Oh Boy! This is where I come into my own. A few years ago my daughter was working in England and I was driving her small red hot pulsar to the shopping centre to buy coffee (six cans of 500gms). I saw toilet paper was on special so I bought 480 rolls. The only problem was there was not enough rom for the toilet paper and the two dogs, so I left the dogs at the shops and took the paper home and then went back for the dogs. When we had used all that toilet paper I kept my eyes open for when they were on special again and bought 600 rolls - no problem this time because I did not take the dogs. Next time it was 720 rolls and two trips to the shop to pick them up. It should have been 840 rolls the last time but a sudden burst of common-sense saw me buy only 480 and I am regretting it already because more than half of them have gone. So 960 here I come.

There are so many variables it is impossible to give an estimate. Depending on under-floor access for new plumbing, the amount of new cabinetwork, the demolition of the old internal laundry walls, the making good of the old laundry floor to match the kitchen, the amount and quality of the tiles in the new laundry, how many new powerpoints that need to be chased into your brickwork, and the availability of local tradesmen to work on a small project I can safely say that the cost will be in the five figures. Whether this cost is closer to $10,000, or $99,000 will depend on all of those unknown factors. You need to think a bit more about what you need, what you are prepared to spend money on, and contact a local builder for a more realistic understanding of the potential costs. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

I live with a beautiful sea view which I love, but which presents its own set of challenges. When we moved in the interior was painted grey but on an overcast day, all I see out the window is grey - grey sky, grey sea and when I turned around there were grey walls as well. It was quite oppressive. We’ve repainted a lovely soft white which isn’t too dazzling on a bright day, but definitely lifts the gloom on a dull day. I’ve added punches of bright colour here and there and now I love my space (and my view in all weathers)

one of the biggest problems seems to be lack of ongoing maintenance (regular check under floors, clean gutters etc to react before a problem causes too much damage) and having gardens too close to the buildings...on one property we dug around the whole house to lower the ground level and added surface drains to help shed water away from the building, we've always added extra vents and ensured vents aren't blocked from inside or out, another property we used a DIY injectable damp course and the biggest repair we ended up replacing the whole roof because of damp that was sourced back to leaks caused by the unsuitable roof shape of an old architect designed extension that looked great but couldn't cope with rain so, costs ranged from a few hundred and our own DIY labour to a whole new roof structure for several hundred thousand (including relocating walls etc etc) ..so really depends on the cause of the damp and how much work you can do yourself but, these boring, sometimes expensive, later unseen repairs made the most worthwhile improvements and added to our own comfort much more than fancy decorating but many of us don't seem so concerned about the cost of things that we see every day..