I have an old 70's style galley kitchen n utility, updating by changing, wall n floor tiles n keeping cupboards and ancient non Meile appliances - could really do with help with kitchen design as I need lots of storage space and having new appliances would be a dream as my dishwasher is on its last legs and no space currently for a fridge- this project has been going on since last Summer with builders letting us down we are still waiting for new builders to start -if I were to win a place to come to your appliance day it would be fab and if you need a kitchen to create your magic in , it would be a dream come true . I will be fasting throughout June as it will be Ramadan but I wanted to enter even though I wouldn't be able to eat anything because the experience is too good an opportunity for me to miss so any day would be ok as I am desperate to get help especially as my budget is so limited . Thank you for considering me . I believe in serendipity and feel fortunate to have come across this just in time as today is 16th! Have I said enough to get me a place I wonder ? Lol!

Thanks tamp75. It turns out the painter is only doing a white mist coat today & is returning later in the week so I have time to buy even more testers. LOL. He said I can paint the testers on the walls in the extension which should help as it is west facing whereas the playroom that I tested them on is east facing. We were originally going to go with Cornforth White kitchen cabinets but DIY's standard light grey was a lovely colour (&,cheaper!) so we went with that. I think if we'd gone with Cornforth White the decision making on the wall colour would have been easier!!

Certain “nifty” things may not cost the world especially if you don’t have to pay the plumber / your dad (oh well... we always owe our parents and they’re sure not to forget ...) :-) Your post tickles the Scrooge in me :-) Relocating the bath to the window and fitting a shower screen seems like a great / easy start to end up with a notably more luxurious Ambiente. Let’s price some components: If your water pressure is not entirely abysmal (ground floor should do if your gravity fed header tank is in the attic) then you may be able to use a shower/bath mixer/diverter (many types available starting from about 100£ like https://www.ergonomicdesigns.co.uk/product/REI3417~hudson-reed-reign-triple-with-diverter-concealed-thermostatic-shower-valve.html) and run both bath filler and overhead (rain-)shower or handheld shower from it. As was mentioned, a flush-with-ceiling “shower tile” (https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/hudson-reed-270mm-ceiling-tile-shower-head-head80, or “German upgrade” to https://www.ukbathrooms.com/products/hansgrohe-raindance-air-overhead-shower-260-x-260mm.html) would give the spa-type look and at that size will probably work with the just-under 1bar you get from a gravity fed supply. You only need a handheld shower/small extra wall outlet to complete, about 20£ for the outlet/shower holder and a few quid for the handset on eBay. For the bath, overflow filler wastes like https://www.tapwarehouse.com/product/708a keep the looks neat (make sure you get one long enough for the bath you choose) and would also connect invisibily to the mixer valve. You’d built something like this: Just using your bathtub not a shower lay. If you want to cap your bathtub costs and stay with plastic (in which case 250£ give you choice choice choice) then you can make an acrylic bath feel a lot more sturdy if you built a wooden or C-steel frame for it so it’s supported under the rim and from beneath the tub’s floor plate. Makes a huge difference to the experience. Shower screens are from about 50£ for a 4mm x 1400mm x 800mm and again if you go to 100£ your choice grows a lot. If you’re into the modern look, a hidden cistern for the toilet, like https://www.screwfix.com/p/fluidmaster-schwab-duplo-xs-in-wall-toilet-frame-cistern/2249x can be found from around 100£. Large mirrors that help make the space appear big ... can either be found via recycling (lots of 2nd hand shops ...), or you buy a cheap set of IKEA ones and tile them (use silicone not tile adhesive - the latter may dissolve the mirror layer over time). IKEA friendly as they are sell sets in a tile-size friendly 30x30cm, “lots”, http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/decoration/mirrors/lots-mirror-art-39151700/ rather attractive price (and correspondingly huge number of web search hits for ‘Ikea lots mirror ideas’). For tiles, it’s about waiting the opportunity; all tile shops occasionally have joblots / leftovers so with a little luck... if you see commercial properties especially hotels being done up where you are, try to chat to them larger projects often have surplus. The result of such will luck hugely more pricey than it is, especially if the workmanship is good. Good luck with your bathroom and let us know how the result looks like!

Hi Stuart, I want to start by saying I prefer to be frank when I give advice, but I understand that people can be offended by frank advice, so I would like to apologise in advance if my advice comes across as harsh. It is not my intention to offend. I come across a lot of poorly designed houses in my line of work. Whether they are poorly designed because the developers who built didn't care about the people who would eventually live in them or because the owners tried to better their homes, but didn't get the right guidance, and ended up making them worse. There is really no substitute to hiring a reputable and experienced architect when looking to better your home. Designing a house is not something that most people can do successfully without the help of an architect. Home renovations are among the biggest investments people make after they home purchase. An architects fees are only a fraction of cost and could potentially save you from a dysfunctional home that doesn't serve you and your family well as well as very costly mistakes. I think its commendable that you have taken on the challenge, but my honest advice would be to take your ideas to an architect and ask him/her to review them with you. I will post here what I can see wrong with your design and offer some solutions but this would really be a two way process between you and your designer that would take much more time. So, firstly the doors! I have counted 13 individually swinging doors in your design. Just to put things into perspective, my parents live in a similar size house to yours and they have 6 doors and after upcoming renovation they will have 5. I live in smaller house and I have 5, but really only need 4. In your design if someone was to close every door behind them, arriving home, freshening up in the wc, making a coffee and then going to sit down in the living room, by my count, they would have opened and closed a door 8 times before they'd sit down! The downstairs loo. If the door to the toilet is a standard door i.e. approx 760mm wide. The space left between the wall and the door is 14cm. The smallest sinks I have seen are 18cm deep and they are barely functional. Either your knuckles hit the sides or you end up with water all over the floor. Also where would someone stand after entering the toilet and attempting to close the door. What about taking a child to use the toilet and wanting to shut the door? If the intention is to use the study as a guest room, how comfortable would it be for a guest to use this wc. The porch. I'm not a fan of porches. Thermally inefficient and neither an internal part of the house nor an external part. The living room. The living room is a nice size and the only place to relax, but how to enjoy the garden from the living room? If the children are playing in the garden and the adults watching TV, how would they supervise? Its nice to be able to close off from the rest of the house but it makes it difficult if one person has to cook while the other wants to sit and relax but they both want to talk. The space under the stairs. This is currently only accessible from the living room. The living room door swings into this area so it cant be used for a desk or reading nook. This door also means that furniture cant be placed along the this side of the room. A portion of the living room becomes a thoroughfare between the hall and dining area The kitchen. The kitchen is a great size, but the vast majority of it is just empty space. The space is essentially just a thoroughfare. This thoroughfare serves the same function as the one in the living room. The large cavity wall. This very thick cavity wall is right at the centre of the house. Would be great to be able to give it another function or thin it down. The conservatory. I am not a huge fan of conservatories. They are too cold to use most of the year and when the weather is warm enough to use them its also warm enough to sit outside! The are thermally very inefficient and take the same heat to warm up as it takes to heat the entire house. Although they have large amounts of glass in them, they will significantly reduce the light levels in the room they are attached to. The back doors. Oh the doors! The house has one door at the front. This one door alone leads to the great wide world and the universe beyond, but at the back of the house, however, there are 3 doors right next to each other, used to access only one small patio! If you consider each of swings then there are 5 doors leading to this one patio! (Apologies, I've had to split this long post up as I tried earlier and broke the submit button!)