lizzie

Be very careful.....I had a pm who was on an hourly rate. We had a TF/slab package. We had one groundworker for all up to slab.Windows were on a supply and fix, the rest of the work was on quote/tender. All sounds good.....its laughable, the cost overruns were massive. The ground work contractor caused no end of problems but for some reason wasn't sacked ( I sacked him myself in the end) and his costs were way more than expected......and so it went on. We had an awful lot of problems. We found out later that PM had not been straight with us and was working for Tf company and so he was reluctant to raise issues (major ones too) with them as it would impact on his job with them so we the customer suffered. It appears that ethos followed through on other elements of the build when clearly contractors who were not up to it should have been sacked but were not (unless I did it). There was an element of price differential too.......you can draw your own conclusions there. He was supposed to be an independent PM but pushed us toward a TF company we had previously rejected for various reasons. I felt bad that the really nice salesman we had dealt with and rejected did not get anything from our sale as PM got credit....of course we had no idea we were not getting independent advice and were being steered into something because it suited him and his income. Whilst I am not unhappy with TF co I am very unhappy at deceit by PM who if he had said on day 1 or even day 51 that he worked (or was trying to get himself a permanent job on back of our project) for TF co too then that would have been Ok with us and at least we would have been aware of why things were ignored and not dealt with properly. He put us in a situation that the mistakes made at the start impacted on the whole build right through second fix and beyond. We did have some reference for him and he seemed very competent at the start but good patter to novices can seem that there is nothing to worry about. I wish we had gone about it a different way now. There was no option for fixed price, the hourly rate billing was a killer of course but to be fair I dont think the hours charged were that bad its just what was and was not done in those hours and that he was being paid twice for some elements unknown to us. For us the biggest issue (beyond the construction problems) was the lack of trust and confidence once we found out what had been going on. We were at a stage where we just needed to get to sign off and get rid asap so had to grit our teeth, minimise involvement (I was doing most stuff myself by then) and get to the end of a bad situation. Sorry for the long response but it is not that I feel sorry for myself (I did but that has passed) but to show just how toxic the PM situation can become.

Sorry to hear you had a break in. My friend had one last year ....part of a spate locally......they took the hard drive for the cctv so there were no pictures (data was not stored anywhere else but hard drive), they got into the house ransacked it, got into the safe as well. All in about 10 minutes while she was out on the school run.......and thank goodness she was out. The gang was caught and have just been sentenced to 16 years in prison. Other CCTV caught them and was used in court, they had balaclavas and guns it was very nasty about 10 really awful burglaries with high value goods stolen (as well as guns stolen from locked cabinets) all that in less than 2 weeks. Shocking really. I think the guns were what spurred to police into action. Ages of offenders.....19, 21 & 23. Makes you shudder.

I deliberately did not go for a built in one as had heard lots of stories about them being white elephants. Very expensive and limited choice, not the best coffee either..........some on here have them look at earlier posts in this thread.

I use a three tier steamer pan with no issues it still draws the steam perfectly.

Have you bought the tiles yet? That 1300 corridor with a 1200 tile....... If it were me I would set my sight lines from the front door looking through the house to your glazed area. That will be first thing you see when you enter and will always be in your face. You could get a rug for the corridor perhaps

I was off coffee for a decade or more. Only drank water. Drifted back onto coffee some 20 years ago and consumption gradually crept up to current 6 or so a day.....too much really but I do enjoy it.

The higher end brands (Bora, Gaggenau etc) dont generally sell on the multiple internet sites its mainly via higher end kitchen suppliers. There are some on line companies who do deal with them and they will get you a price if you ask. Siemens offer incentives to kitchen suppliers who in turn push their products....myself I’m not a fan of Siemens. I chose my Bora because it gave me everything I wanted in a hob, the extractor was only one factor (although it is funky). There is more to a hob and extractor than spec on the page. For me I wanted to try cooking on one before I made my choice. There are some supposedly well specced hobs (and extractors) that dont make the grade when you use them. Try before you buy if you can whatever your budget. I sourced all my own appliances as I could get them cheaper than my kitchen man. The only thing he sourced for me was my Bora and there is no price competition on those.

