House

I feel like everytime I talk to someone, the entire remodel changes.  Here's a brief history of the past 6 weeks.

1) Planned to do a large ground floor extension; replace the electrical; refurbish the kitchen; replace carpeting upstairs; strip wallpaper and replaster the house.

2) After we got a cost estimate, decided to do a small ground floor extension.

3) Decided not to do any ground floor extension in favor of a loft conversion in the future; decided to open the kitchen and install an island.

4) Decided not to install the island but change the kitchen door into a window and make an L-shaped kitchen, instead.

5) Decided to convert the dining room door into a patio door; realised this would leave two small gaps in the carpeting; decided to replace the downstairs carpeting as well.

6) Decided to replace the upstairs and side windows as well (mostly for energy efficiency).

7) "Found" the second kitchen window, requiring us to completely re-design the kitchen for the 6th time.  Decided to move boiler and washing machine upstairs.

8) Decided to refurbish the bathroom, partly to accommodate the washing machine, partly to get rid of the frogs, and mostly because the electrician pointed out the wire for the shower heater was run right through the shower line, and we could be killed at any time.

9) Decided to remove the chimney breasts upstairs before installing the flooring (they were already removed downstairs).

10) Decided to replace downstairs toilet, after realising it was pink.

11) Decided to insulate the loft, after discovering the previous owners did not (even though they said they had).

Of course, as with all of these changes, deciding to move the boiler means planning our energy requirements for the next ten years!  That's because, although the boiler is brand new, it is hooked up to an ancient storage tank which happens to be in a closet in one of the bedrooms.  In addition, the cold water is a gravity-fed system with a tank in the loft*.  So not only do we have to figure out where the new boiler will go, but whether or not we need a storage tank, and whether we want to get rid of the cistern now or later.  In addition, we need to find out if we need a pressurized system to get get sufficient pressure in the loft, and I want to be sure it is energy efficient, which means possibly installing an air source heat pump, or possibly even solar water heaters.

Whatever we end up doing, the one thing I don't want to do is spend money doing it one way now and another way two years from now!

* Wikipedia has this to say on water supply: "The UK domestic water system has traditionally (prior to 1989) employed a "cistern feed" system, where the incoming supply is connected to the kitchen sink and also a header/storage tank in the attic. Water can dribble into this tank through a 1/2" lead pipe and then supply the house on 22 or 28 mm [about 1"] pipes. Gravity water has a small pressure (say 1/4 bar in the bathroom) but needs wide pipes yp allow higher flows. This is fine for baths and toilets but is frequently inadequate for showers. People install shower booster pumps to increase the pressure. For this reason urban houses are increasingly using mains pressure boilers (combies) which take a long time to fill a bath but suit the high back pressure of a shower."