Hi, Landing and loft conversion looks good, next tricky part will be picking the pendant you want. Please may I ask, have you opted for an electric velux window blind or have you simply left the window without a blind because the positioning of the window doesn't need a blind for privacy. Just something else I am thinking about. Hope the knocking down of the wall went well, I bet the space feels massive now. Thanks for asking. I am adding an extension to the kitchen with a little utility and toilet at the end. knocking the wall down between kitchen and diner to make open plan. Downstairs bathroom is becoming third bedroom. Upstairs I am adding a dormer at the back to make a bigger second bedroom and adding dormer to the front for bathroom which also means a new small landing. New central heating, retire etc. also changes outside garage has gone ready for a new one to be built. Attached are photos of my hallway, first is at top of stairs before little hallway extra was added second is the start of new hallway, walls coming out for bathroom door which is wher dormer will be the planning on putting the velux next to it. All very exciting stuff, I'm not the most imaginative so it's difficult to imagine what it will all look like in the end where to put lights etc, similar to you really

Honesty is the best policy. Just sit down with him, say that you are very happy with the work done to date but lay the facts out for him. If he understands where you are at with your finances and then he should be able to help you formulate a plan to get the remaining work done within budget. Given you've already spent a considerable amount with him you're in a good position to negotiate, perhaps get him to write up all the costs to date and try and find a final price you'd both be happy with inclusive of the remaining work. If you can't agree then explain you'll need to call a halt to the work and get some independent quotes to see if you can find someone cheaper. Nothing that's left is truly urgent so getting a number of tradespeople in to quote is both sensible and likely to save you money.

regarding guests above the main bedroom, I respectfully disagree; I think bedrooms should be kept private, certainly not joined to a guest's bedroom we do need dimensions to proceed though what if you fitted the office above and closed it off, perhaps with a retractable screen, so you wouldn't disturb the person sleeping. the downside is that you are combining work and relaxation into one area, so it's not the best solution. which means... if there's not enough space above, and I do doubt that there is, rather get a wall of closets in the bedroom, and change there. It would also save the inconvenience of stairs; think of times you forget items and have to go up and down repeatedly, times you're deciding what to pick out and need space to arrange clothing options, times you're packing closets, or exhausted after a long day out, the option of a mezzanine dressing room loses some appeal to me. Another option though, is to have closets in the bedroom for daily clothes of the season, and some above for other seasonal and occasional clothing

@arc3d I dug out the very first design we had drawn up for the ground floor and interestingly the kitchen space isn't too dissimilar from your proposal, with some adjustment to door placement. It would be very nice to have enough room to clearly separate seating from dining furniture and I'm not sure it's possible in the current plans without doing as you suggest. Referring to our existing plans, my thinking was to move bench seating with dining table (extendable 6-8 person) to the party wall and seating to bay window area as @rinked suggested. Hopefully that would free up space for a small 2-seater sofa facing windows and couple of chairs with a side/coffee table. Note, the reason we introduced a double step-in to the external wall was because although not captured in the plans, the passageway tapers towards the house and we want to maintain a 700mm to run bicycles and wheelie bins to the rear. I think a side window in the kitchen wall was omitted because it faces our neighbours brick wall; maybe we could add one retrospectively at head height to the planning application, to reflect the side window in the extension: @rosemonde Below are the submitted plans for the other floors and external elevations for comparison to your house (- ignore the stair direction on 1st floor; this will be flipped but there's a separate application for the loft under PD so the plan here shows the current stairs). I should also add that we plan to change the walk-in wardrobe in 2nd floor plans so that the entrance is opposite the en-suit, with drawers along length of eaves and wardrobes along length of partition; we feel this will give us more bed placement options (e.g. facing the rear window) and make the walk-in section less cluttered. Our current layout is awful (we recently purchased the house knowing we'd do this work); the kitchen is where utility is planned, there's a horrible lean-to conservatory where extension is planned and a similarly nasty lean-to utility to the side, the current bathroom is oddly split into a bath and separate shower room (with two adjacent toilets split by the partition) and loft space is a bedroom with non-reg stairs, floor joists and ropey dormer window. We're making the study 2m wide as well to make it a more practical size (it's currently 1.4m) and potentially use it as an overspill 5th single bedroom if necessary: Hope this helps you with your own plans and feel free to PM me if you want further info :-)