Big Jimbo

I have always done as PeterW above. 300+kitchens and never a complaint. (I make sure i move ever 3 months, and never leave a trail) ?

If , you were to say "I want a water meter please" where would they put it ? Actually, i might have to take that back. When they did my daughters they stuck it in the corner of the back room, and i stuck a removable boxing over it. There is however a stop tap out in the street. No stoptap outside seems like utter madness. I went through an old lead main in an old kitchen, below the stoptap. If i hadn't been able to leg it outside, and shut it off in the street, i dont know what i would have done.... Madness, madness, they call it madness.

It's difficult, if i gave someone a set of drawings with levels, and they had to alter them for whatever reason. I would hope that they would bring it to my attention, so that i could consider the possible implications of the alterations. However, a lot of drawings just say "falls to suit"

If you are not bothered about the rebated overlap, you could just use a piece of thin matching wood on the relevant door to cover the gap.

Some of the detailing that used to be put into our properties was stunning. Even large, posh new builds don't seem to bother. I worked on a new 12million pound house a couple of years back with Black plastic gutters, and downpipes ! Some people just don't seem to see, or value the detail.

i always go to great pains to try and get my door thresholds standing up about 25mm or so. it wont give me level, but i can live with the 8mm or so, (better than the 4 0r 5 inches you can end up with) I would run the tiles level, and finish the edge with a nice stainless tile trim if my doors have been set low. Just take care to ensure that the opening door does not foul the tiles.

I bet that connection to the mains is reduced internally. I can't believe (although i can see) no company stop tap.

You are making me , and Joe90 very jealous. Be very careful, or you may end up with the pair of us squatting at your place, with our old cars. P.s i don't take sugar in my tea, but do like lots of it please.

Welcome. Ater all the stress, fingers crossed for some fun times for you now.

You can , i'm sure, pick up, single phase, Two car post lifts, secondand, for about £500. if you had the height, use it , and sell it on when you have finished.

The painting systems used for plastics involve specialist primers etc. I have used a pure HVLP that i have had for a good few years, with a quality gun, that i can wind the pattern from about 15" wide down to about 1". The only paints i know of for spraying plastic are acid cat paints (2 part) so you have to take care of breathing it in, aand should always have a seperate air fed mask.

Tapered when i am doing dry lining, and square edge when i am doing wet plaster skim.

Show us some pics Roz

As a starting point you might want to consider keeping all of the tall cabinets on One wall. If you have them on all the walls then tend to close the room in.

I think most of the manufacturers use an extrusion that has a thermal break. Usually plastic extrusion that is hollow in the middle. Warmcore is the same but it looks like the hollow plastic bit is filled with some sort of foam which i expect gives them a better overall U value. I have also read a few not very good reviews on the net.

If you are going to have wall mounted pipes, make sure some careful planning is done, or when your kitchen fitter comes to fit your nice new dishwasher, it wont go back to the wall due to the pipes that will be in the way. How many times over the years have we all seen people's dishwashers, washing machines etc sticking out a bit, and not quite flush with the cupboard doors either side. The reason is because the plug socket, and a load of pipes supplying the sink, anr behind the appliances. Bad planning.

As for having to work a lot of things out yourself. That would be because your spec, and drawings are not up to scratch. Sorry. There will always be things that will have been missed, and things that crop up during the project, and decisions will have to be made. Say i was project managing your project. I would be ringing you up abroad in your villa, and saying, " The sparky has arrived, and i've picked him up on the fact that he wants to run his wires across the floor. (Easiest route) " He says that there was nothing in the spec that he quoted from, that you wanted ceiling wires with drops, and that is going to cost you more. I would be telling you that unless you want to bin him off, (at the risk of being sued due to breaking his contract) and start getting new quotes from sparkies, (and delay the job) then you hav'nt get much option other than to pay him.

That is why planning is so important. you have the drawings, and spec. You knew what the floor build up was going to be, and now you are asking all the other trades to work around the fact that the floor make up is causing an issue. If you had said to the sparky at the quote stage, that you wanted all of the wires run through the ceiling and dropped down the walls, then he would have quoted you for that. If you did'nt tell him that, and it was not on any spec, or drawings that you gave him to quote from, then i'm afraid that's called bad planning.

That is going to be a few bob then.

How much off the work will you be doing ?

Not me i'm afraid, but it's looks good. Cost ???

If you are going to use an Architect, and a main local contractor, there goes £20k of your money. The Architect will have to make several visits to ensure that your main contractor is doing what is being asked of him £££££ Your main contractor will be subbing out a lot of your work and will want 20% mark up on whatever he is being charged.

The thing is, you might get away with it, if you have got very good extraction. I just would'nt do it because, because i did'nt want to take your hard earned off you, only to have you ring me up in 12 months to say that the stuff had started to fall apart.

In my opinion expanding foam will be better than trying to cut, and stuff anything else in there.

personally, i think you are light on your bathroom, showeroom, and kitchen if you are expecting to do no work yourself. especially down south. I would imagine that in Walton on Thames, you would want a fairly high spec.