Thanks JPK Designs! We will most certainly be having some form of raised patio area and the picture you have supplied looks great! We would probably position the kitchen doorway somewhere else or remove it all together (regs permitting) Friend and family are 50-50 on the internal steps issue so any extra info that can help us decide before this week is really useful. Pros: higher ceiling in extension, zoned purpose to the old dining room, allows for differing floor treatments. Cons: potential trip hazard, may get annoying if we have children, less flexibility to layout furniture differently.

Hi Keswing, I had exactly the same problem with my hubby!!! Haha! The great thing with concept planners is they will pass their trade discounts onto you! We actually used Gina from Create Perfect on here (but she does exactly the same as OnePlan) who I would highly recommend and the fab thing was that even after her fees it saved us money because she passed on all the trade discounts! I highly recommend getting in touch with OnePlan and Create Perfect and getting quotes from both of them. If you ask them both to send you the list of companies they get trade discount with then you can show that to your hubby and knowing you're in the market for some serious spending on a kitchen and presumably a bit of new furniture then you'll be able to show it's cost neutral! :) We saved over £1,500 in our kitchen alone through Create Perfect getting us discounts with our chosen suppliers (probably worth noting that it doesn't limit your choices as the kitchen company we chose from her concept plan she'd never dealt with before but she set up a trade account just for us, the same for our underfloor heating and actual floor) Hope it helps and good luck!

@Jon Burchfield thanks, that looks really nice! Slight issue is that we have a pitched roof on the new side infilled area. Unfortunately planning constraints mean that the height at the wall will be 2.6m falling to just 2m. I know the velux windows are recessed into the roof but if we have tall units on that side it might block out the light, how high are the units? Having a 450mm unit in that corner would be practical but I think it would look a little odd if we had 600mm units next to it. Perhaps 450mm either end with 3 600mm in the middle would look ok? @Mark Bassage @kwg kwg Thanks. Take on board the hob suggestion from everyone. Seems sensible to have it on the other side. The oven/microwave is a tricky one, if we go with the peninsula design unless we have them under the counter then the only space would be just on the left as you enter. That's practical, but we're slightly concerned this ruins the nice open feel you would get to the left as you enter. @i-architect that is something i'd considered, first impression from the company is that it would be possible but i'm not sure why. I'll check with the builders. It would make access to the under stair cupboard a little trickier but might be more practical to make the most of the kitchen space

Thank you all for your comments and feedback - From the feedback seems that the benefits of having a flush transition to the exterior space outweighs the disadvantage of the big drop at the end. In terms of the steps, as the garden is small and not very deep wide steps from the end of the patio would take up too much space so I was thinking of using recessed steps (see image) - it reduces the usable patio space but keeps the garden area.