June 2010, 80 payments to go............

tootallulah

Coffee £2, lovely girl who always does 2 stamps on my loyalty card served me - result. Just today to get through and then a day off tomorrow to choose, bathrooms, tiles, taps etc. Excellent fun.

museumworker

Great fun - let us know what you get! We went the budget option and ordered bathroom stuff from Victoria Plumb - can't tell you what its like as we're having it delivered later in the month. They do do next day delivery though for about £15 extra. We still have to pick tiles though, so if you find something fab please share!

cha97michelle

Don't go for slate bathroom floor tiles is my advice. Mine have only been down since July and some have chipped already. My marble wall border is not much better either.

More seriously - we got the tiles from Tile depot who have a really great selection of tiles. They do some really nice Laura Ashley ones that my mum chose for her bathroom. They are white with black flowers for a feature wall, and then the same pattern in a shimmery white on white background for the rest of the room and they are gorgeous. She then has black sparkly floor tiles.

tootallulah

I am on the tr ain back south having sorted out pretty much every thing that needs to be done for the next phase of my mammoth home improvements.

Thanks for the tip about the floor etc, in the end I went for porcelain look-likie slate for the kitchen and limestone for the bathroom. hopefully they will look good but be hard wearing and easy to clean which my real limestone IS NOT. IN the end I got everything in the sale at Homebase so it was reasonable and that helps considering the cost of the beautiful china blue range cooker which was also purchased on Saturday. My mum also gave me enough lining to make the last blind for my Kitchen which is great and will mean I can get them finished this week. It looks like the house will be complete for Christmas which will mean I can get a kitchen table in the sales.

I still have about £2.30 left from my £70 per week all in new way of budgeting. The aim for November is to get it down to £60 with the hope
of settling on £55 in the new year. now I really need to work out why pay pal will let me buy from bay but won't let me set up a sellers account.

tootallulah

New week and £70 available. Yesterday coffee £2, lunch (forgot to take it in grrrrrr) £1.96. I was at a work dinner yesterday and have an exhibition opening today. A bit tired, it is the shock of spending like a woman with eight arms at the week-end. The weather has been beautiful, a real Indian summer I walked across Hyde Park yesterday it was absolutely beautiful, the trees are turning.

greent

We have porcelain tiles on our kitchen floor. It's like a swimming pool if you spill anything - it just sits there (and with 4 kids I get a LOT of spills!!) It's a pain to clean because of that too - I have to dry it with old towels or it's really slippy for ages. It wasn't so bad in the height of summer, but it's in the Northern most corner of the house so doesn't get much sun to dry it at any other time. It looks great when clean - but we're changing it when we can (it's only been down just under 4 years). Mine's a pain to clean because it's lumpy-bumpy - possibly not an issue of there's just you - but with regular sticky spills, food bits, yogurt etc it gets stuck in the bumpy bits. To clean it properly takes me an hour on my hands and knees with a scrubbing brush However, without rugrats yours should be fine! Changing ours will be a pain - we put it down when we had the kitchen redone - and tiled the whole floor, so it goes under the (real wood, bespoke handmade) kitchen units.....

If anyone is looking for granite at a good price try www.rockrevelations.co.uk - can thoroughly recommend them and you can get granite worktops for most kitchens for £1499 (Sadly we needed some extra deep granite for a non-standard bespoke unit (grr!!), but ours still cost *only* £2100 - and our kitchen is the size of a double garage, so there's a LOT of granite there.... ) AND they're quick!

cha97michelle

I've gone for porcelain floor tiles for my new kitchen. I was looking for hard wearing which they are, but hope my rugrats don't make them too sticky. (Actually - i think i am the accident prone clumsy one. I have already managed to put a small dint in the new fridge door that we have only been using since Saturday. )

I bet slate effect are a great compromise. Maybe something i should look out for if we need to redo our bathroom in a couple of years.

tootallulah

Perhaps I'll have to accept that floors will always be a nightmare! I have probably scrimped enough money for granite worktops, or at least part granite worktops. Yesterday I was told there is nowhere to put a radiator in the kitchen so it will be underfloor heating, I do hope that works well......I'm not at all sure that underfloor heating is that warm.

Coffee £2, 2 X jonts of ham (£3.96, massive reduction).

greent

ooh - toastie feet - lovely!! U/floor heating can work well - don't skimp on the amount of wire bits under the floor though - false economy, as you will be cold.

If you want granite, do have a look at that site - they cover the UK at no extra cost and were excellent when we had them (and you can get the super sparkly stuff for a bit more - but we went for nero assuluto (or whatever it's called!)

tootallulah

I am badgering my brother to draw up my new kitchen so that I can work out what work tops will be needed. I have been to the site and covet granite with sparkles in it. I will probably end up with IKEA beech, but it is good to dream. No spending today (RARE).