Yes anon2005 I’ve just painted my new under the stairs cupboard in Dix blue and everyone who comes in the house says how much they like it. I’m really pleased with it. I’m toying with painting the whole hallway with it. I find Farrow and Ball colours work well in our UK bluish light, whereas some brighter colours can look a bit garish sometimes. I’ve even cheated when I couldn’t wait for it to come into stock and got it colour mixed at Dulux.

I recently had an old deck removed in my back garden and replaced it with paving. The area was quite small , 11 square metres. It took 8 days in total to complete and the cost was £2520. Materials were £920 and Labour was £1600 for one builder and one labourer.

It’s a leylandi hedge that is at the end of its life. The plants only grow at the tips and the inside is old dead wood. It is becoming wider as it appears to already have had a crown reduction so the side tips are currently the active area of growth. You have tried to reduce the width by cutting the sides hard back but the dead Underwood is now visible. This area will not regrow. The hedge does give you a good screening from the other properties around and it will be a big change removing it. However the hedge is not going to improve by further pruning so removing it will inevitably have to be done. You need to decide how much screening you wish to have when it’s gone. A fence would provide some and with layered planting in your front garden you could create a far more attractive screen. Go for it!

I think that look you are after is lovely. If it were me I would tweak the plan a little as there are a couple of things that I think won’t work as you have planned them. Firstly I think it’s a mistake to get rid of planting in front of the bay window as this hides some ugly pipework. Your plan doesn’t seem to include bins and perhaps thinking about where to put these and ways to hide them could pay dividend. You may want to consider the height of the side fence versus what you are considering for the front to make sure they don’t look mismatched. You might also want to consider a pillar to hold the gate hinge. Your inspiration pic shows railings but the plan mentioned fence- I think you should make sure the gate matches whatever you choose- personally I think railings looks better and you can buy standard sizes for not much more than timber fence. I think the border you need for hedging needs to be be deeper. A mature hedge will grow to 60/70 cm thick. Therefore if you want to stand on the pavement and have enough room to get hedge trimmers between your fence or future railings and the hedge you need to plant at least 30cm away from the wall. So the border needs to be 60/70cm so the roots get properly watered and so fallen leaves have somewhere to go and you are not forever clearing your front garden. It’s worth considering if road noise is intrusive in which case a double thickness hedge (planted zig zag) will help muffle the sound. Don’t forget you can have an instant hedge by buying big and there are companies that specialise in this:- https://www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/acatalog/yew-hedge.html You might also consider if there is a type of hedge that sits better in your area- some councils have guidance on this especially if you live in a conservation area. So if you have a front hedge and border in front of the bay this means the gap between the two will be path width and for this reason you may want to apply the same finish as the path to the gate. The front step by the porch will be difficult to replace without ruining your beautiful tiled porch floor. Personally I think it looks in great shape and doesn’t need replacing. If you can afford to replace the steps then I think this will mean you will have to replace the handrail because it is set into the concrete. If you do have steps with a bull nose edge consider if you can achieve the white riser with something more resilient than paint for instance porcelain or an acrylic sheet. And good luck