Full bathroom refurb, Victorian terrace

An eight-day strip-out and refit on a Victorian end-terrace in Matlock. The brief was traditional but practical: keep the period feel, lose the avocado suite. Freestanding bath as the centrepiece, walk-in shower in what used to be a redundant chimney recess, basin on a marble-effect vanity, and a proper push-button concealed cistern.

Day one was strip-out. Carcass off, suite out, tiles down, lath-and-plaster off the wall behind the new shower. Day two was the honest bit: nothing in this room was square. Floor sloped 30mm front to back, ceiling sloped the opposite way, walls didn't agree with each other on what vertical meant.

Rather than fight it, we battened out for a true face on every tiled wall. Self-levelling compound on the floor. New ceiling joists scribed in. Three days lost to making the room ready — but it meant the grout lines actually run straight when the tiling went on.

Plumbing-wise, waste runs were replanned to fit the period layout (no boxing in over the old chimney breast), the radiator was swapped for a Bisque vertical towel rail, and the shower has a thermostatic valve so neither tap is going to scald anyone when the kitchen tap runs upstairs. Tiled, grouted, sealed, signed off.