Starting growing my own veg when we landscaped our garden and added raised beds a few years ago. Also have a tiny lean-to greenhouse which is good for starting things off but it's a bit too easy to forget about things I've put in there! We have a crab apple tree which I've used to make crab apple chutney and jelly. I've grown potatoes, peas, courgettes, carrots, onions, raspberries, strawberries, spinach & salad leaves fairly successfully. Tomatoes & squash didn't go so well! I most enjoy growing things I can pick direct from the garden and eat/cook straight away. The peas and salad also look quite nice in the garden. Our raised beds were filled with soil that was dug up from elsewhere in the garden (including lots of stones which seem impossible to remove and I'm now just considering as drainage...) & I dig in compost each year. I rotate the crops I can but I'm not sure if it really makes any difference. Slugs and snails are a problem! They don't seem to like red lettuce though so I have plenty of that!

Thank you for your comments. @Jonathan your plans are quite close in layout to our grand design which involved a 5m extension across the back of the house with a pitched roof on either side of a middle entrance to the utility / dog room. QS was saying £300k plus optionals (like the kitchen apparently!). Do you think we could achieve something like your plan for £100k? @Emily Lukes that is a really interesting idea and has encouraged us to think more openly about the whole space. I should have said that the store/office are in the garage. My husband works from home all the time and I do sometimes (even without Covid-19) so we have to have some study space. Lots of food for thought. Thank you.

When I had my kitchen changed, I ordered the units myself, as well as the worktop, sink, taps and appliances. Things like plasterboard, cement, etc the builder bought it. My builder was my brother, and he called in the trades such as electrician, tiler, plasterer etc. He is a brilliant builder and is a “one man band” with a labourer who works for him. He has all the contacts for the other tradespeople (sub contractors) and he calls them in when required, so although they are self employed, they work as a team as required. I paid each tradesperson direct. It really works well but occasionally someone doesn’t pull his weight and they are replaced. I don’t think you will find contractors who employ their own tradespeople unless it’s a very big company? Even big house building companies tend to use subcontractors for certain jobs. This is just my experience but then I know I am very lucky to have a builder brother. It will be interesting to see what other Houzzers suggest. I’m sure you’ll get lots of advice on here!

Way too many. We have similar size room and have only 8 recessed lights - 5 on the long galley to light worktop and into tall units (with additional undercabinet lighting for the worktop around hob) and 3 above 3.2x1.2 island (instead of pendants). In previous kitchen we had a long hanging striplight above island and that worked really well but chose just the recessed spots here and it works great. I personally don't like pendants above island and dining table, it's too much for my liking. We also have wall lights around corner windowseat and a picture light above a nice piece of art so there is background lighting for evening. And also have a lamp on worktop as well as a couple of rechargable lamps for additional evening glow on the island when required (which is never at the moment as it's so light so late). If you are keeping the pendants above island dining table, then be careful about what fixtures you choose. Are they for general lighting or is it going to focus the light downwards onto the surface? If it's more of a decorative light giving out gentle light in all directions then you probably do want a couple of mini recess spots which point directly onto the surface to provide task lighting. All on a dimmer so you can vary it.