What a lot of machines to investigate. Thank you all for the input....I need a strong coffee before I start!

my candy..... its just a washer I have a separate dryer. Have had combi in the past, never again unless absolutely no alternative they are hopeless

MIne doesnt.....

lattay??

wow great stuff! you a veritable fount of knowledge

I looked at that type of thing. It looks really bitty when down, gaps between each section. Not a great look in my opinion. See if you can find some pics of them when down and you will see what I mean. If you have not yet ordered your windows and you want disappearing blinds why not look to see if you can get ones that are integrated into the window glazing. Some on here have that. Various manufacturers do them i.e. Internorm....not sure if they do for sliders though I cant see why not. Not a cheap option though.

amazing bit of kit they are like triggers broom (only fools snd horses) never wear out! Someone online said if you stand the aluminium pot in a pan that works on induction hob it will work

Being of Italian heritage I grew up with Bialetti Moka stovetop espresso perc pots. I love Italian coffee, the drip ( as the Aussies call filter) is not for me. Have all sizes of cafetière to hand but again does not give me that real Italian coffee taste. Maybe I should dig out the old Bialetti...doubt it would work on the Bora though! Thanks on Krups and Jura @vivienz, interesting. Lizzie. .........#firstworldproblems#

This is the spec...no back boxes for internal ones (we have external ones too lighting a wall and that is why ref to backboxes). All that is needed for internals is a duct through slab/screed depending on what you have. I have passive slab no screed floor build up so my ducts are in the slab. (external soffit lights are just downlight version of these) They are dimmable too which is nice. Got ours with all the other lightmaster stuff not sure if they do retail but should be easy enough to find same spec online

I deliberately did not have a built in coffee machine.... as you say bit of a white elephant. I’m afraid I hate instant coffee, would rather drink water. Milk covers a lot of sins in coffee.

@jonMThank you.... this one has all the milk gadgets which I don't want. I want a machine with a good bar pressure that produces a decent coffee with a good crema. Still have a coffee grinder but no intention of going back to that. The small one cup bean to cup jura is designed for simple black coffee...espresso etc no other functions what I drink is actually termed a lungo..... very hard to get one in any cafe in uk you are either presented with a big bucket of tepid weak stuff termed americano or espresso with no or little crema. Carluccios is one if the few chains that I can rely on for a decent coffee.

Having been a Nespresso girl for more years than I care to remember I am flirting with a change. Current machine needs replacing as its leaking....they seem to last about 4 years or so and I am on my third. Before just getting a new one delivered with my capsules I have been looking at the coffee machine market which has changed a lot in the last 10 years. Bean to cup have moved on hugely and dropped in price considerably. I don't want any fancy milk gadgets I rarely use milk in a coffee (just for visitors) and have developed a method of doing a mean latte without a problem. I make short strong black coffee for myself and undoubtedly drink too much of it but it is my indulgence as I don't drink alcohol and we are all allowed one vice. Options seem to be New nespresso that takes regular capsules New nespresso that takes new style Vertu capsules Jura A1 bean to cup machine.....very stylish. Anyone tried the Jura?

Ive had Miele in the past...mega expensive but good. I had to leave last one behind as was integrated. I bought a cheap as chips Candy for use in rental. Over 3 years on its still going strong in new house (keeping everything crossed not wanting to tempt fate). I am amazed ......its a fab machine does a great job, has a simple rotary dial. Also has a 30 minute cycle and a 44 minute one that I use all the time. Those are at 1000 spin, if I need a better spin I have a quick spin programme for 7 minutes at 1600rpm. I am wondering why I ever bought such expensive machines in the past when this is so good. I also bought the matching condensing tumble dryer for peanuts, dont use it that often, (mainly for towels) as have mvhr but dryer is really good too.

I am not a good photographer so bear with me on photo quality, I probably could have done better with the refelections. This is my inside uplighting at the sliders. I have a tiny little led spot set into the floor at each end of the opening. Outside I have the same tiny little led spots in the soffit. It is very effective just wish I could have go a better pic!

I did not know bosch did an integrated one but there are a lot of copycats coming on the market now. I chose Bosch over the others of the same type on the market at the time as I preferred the way it looked, I preferred the way it cooked and it was quiet. It has an auto extraction setting which being lazy I use all the time I cant remember the last time I used a manual settingfor the extraction as the auto is so spot on. I have recirculation as I have MVHR. My Bora flexi circa 3k if I remember correctly

Depends really why you want to cover them. I have blinds fitted inside the frame reveals of my sliders in the bedroom to block out the light so we can sleep. They are minimal. In my living area I have 3 sets of large floor to ceiling sliders which are not covered as we dont want to lose our view or spoil the minimal look, I like the frames and want to see them. Our frames are dark contrasting with pale walls. I dont think they look stark but my house is fairly minimal and very modern. Our windows are lit inside from below at night which is a nice effect too. Those windows are south and west facing.

The hot air goes down in my Bora which has the extractor integrated into the hob......its quite fun to watch when there is nothing on TV?

Its looking great...well done you. Bare plaster and screed could start a new trend.......bet you enjoyed the bath test runs!