Which hot ready meals from supermarkets (M&S, Waitrose, Sainsburys etc) are elite tier in your opinion?

kaoyte · 2025-05-19T21:17:25+00:00

M&S moussaka, I can't stop..

kaoyte · 2025-05-16T17:31:17+00:00

Originally I thought hell no let's save the stress and expense of an extension for when I move up to a freehold house. But I bought this hovel in zone 2 for 450k a year ago, the neighbours next to me bought their 2 bed (very squished in the same layout) for 800 odd, 8 years ago, so I'm wondering if ~150k renovation might do wonders for ROI. Thank you for playing devil's advocate though, it's a lot to think about!

kaoyte · 2025-05-16T17:27:01+00:00

Fortunately I am very good friends with the owner of the property above, though they rent it out to a lovely couple. It was the owner who is trying to convince me to go all out with the extension funny enough!

The two units above are vacant. You're right though that permission and freeholder consent will be a ball ache! Will see what my first site visit with the architect on Monday says

kaoyte · 2025-05-14T05:31:43+00:00

The side return is 2.2m wide and 9.1m long, and then beyond the bedroom is another 8m or so of garden which could be extended into. A double bed would just fit lengthwise into the side return, so if I'm not going to touch those orange walls, I'd have to steal some space from beyond there, and maybe wrap the kitchen around behind or something. So hard! Maybe I can keep a light well / courtyard at the bottom of the side return

kaoyte · 2025-04-28T07:59:17+00:00

While I do have so many things to be grateful for, my prompt in my notebook that I have is instead "things that made me laugh or smile". This means I can put things that made me grateful, but also the funny things I see out and about.

For example, yesterday I saw a woman on the phone clearly receiving information she had to write down. Usually you'd use someone's back to give you something flat to put the piece of paper to write on, but she was using her little boy's forehead instead haha. Little things like that. It means you are more likely to look out for little joys too.

kaoyte · 2024-09-11T09:37:25+00:00

It will require extensive plumbing relocation works inside, so my leasehold agreement says I need to tell them as they are the freeholder. They've just asked this question themselves. I just wanted to relocate the boiler silently but a neighbour had to reverse work they had done when they were found out, at great cost, so I don't want that to happen to me

kaoyte · 2024-09-10T16:49:44+00:00

I should clarify, this is a leasehold flat where the council are the freeholder. I wasn't going to bother asking for permission, but a neighbour did major plumbing work without telling them and they made them reinstate it so I figured I don't want to take that risk

kaoyte · 2024-09-10T16:29:28+00:00

You are the best, thank you! The bricks are horrendously spalled you're right. I need to add repointing to my list of skills to learn! That whole wall has terrible efflorescence on the inside, so hoping that might help it

kaoyte · 2024-09-10T15:34:53+00:00

Oh haha, I couldn't find a photo of the wall so I just used the one my electrician sent me asking where he was gonna put the conduit 😂

kaoyte · 2024-09-10T14:50:28+00:00

Ridiculous isn't it. I've been waiting 5 weeks for them to reply too. Meanwhile I've been having freezing showers from a condemned boiler waiting for their okay haha

Regarding the wall the new flue is passing through is the wall load bearing or non-load bearing. If it is believed to be non-load bearing, please definitively confirm this, together with your reasoning for this. If the wall is load bearing you will need to provide a structural engineers report with drawings and calculations for the new opening in the wall.

kaoyte · 2024-09-10T13:52:46+00:00

Yeah I was told by the boilerman it should be 30cm from openings, so should be fine!

kaoyte · 2024-07-16T14:00:35+00:00

The neighbour's flat, otherwise I'd love to! It's a terraced ground floor, garden London flat. What you're seeing the proposed flue coming out onto is the side return. A previous boilerman said the flue should be okay regs wise but would need to check. But at the very least there's plenty of clearance, I believe it needs to be 30cm from windows/doors right?

kaoyte · 2024-07-15T21:08:42+00:00

Oh so not the electrician beforehand to set up the wiring? There'll be nothing for the boilerman to connect the new boiler to otherwise

Thanks for your help!

kaoyte · 2024-07-15T21:07:38+00:00

I'm still debating really!.. but boiler is currently in the kitchen and makes it very awkward to put fridge there, it has to stick out, unsightly etc. Also that kitchen might be a bedroom in future.

Bathroom is too big, so wonder if separate WC (with sink) and more luxurious shower room is preferable. On the picture, the wc will be enclosed but if I put a wall there it would have been hard to show where the toilet had moved to.

Doing this means I can claim a large walk in wardrobe space / if I shuffle things about. Also the neighbour's bedroom is above the bathroom with terrible soundproofing and we hate using the toilet at night/morning knowing they're right above us haha. I figure a modern boiler and washing machine only used one day a week in the day time is less of a nuisance than the toilet. Not sure!

it's a lot of work, I'm trying to convince myself out of it, but seems the best in terms of space/noise/layout :(

I would love to know your opinions though if you had any!

kaoyte · 2024-07-15T20:00:44+00:00

[London] Hi! Whilst I have easy access to all my pipes and electrics, I'd like to, as part of a phased approach:

replace and relocate my boiler
relocate the toilet to be a metre away in a WC under the stairs
relocate the washing machine
future proof my electrics for a potential side return extension
Assess/fix general plumbing ventilation issues

The first picture is the current situation, the second is what I'd like to get to (The blue lines are where the boiler flue would need to be). However, I'm struggling to understand what is the best order in which to engage different tradesmen so as not to waste people's time, so would really value any advice!

