I did riven slate in the kitchen because I love it to death, but vinyl is the very best stuff for bathrooms and it's so easy to replace.

They are wise in the ways of tile!

The last one I put down had 4" of rockwool and electric underfloor heating, because without that you're just installing a giant cold radiator.

I agree, anything but tile unless you have no other option.

Always looks crap, never settles well, transitions look silly. Worse, you're just leaving double trouble for the next person down the line. Do the job properly (I just spent a month removing a double tiled floor).

I bought a house built by the person who built the terrace of houses of which it's part, he built this place for himself. One look at the roof (no lead in the rain channels, joists too thin) and I knew he'd cut every corner imaginable. However, it's huge, south facing at the rear, with a triple sized garage outbuilding which is also south facing, and I'm handy.

Paid for the full flight survey, got a whopping discount on the condition of the building. BUT year round solar from sunrise to sunset on two roofs means tiny electricity bills, and I got a large workshop to play in.

Man, do I curse the work of the bloke who built it on the daily. I think he built it from the spare parts he had left from the other houses, nothing about it makes sense. Bizarre drainage, floors in thermal contact with the outer skin of the building, garden walls build on six inches of micro gravel, brick interior in the chimney, the roof looks like it was built from plans made by a child.

However, if you like DIY, want free electricity, lots of space, and a big workshop you couldn't otherwise afford, then removing the artex from every inch of every wall in the house was worth the effort.

All that said, don't half arse it.

In my experience, you can spend a lot of time and money cleaning the grout around tile you're already not happy with, and still not be happy at the end of the process.

Nothing solves the problem better than an SDS Hammer Drill with chisel attachments followed by a tiling professional.

Not particularly well, it's like a particularly sharp/sour body odour. Not the kind you get from extended sweating or not washing, but the moment you do smell it, you're fully alert. I assume there is purpose in that.

In Edinburgh, I'd put it down to the sheer number of people. As I looked back on the hole in the crowd where the railings had collapsed once I was away, you could see steam pouring from it as if it was on fire.

The moment I got off the train at Waterloo and it hit me and I knew for certain something was very wrong.

I was in a very dangerous crowd crush many years ago. You saw it in people's faces first, then you could smell the fear. It's the sound of wrist's breaking that stays with you (don't hang on to people's hands).

I suspect they'll find a pheromonal component eventually, because the only time I've experienced the same smell since was at Waterloo Station on the morning of the 7/7 bombings. We all knew something was wrong, but at that moment no one knew it was a terror attack, but fear was in the air.

Unrelated, but the life lesson from the crowd crush was this. You can save you and one other person, that's it. Once I'd got the friend I was with off the floor and out of the crush, and turned around to help more people, we both just got sucked back in. Pick your person and get out.

And snacs, need snacs!

The photo of her ringing the doorbell is priceless