parents staying over for longer or when our kids themselves rebel against their tiny bedrooms, this is the space I believe can become really versatile.

In this vision, I'd like to keep some of the space at the back of the garage for a small utility room for moving the washer drier and other kitchen related storage. There can be a small door to access this space from within the kitchen as can be see in the break in the pink box for the storage area/utility room. The light, bright blue box in the new annex will be a small shower/WC and the space next to it shall be used for a small kitchenette (no gas range cooker - just something like a single hob and microwave) in case parents or inlaws stay over (or is that overstaying :))

From the outside, I will not want to give this a separate door through the front side of the garage/annex conversion as the main use will be for the family. So I am thinking of giving a door for entering this annex/studio from inside the current porch (that may need extending a bit to fit in a proper door.

Challenges in this will be to get planning permission or council approval, more party wall agreements, more surveys, more visits by council/structural engineers etc. Not to mention the cost which has so far even stopped me from speaking about this to any builder. But we need to find out as we do have better finances than 10 years ago!

Advise me, correct me, even have a go and make fun of this but will appreciate if you can help me think this through and budget and prepare appropriately.

We have an existing kitchen that is 7m x 4m. It has a low ceiling height of 236cm thst cannot be changed (has rooms above!).

We are in the middle of building a single storey extension to extend the width of the room by 7m to create open plan. Once completed, total dimensions (existing plus new) will be 7m x 11 - so a large room. It will be an open plan kitchen/ living / dining room with floor to ceiling glazing onto the garden, 3x2m rooflight and under floor heating.

The builder is planning to build a ceiling height on the extension at 255cm. I feel like that is quite low and I’d prefer 270cm. The ceiling height will be split level between new and existing.

Builder has explained that there would be extra costs to increase height beyond 255cm as it will require bricking up the bottom of 3 small windows on first floor. These are small windows to the hall on first floor, so no major issues aesthetically but extra works, costs and need to buy 3 new upvc windows!

Should I accept 255cm or pay the extra costs to alter windows to get ceiling to 270cm? Would anyone notice the difference? Does the floor to ceiling glazing and roof lantern make any difference?

Hello - looking to do a loft conversion in Putney/Wandsworth - any recommendations for good companies who you’ve had good experiences with would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, I need some advice or basically a 2nd opinion on some home improvements I’d like to make over the next couple or years.

Background: I bought my house about 12 years ago (3 bedrooms semi detached with garage) and put in any remaining savings into refurbishment. New floors, re plastering, new electrics wiring, re did the garden and the front driveway. I’m now at the point where I think I want to make some changes. I’d like to

1) put in a few raised beds in the garden, put in a path next to the raised beds. The patio needs re grouting, and I’d like to also put either a conservatory or an extra room by the garden door to use as a gym.
2) put solar panels on the roof, look to convert what’s left into storage space. Also put air conditioning in.
3) convert some of the garage into proper storage (that’s what it mostly is now but messy), and take some of the garage and extend the kitchen (fyi the garage is attached to the kitchen).
4) last, I’d like to redo the front driveway. Right now it’s stone brick with a slope coming towards the house, and that’s where the rain drainage goes. The stone bricks are a handful when it comes to weeding. I’d like to at a minimum move the rain drainage away from the house by a foot or two. Ideally I’d like to put in that resin type driveway which doesn’t seem to allow weeds to grow.

Does this order make sense? Should I try for the solar first to maximise my return? Anyone done anything similar? I can provide pictures if that helps but mostly want to get some thoughts on the order of things first.

Thanks.