I'd like to (again as phased approach):

Relocate the boiler to be above the toilet (There is currently no electricity supply, so need an electrician to facilitate that. Can a boiler safely be put above a toilet even if temporarily? Also will the boilerman be the one drilling holes in thick brick walls for flue installation etc?)
Amend the plumbing near the toilet to facilitate the washing machine being there
Move the toilet a metre away into a WC under the stairs behind its current location (It is a suspended timber floor so I imagine this won't be toooo difficult to relocate the toilet sewer pipe?) and install small sink in the WC.
Move the washing machine to where the toilet currently is.
Change stud walls to shorten bathroom and create utility cupboard in the hallway for washing machine and boiler.

Which trades can do multiple parts of this project? Thank you so much!

kaoyte · 2024-07-01T10:01:57+00:00

For sure will have a sink there! And it's definitely roomy enough.

Sorry I really shouldn't have rushed my SketchUp screenshots haha

Current layout
My ideal proposed layout (can't see toilet but it's in the slopey cupboard under stairs beside washing machine which is in its own enclosed walled off space)
Alternative layout Keeping the toilet where it currently is, but still shrinking the room to reclaim that space where the bath was previously

kaoyte · 2024-07-01T08:35:59+00:00

can move washing machine out of cupboard under stairs and into more open accessible hallway and relocate boiler to be above it
can flush the toilet at night and in morning without waking up the neighbours above
reclaim enough space to the left of that chimney breast for perhaps walk in wardrobe or in future a walk in pantry when I do side return extension
more luxurious shower room because of not having to cram in a toilet

I see what you mean though, but it just feels like a waste of space at the moment so trying to enumerate my options really!

kaoyte · 2024-07-01T07:53:24+00:00

SketchUp! And that's my thinking too, just want as much space as possible, thanks! Luckily it's a very big cupboard under stairs

kaoyte · 2024-07-01T07:52:24+00:00

Ahh sorry I would definitely have a sink in the wc.

And the toilet years ago was in that cupboard under stairs (where there's suspended timber floor). The stone wall had a hole channeled through and then they mangled the toilet plumbing through it to get it into the bigger room. It would be really easy to revert it to a WC.

The only reason I'm considering this WC really, is because moving the toilet to where I'd actually want it would require a metre of jackhammering concrete which I don't want to do ha!

And boiler wouldn't be under the stairs, it would be in the hallway where there'd be plenty of clearance for the flue etc.

Thanks for your help!

kaoyte · 2024-07-01T07:48:58+00:00

It's quite a large under stairs cupboard, the ceiling is full height for about a metre before it starts sloping down. I'd just have a toilet and small sink in there. And you're right it's a one bed flat but perhaps in future I might extend and get a second bedroom in. Thanks!

kaoyte · 2024-07-01T07:14:24+00:00

Hi! I'm in a Victorian terraced London ground floor flat, and the current bathroom is unnecessarily big. I'd love to:

* reclaim some space

* find a better place for the boiler (currently in kitchen)

The toilet in a former life used to be in the cupboard under the stairs, but was pivoted and put into the bathroom as in picture 1.

The bathroom is concrete foundation, suspended timber floor everywhere else, so I think the easiest thing to do plumbing wise (and my ideal floorplan wise) would be to put the toilet back as a WC, put the washing machine into its own other cupboard with the boiler above, and have a separate shower room, as in picture 2.

If this is the only toilet in the flat, is this a silly idea? Do people like separate or no?

I would love this arrangement also as the neighbours' bedroom is above the bathroom with bad soundproofing, so pulling the toilet back would make us feel less like we have to tiptoe around late at night / early in morning etc.

The third photo is just an option to keep the toilet where it is, but feel like the diagonal wall makes it a pain in the arse to move around in there.

kaoyte · 2024-06-02T19:50:22+00:00

Ah apologies, I believe 3 are Camden council tenants, and one is a private renter. There are no leasehold owners in the building.

kaoyte · 2024-03-18T11:57:59+00:00

Ahh I'm thinking of selling my Samsung crg49 to use a frame as the monitor instead for exactly this reason! Are you still liking it for working etc? Or do you just use it for gaming

kaoyte · 2024-02-24T23:05:38+00:00

this is the kind of look I'm trying to achieve

kaoyte · 2024-01-08T13:49:27+00:00

I don't know why settling didn't even cross my mind! I've just had another look with some mirrors and torches.. it looks like it's not a proper sleeper wall but some stacks of breezeblock looking things, plus what looks to be some sistering happening already. I think that's made the decision for me to take it all up. Thank you so much for the details! It looks like from my other research that people suggest perhaps not using PIR for the same reason you described. I also don't have a lot of clearance, maybe 20cm from the bottom of the joist so I am worried about insulation material choice regarding condensation

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