I think if you have enough space for a double bowl sink - one to wash in and one to drain in - that can be covered by a chopping board - that may be a compromise that will keep draining dishes in their place and the ability to cover up with a chopping board if unexpected guests arrive or if you need the extra workspace ... We have different guidelines in UK for cookers in Islands to those in USA and so in most cases that's ok too - although they do need to be sensible - think about fat splashes etc - if you are using the island as bar seating too ! Speak to a professional kitchen planner in your locality for the best advice to suit your location !

if things are impractical, they are bound to give rise to all kinds of unimaginable problems. practicality outweighs everything

The two sides of patio face ses and wsw and are not shaded. I’m planning on having the coarse cut bricks rendered when weather is warm enough which will hopefully finish off the modernising. As you can see there is an integral sort of verandah under the main roof which we have used lots for outside sofa and dining table. But, whilst the sett patio is very useful and really holds the heat, tbh I think they’re a bit ugly. Does anyone have any suggestions? What made me think of white concrete is I’ve really liked the snow covering the patio, but I’m open to other suggestions.

I have solid surface worktops. Mine are Mirostone Taj Mahal. i work with kitchens. I have read the reviews that I think you could be referring to and agree with them. If you Google the colour of my worktops they are similar to a Calacatta Marble. I have had mine installed for around 4 months and I am very careful when placing items on them and also cleaning them. Yesterday we had to resort to fabricating them again so out came the sander and the dust extraction machine. We firstly attempted the peninsular top. This was done 3 times to achieve the finish I wanted and we ended up doing a wet and dry sand which shouldn’t be necessary. Then we tackled the island, sink area and the other corner. I had a long discussion with my supplier over these worktops and have told them that I consider them to be sub standard because they are China imports and not up to the usual pre Covid standard. I have a customer who had a very dark colour. She complained about them, I passed her complaint on to the same supplier I had mine from and only last week got a full refund for them. It took 8 weeks of arguing to get the money back. Even the batches were not the same colour code and this was apparent with the island. We never take the film off until fabrication is complete so were unable to see this. Mirostone is to the best of my knowledge the same or very similar to Minerva in its make up. Avoid it. I’m lucky that we can refabricate ours, not that I want to be constantly doing that, but we can to bring it back to life. We have fitted several Pietra solid worktops and have had no problems whatsoever with them, so take a look at those. They are very slightly thicker 25mm from recollection. They have proved to be very hard wearing. Charlie is right with the cleaning side of thngs. So many people use chemicals but you shouldn’t. Stick to soapy water only. Look at Pietra It’s good stuff. Here’s my worktops. Love them but am annoyed at the fabrication side of things. It’s all due to the recipe of what’s in the tops.