I find a non perforated spatula/turner with a medium stiffness and a long handle is very useful. It can be used for flipping splattering eggs, oriental stir fry, turning steaks, or swatting smoke detectors.

Thanks for the comments. spotlights might be a good idea, I hadn't thought of that. I should've said that there's no room for furniture at that end of the hall as there's a doorway, then the kitchen door opens back along one side, and on the other side there's access to the understairs storage. The other complication is we plan to redecorate in a year or two, replacing the floor, ripping out the 80s coving and redoing the ceiling and walls. So although the LED strip and cornice is a great idea, it's not something e could do right now.

Hi Heidi, Having just done such a project (and learnt a little from it...): Ceiling heights: minimum thickness of a floor is around 200mm/8" but some of that can be "reclaimed" below e.g. by leaving the joists exposed. Above is trickier because insulation requirements for the roof mean you can't really do that much there; the distance between the outer surface of the roof ridge and the inner ceiling will end up at least 250mm. Do your figures. Regarding the steelwork, there are lots of technical options to build this and "all of them may be right" as in (not) needing a ridge steel beam. Have you got an SE (structural engineer) spec for it? You can talk directly to steelworks fabricators about this. Builders tend to buy RSJs from specialist companies whose business it is to "sell steel made to size / spec" - steelworks fabricators. Some builders like to "cut&weld on site" because it saves them time but workshop welding and steel preparation tends to have more consistent quality and is preferred by structural engineers and/or insurance & building control (the latter often because of the fire risk for welding work on small sites). So this may be a case for more questions to the builder ("who's your steel fabricator and would you mind me talking to them?"), or a 2nd opinion by showing the plans to a fabricator and asking them for how they think this could/should best be built. The technical term is to request a "method statement" - how will the steelwork be made to conform to design, comply with structural spec & building regs and/or constraints of property deeds, and how will it be installed (to satisfy site insurance and Health& Safety regs, and/or other provisions e.g. from party wall awards/consents) ?" On the fire suppression system: building regs part B (fire safety, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/485420/BR_PDF_AD_B1_2013.pdf ) extensively talk about "means of escape" which usually are protected / made "safe" by the additional fire resistance hallway walls and fire-rated doors to the hallway/stairwell provide. Where you have open-plan, the guidance says (quote): "Alternatively, it may be possible to provide sprinkler protection to the open-plan area, [ ... long sequence of auxiliary requirements/explanations ... ]" And the devil is in the detail. Not the least because "sprinkler" isn't the same as "mist sprinkler" (let's not go there now, rabbit hole...). It's definitely worth pre-clearing the design / fire suppression method with building control, because once you start, having to "alter" later to put extra partitions in not only blows costs out but also kills the design. From my own experience - do not let the builder "just start" because ... they may hold _you_ to ransom if their (hidden) cost-saving provisions are felled by external agents/influences. With no roof on the building and neighbours breathing down your neck for potential damage or perceived risk, or building control refusing signoff unless major changes, you're in a pretty bad negotiation position. Building regs will pre-clear designs for you, possibly for a small fee. Good luck !

TBH that doesn't really sound very terrible. But as Jonathan pointed out, it can be quite scary if you have no previous experience of house buying. But as he says, it's worth reading up and researching what all these things are. To have a small amount of rising damp in a small room such as a WC, isn't a big deal. A damp company can get that done relatively easily. They would take off the plaster to a height of approx. 3ft (ish) on the affected walls, they then inject the bricks and then re-plaster. There may be an issue with the DPC, which they would also deal with. When we moved in to our house, we had walls in our two sitting rooms, the downstairs loo, hall and in the cupboard under the stairs all with rising damp. It was a bit of a mess, but it got sorted quite quickly and when the plaster was fully dried, we could redecorate. As I said before the other mentions of damp are from external water ingress - which means you just need to identify why and how the water is getting in and get it fixed (incidentally, flat roofs are prone to leaking), that will fix the damp problem and thus any mould. Again a damp specialist will be able to advise you on this, but this type of problem is quite straight forward to deal with. Of the remaining points: Electrics - get clarification from the surveyor about what circuits he's referring to and then get an electrician in to find out roughly much it would be to do. Upgrade fire detection - this means install some smoke detectors - you can do this yourself, buy then from a DIY store. Insulation - get clarification of what the surveyor means by external walls, does he mean get cavity wall insulation or similar? If so that's not an immediate essential and could be done later. Insulating the attic - put in better loft insulation - again another thing you can do yourself get loft insulation from a DIY shop or look at other more eco friendly solutions. Minor repairs to doors and windows - not a great expense and likely a lot you could do yourself - perhaps panes need replacing or blown double glazing need replacing - fairy simple and straight forward. Clarify what the survey means by protect low level glazing. I suspect this means there is some window/s which is/are vulnerable to breakage (rather than a safety hazard) which would mean either getting a protective grille for it or you can get film to go over glass that makes it less like to shatter. Dormer & garage roofs - just check to see if they are water tight and sound - a builder or roofing specialist could advise you. Uneven paving etc - really absolutely nothing to worry about and likely something you could leave for a while - unless it is dangerous. Wasps nest - simple we've had 5 removed from our property THIS YEAR (it been a bad year for us for wasps!) It cost us £66 per nest. Carbon monoxide detectors - same as smoke detectors - do it yourself Fully functioning mechanical ventilation - get an extractor hood for the kitchen when you re-do it and you could just open the bathroom window when required. These are not vital but are good to have in the long run. Installing earth bonding - its a piece of wire! check on Google to see what you need to do, you can do it yourself. (I have a feeling it is no longer considered a necessity, but I could be wrong on that.) Clean down mould - you can get special cleaner to use to clean mould off, so get a some and sponge and do it yourself! Background vents - don't appear to have any in my house. I would say if you regularly open windows, doors don't over fill rooms with furniture, these are not immediately required (if t all) especially if there are trickle vents on the windows. It really isn't that scary when you break it down and understand exactly what it's talking about. Don't get too concerned, damp specialists deals with those types of issues every day, so it's not an enormous insurmountable problem, its quite straight forward. A lot of things on the list are very, very minor and simple, quick & easy to do - for instance it takes 10 minutes to put up a smoke detector. I think if you can get a damp specialist or a competent builder to look at the property, I think you'd feel a lot better about it all.