Shahina Difference between polished and honed refers to the surface finish only. Polished, of course, will have "polished" or high gloss surface. Honed is not polished, or matte finish, for a softer look and feel. Honed is not as formal looking as polished and not as slick. But veining is the same no matter what finish you select and is inherit in the stone itself. Hope that helped...

There is a blue moleanos limestone as well which is more silver grey and may be a better match although from memory it still has patches of beige in it. Might be worth getting a sample. I don't have experience of real marble floors but they sound like a nightmare to keep clean in a kitchen. Have you seen porcelain tiles made to look like marble-they are actually really nice. Have a look at casa dolce casa stones & more range for examples. I have their smooth lipica tile-not marble but it matches with purbeck stone and moles breath in terms of colour.

Ah. I see you've met the twin of the previous owner of my place, the king of plastic paints! For the interior paints, I'm looking at using Barrettine's Peelaway. For anything more complex, like your cement render, I tend to look at the SPAB's technical guides. You have my sincerest sympathies, though, as our 1960s box of a flat in London is cement render over thermobrick throughout -- hideous beyond belief. https://www.spab.org.uk/advice/technical-qas/technical-qa-1-dealing-with-inappropriate-cement-renders/

I love natural stone walls so I would leave it as it is. Natural stone walls are always finishing with larger top stones. Yorkshire is full of them! As already said, imagine how filthy the wall would get if it was rendered. I think the abundance of planting definitely needs thinning out. It must make the house very dark. I’m not saying chop it all down, just thin out the number of shrubs/trees. Here are a couple of examples of stone walls in thr country with larger top stones.