An in-between phase

Blackcats

glad you had a nice evening with your friend.

You are doing well with vinted listings and sales. I sold 2 items this week and find it so pleasing to pack the things up and send them other way.

EssexHebridean

absolutely the right decision to replace the tiles, it would have been even had the others not been refunded I reckon - it’s a relatively small spend now to be far FAR happier with everything for the foreseeable future, and life is definitely too short to live with a depressing colour for years because it was what you wanted but what you ended up with… (this is our old kitchen, which should have been a sort of sagey green on the walls but ended up mint green because for some reason our builder just decided to do his own thing. I hated it from day 1, and lived with it for 6 flipping years! I’m pleased to say I finally now have my lovely green - albeit in the living room!)

paint - we were extremely impressed with the Valspar paint mixing stuff from the big orange place. Coverage was good and it was dead easy to apply with either brush or roller.

PennysIntoPounds

The vinted sales atm are mostly for literally two quid (or sometimes under!) @Blackcats but got to try to make any money towards build before they go on olio or to charity shop.

The building society still hasn't got back to us about them screwing up the interest rate and it's thrown our budget not knowing when or even if it'll be sorted, so any quids are worth the effort

Oh yeah and because we're replacing the tiles and paint 😂 @EssexHebridean

Final (for now) decision is leave the yellow paint in the spare room, replace the paint in our bedroom, replace the bathroom tiles, leave the paint in the 'office' (tiny box room)- don't think I mentioned but that came out tons darker than advertised, but we're just gonna try to style it out, we're not made of money so some things are going to have to be sucked up and made the best of.

Though I have casually asked for a quote for a partition wall downstairs because I really dislike the open plan design...

beanielou

Not a fan of open space options either. So no harm in getting a quote for a partition.

Watty1

When we did the original work here, the plan was for walls between kitchen and so on but we moved in part build and I went from disliking open plan to loving living in it. So much so that I wanted to remove a wall between the stairs and living space which PPH did not want to do on the basis he had had enough of the project. Thinking this was not a good reason I waited until he was at work then asked the builders to get it down during that day.

I love the space, it has distinct "areas" as a worktop divides off the kitchen, a large sofa and rug marks a sitting area and the stair space is quite architectural. (The mistake I made was that the under-stair cupboard is now too small, I should have left that as a pillar mid way between dining area and sitting area).

So no harm in getting the quote but you might also like to think about how the space can work without the partition? I lived in two rentals after I left PPH and both were open plan too and that worked really well. Huge fan now! I find myself looking at houses and worrying whoever is in the kitchen will feel "left out" of the rest of the house!

jwil

It's a good idea to get the quote. I don't like open plan either, I like having the ability to shut things off. We have big sliding doors across an arch so we can have the space open or closed.

WelshmansDaughter

Or a custom division like room divider or shelving to add storage and break up the space?

TallGirl

Open plan can work really well I am fan too but I would live with it first and see how the furniture fits in. You can do a lot with dividers that can work really well. Or do a new yorker wall with glass can look really smart. I hope you have no more build headaches sounds like you have had your full share of those by now.

PennysIntoPounds

Thanks for your input all, the architect did such a bad job, it was all designed to look good on her portfolio and gave zero thought to what was right for the space. It was submitted for planning permission before there was a chance to object

We don't really have the money spare to start mucking around with a partition wall but equally I really don't like it that you walk in the front door and that's it. Entrance, living room, stairs, kitchen, all one small space. I would rather it felt cosy cramped with a wall than more spaciously cramped because everything is the same room!

Having said that, I really, really don't want to give the BS any more money by having to draw down another phase of build mortgage.

I swing between 'get it how you want it and get normal mortgage and live with the debt like everyone else' and 'this needs to be the most mse build we can make it, there's already so much you can't change that you don't like, so make it look the best you can with what you have and stop throwing money you don't have away'

I'm really trying not to have negative attitude towards what will soon be our home, but if any of the many aspects could assist, that would be nice

foxgloves

I bet there aren't that many of us who live in a perfectly designed home, @PennysIntoPounds. I quite like open plan layouts as they can be both airy & adaptable, but a previous owner here opened up the 'wrong' part of the house imho & as we bought a 'doer-upper' (which we will quite simply never do again), we have always had more urgent changes to implement than altering the structural stuff. I like the idea of using bookshelf/display type furniture (the quite open Swedish Emporium sort of thing) to divide a bigger room into different areas. Although I do understand where you are coming from on it being an expensive project & so you may as well get it as 'right' as possible, you'll probably find when you move in that you can put your stamp on it in all sorts of different ways which make it feel stylish & personal to you.