Hello, hoping for some friendly advice

[Tyrian]

Hello,

 

I wish I had found this forum sooner, mind you when we planned our project I had no idea of questions to ask, and my most pressing question is only necessary because of disruption because of the COVID crisis. Our project is the remodelling of kitchen / dining room, no change to the footprint, but knocking through rooms, putting windows where doors are, and vice versa. Most things are decided on, and we have a builder ready to start once the lockdown is relaxed, providing that the steel fabricator reopens. I am so excited about how our home will be improved, even if it does take longer than usual. I will post my question in the relevant part of the forum soon. 

Edited May 1, 2020 by Tyrian
Spelling and grammar

[Big Jimbo]

Welcome. Have fun on your re-model.

[tonyshouse]

Is work within 1m of a party wall involved 

could you use a plain piece of steel or plain pieces and bolt or weld on site? 
have you decided everything, paint colours, tiles or splashbacks, ordered the kitchen, sourced worktops, sink, taps, flooring appliances etc

 

decide now while there is no pressure 

[Tyrian]

Thank you Big Jimbo and Tonyshouse. It has been fun up to this point, I have really enjoyed going through things with our architect, and most of the big things are decided on. We are poised to go. I think if I had found this forum sooner I would have used it for some of the research. There is still time to change our minds on flooring and the kitchen materials, but the windows and most of the appliances have already been bought. 

[Big Jimbo]

Re the kitchen. I used to own and run a kitchen company. Design, supply, install etc. They were very high end. In frame, One off door designs. 30mm thick doors. Convex, concave doors. In all sorts of fab wood. The carcasses were always made from veneered ply, and basically they used to cost a fortune. Others will say different, but my tips would be.....Do not have oiled solid wood worktops. They are a pig to keep, and if not oiled regularly, will stain. If you have kids, think hard about having wood doors. The lacquer will be very thin, and sloppy, messy kids will ruin them after 7 or 8 years.

[Tyrian]

On 02/05/2020 at 18:49, Big Jimbo said:

Re the kitchen. I used to own and run a kitchen company. Design, supply, install etc. They were very high end. In frame, One off door designs. 30mm thick doors. Convex, concave doors. In all sorts of fab wood. The carcasses were always made from veneered ply, and basically they used to cost a fortune. Others will say different, but my tips would be.....Do not have oiled solid wood worktops. They are a pig to keep, and if not oiled regularly, will stain. If you have kids, think hard about having wood doors. The lacquer will be very thin, and sloppy, messy kids will ruin them after 7 or 8 years.

I’m thinking HiMacs for the work surfaces and some combination of ply, Valchromat and Fenix for the kitchen. The current kitchen has wood and it hasn’t aged well. We were thinking of porcelain tiles on the floor so that we can continue with the same surface outside (thicker outdoor tiles of course).