Currently we have no doors on upstairs or skirting or architrave. Hubby ripped everything off at the beginning of December including the door frames with the intention of replacing it all over the Christmas break and was then ill. He managed to get 5 oak door frames in, so 2 still left to go. Then we have to fit the doors, skirt and arch. That work is ongoing in conjunction with replacing the roof on the garden room which deteriorated in the heatwave. We have the roof parts just haven’t had time to fit them. And let’s not forget the front lawn was removed 2 weeks ago, skip just collected, as that was another nightmare caused by the heatwave. It never grew back. Now we need matting and gravel. I suppose that’ll be one less job to do with no turf in the summer months.

When we had out new hard wood windows and French widows done, first we had a sales - man in this instance, come out to us and discuss what we wanted. We didn't need to have placed an order beforehand, that's what he came out for - to make a sale and take out order! Sending a salesman to discuss what you want is key to doing business! They can't hedge their bets on the off chance you may not buy anything, if you choose not to go ahead, that's just par for the course in the life of a salesperson and the sales cycle! When he came, we discussed everything we wanted to do (and anything he wasn't sure about on the technical side, he said he'd check and get back to us) took rough measurements and to all intents and purposes it was at that point we then placed the order, but we needn't have done so. After we paid an initial deposit, the measurer came out. He was more technical and provided the final sanity and possibility check for what we wanted and specc'd it all out. On the other hand, when we ordered our Panoramic doors (similar to bi-folds but different) they initial contact was by phone and internet - we gave them rough measurements of the size we'd be looking for and the colours and additions we wanted and they gave us a quote. They did however, have a mobile showroom that could have come to visit, with examples of finishes and options and will come and discuss your requirements. But as it turned out, we went to their show stand at the Homebuilding & renovation show instead to discuss it. We paid a refundable 10% deposit initially. Once we had the opening created, they sent a chap along to do precise measurements and to button down exactly what we wanted to have. We then paid 80% for them to make the doors and then the last 10% when they were fitted. So I just don't understand why they're not willing to come out. That's how most salespeople make their wages! If they can't be bothered to come out, don't use them, find a company who is willing to come out to discuss your requirements and perform a site survey. One thing though, I know some window and door companies, only fit to existing openings and won't do any re-modelling work, so you may have to find a builder if you want opening made bigger or moved and then the doors/windows can be fitted.

you could cut the concrete path from around the step and along the base of the house, that will allow you to lower the grass strip and the path, you can reface the step with tiles and re render any of the base of you outside dash that might be exposed from removing and replacing the concrete path. this would allow you to have small step down from you patio on the end and side without the sloping look from the grass as it stands. hope this makes sense or you could actually rebuild the step up, make it wider/deeper and reposition the path slightly allowing a bit of evenness on the width, this allows the patio to tie into new door step. id probably go with the second option thinking about as your step as it is looks very small., this larger step could also be tiled forgive the lines but just to show you heights you could try and tie in together it might be a case of a bit of both, heighten, widen and deepen the step and lower the grass slightly to achive this

Hi Jonathan - thanks! Unfortunately for height reasons I can't put a pergola up. Neighbours won't like it as our patio will already be 30cm above the lawn.  On the height of the surfaces, I wonder if I ought to just accept a higher worktop height. This will block the view of the garden a bit, but with a BBQ and maybe pizza oven in the kitchen area, the height will unavoidably be higher then the walls anyway. So a higher wall perhaps isn't a problem (and would look tidier when viewed from the garden anyway). Do you have any specific thoughts on the lighting options? Seems like an infinite set if options. I made the model in Sketchup with a plugin called vray. . Borrowed a friend's machine to do it.. I'm not sure I've got a great render from vray, but it was the default settings. Plenty of YouTube tutorials.if.interested, I'm no expert at all. Thanks