Limestone is very soft in its make up so its fragile and prone to snapping or crumbling when being handled or cut. 10-12mm is fine for walls but under foot i would personally go for a more stable thickness. but if you have a competent flooring installer he should be able to bed a thinner tile without to much hassle. Q: is the whole flooring area on a concrete sub base with uncoupling mat? as that would be best and stable, or are areas over timber? as you may / could still have a little movement which may cause a tile to crack.

Thanks guys. The main prep area is the island. I’m currently rejigging it to have a larger bin on the island. Re the island depth, the granite is 2500x1350 and there’s 600mm oak wrap over the end. We could make the base cupboards the people end shallower. I can’t swing the island the other way due to the doors through to the bifold doors and a pesky pillar. The baking cupboard could have a slide out shelf for the mixer, but the pull up mechanism would give me the island space to weigh out ingredients etc. The other option I’ve been playing around with is the hob on the back wall with a 500mm base unit each side, then the fridge & freezer one side and both ovens in one tall unit & a breakfast cupboard next to that. Then I’ve added a 500mm tall unit either side of the dresser, one for baking & one for snacks and shrank the middle section by putting in a 300 wine fridge instead of the 600. This leaves the island as purely prep space with a 600mm unit of bins and a prep sink. I’m not sure whether this would be less social than the hob on the island though?

@ rinq, I like the second plan it works well and 'flows' I have to disagree with the combined utility/pantry idea as there is a direct conflict between teh two uses - clothes airing and tumble drier humidity with food storage is, in my opinion, just wrong. The idea of the pantry is to provide a cool, utilitarian space (adjustable shelving etc) for all your food and 'kitchen' storage. The idea of a utility room is to provide a room that you can put all of the things from teh house that don't have an official home and so that when your mother in law comes over you can hide all your s@£& and close the door on it!! @Rinq - scheme 2 would allow for that (with 2 flush doors (painted out to be invisible with the wall!!) ) in a slick and stylish manner. I personally feel that having a internal WC accessed from the lounge is not great - add 1 m to the front lounge, take 1 m from the rear lounge, put the wc under the stairs accessed from the hall - job done. also forget the fireplace in the rear room - its not the centre of the room and its restricting your thoughts. @meeliebell - Off the wall thought - why not put the kitchen where the lounge area is in the centre - this affords you the whole of the rear space as lounge/dining etc.. G

Ooohh, that is very interesting. Thank you so much for that input, I think it would Be possible to put a side door in but it’s a fairly narrow alley between us and the neighbour so would need investigation. Re the garage space and living room- I like the idea but my big concern would be how light the front living room would Be as the left half of it would have no windows, so the current front window to the right of the front door is having to light that whole room, but the separation of the current stairs outside of either room is very interesting for sure. The only place we can really add more natural light to the large space that would be created by the garage would be where you have put the utility/store, which is why I’m having a hard Time figuring out what to do with it. Once again- really appreciate you sharing ideas with me, my first time doing anything like this and outside of “I really love open plan kitchen with open spaces to connect the garden” I have zero idea what I’m doing.