My kitchen refit starts 3 weeks today but won't be finished until next year when I have decided on the splash backs. This has been a project 2 years in the making due to several builders agreeing to do the work only to never hear from them again & also some very poor service from kitchen shops. Finally I have a builder on board who will move a doorway to accommodate the new position for my fridge freezer and fit a Second Nature kitchen in elm that is to replace an old cream shaker one. Most of the appliances are staying as they are newish but for the first time I will have a dishwasher, a wall mounted oven so I can see what is cooking & a Franke under mounted corner sink which was a brand new ebay bargain. I am switching from gas to a white induction hob that will hopefully fit seamlessly into white quartz countertops. I am so excited, all this in a 2.6m x 2.8m kitchen. I have also asked the countertop peeps to smooth off an additional piece of quartz to fit the sink aperture so I can use that as additional work space. I am boring my boyfriend with endlessly searching for the best deals on things and trying my luck haggling which is not usually like me but lots of fun! Good luck everyone with your projects; I look forward to seeing the 'after' pictures. alant1000 - I love your new kitchen, it looks fab!

Outside looks stunning! Nice to see the hard work that goes into something like this in your photos. Can't wait to see pics of inside when complete.

Sorry I can't see the photos you are referring to - my comments are limited without pictures/plans. I agree with Man about the House - pricing seems to be top end. We live in Highgate, North London (not a cheap area) and our house is approx. 3,000 sq ft. Prices for work on period homes are not in this range unless you have opted for a very high end fit out. Our side return costs £55k and that included all professional fees, lighting, underfloor heating, bi-fold doors, domestic appliances and lovely leather sofa from Habitat. Admittedly, we kept our existing Britannia range cooker and dining table and chairs. Yes we got many quotes for £140-£200k+ but decided to use professionals for planning and some visits during key stages only. The rest of the project was managed by us. There are many ways to create value in a project - Ikea Voxtorp handleless kitchens are great with a quartz worktop. You can even get the doors sprayed with a F&B colour, it's a fraction of the price and visually compares well to Roundhouse kitchens - which I love but simply can't afford. We got endless quotes for quartz worktops - the costs varied by more than 50% for exactly the same material. We needed 13 steels in total and paid a total £4.8k inclu vat and £3k installation costs. Remember you should be negotiating on all elements of your project. I can also compare to a similar house/project in a nearby road, not a high end finish but inexperienced home owners who paid £140k for a pretty average side return turnkey solution. Keep researching and talking to home owners that have actually completed projects on their homes to get a really good view about the costs and where you want to spend your budget.

Houzz competition I know the deadline has passed but I would like for you to see this. (The photos are not uploading properly) As embarrassing as it has been for myself and my mum; over the course of my life, I have lived in such a beautiful neighbourhood in the Blackfriars area for over 22 years and the only renovation or decoration that was done was in our kitchen by the council which was lovely. We also got a really nice gentleman to fix our blinds in the kitchen for us however only one side was done because he mentioned that the measurement was not accurate for the other window area so for months one side has been an open view which at times I don't mind, but everyone loves privacy from time to time. When it comes to the rest of the house - 1. The corridor - the walls are damaged by paint and mould so the walls feel quite rough with cracks which at times Ive hurt myself with small scratches... the corridor is sky blue but I also imagined my corridor in a yellow/magnolia colour with white borders and my mum even bought the paint but till now it was not done. 2. The doors in the corridor that lead to each room are off white and the doors don't shut properly anymore. 3. The toilet is separate to the bathroom it's really old and green colour is very boring, the toilet itself is faulty, the wall between the toilet and bathroom by the window is quite thin so it has ripped a little bit. The pipes are cracked and the mould is showing and I was thinking to get the council to wrap it up in some kind of polystyrene wrap. 4. The bathroom has ABESTOS around the window area as the ventilation is so bad and because the window is high up it is quite hard to reach to always open and close it. The bathroom was repainted white at one point but the colour didn't stay for long. Now it's mouldy and black. The pipes are bad and mouldy and the sink area is cracked around. I had an idea of painting it with the theme white and gold accessories or blue white and gold (which my mum purchased blue paint) but we never got around to doing anything. The bath itself sounds like it's about to fall through and many times there have been leaks downstairs into my neighbours flat. The council just used a cardboard/wooden barriers to cover the bath. 5. The front room had wallpaper before and was painted over. Now, on one side of the room a little bit of the wall paper is coming off very randomly as if it's shrinking (I don't remember taking off anything). The carpet was taken off completely but nothing was done to it. This area has become store space too (due to clutter and books). We have some nice brown/gold curtains which I visualised my living room to have a boutique type elegant brown/gold/cream theme. 6. Bedroom no. 1 has not been dealt with for years and so it has become a clutter room for clothes as well as the corridor. The room colour is sky blue but would love for this room to be an elegant green theme something classy for a mother. 7. Bedroom no. 2 is a baby pink room with the intention of painting the room white with splashes of colour. I started taking some things out and taking out my bed area but it's not complete as you can see by the photos. Overall this interior design is definitely needed because of how long it has taken for the decor process to be done. This is the conundrum that is needed to be solved.