Hi Claire I love your kitchen too! I realise this discussion was from a while back but we are considering Unistone and I'm wondering if there's any difference maintenance-wise between the different finishes? Which is yours and is the polished look just a matter of aesthetics or is it harder wearing or less than their other finishes? Also have you ever put a hot pan down on it? We are also having a hob in the island and I'm sure it's going to happen sometime! Am even considering whether to put stainless steel bars to the left and right of the hob to guard against this....

I've bought this 3 stories house in Larnaca- Cyprus. the problem is that I hate the main entrance... especially this mixed stone work on the entrance wall ..my aim to have more modern look style and some balanced design for the whole house front elevation ..any suggestions or ideas.?? thanks in advance.

If you're going to get the stone cleaned, I'd also have that modern cement based "hard" mortar taken out and replaced with a lovely lime mortar; that's how it would've been built; it's kinder to buildings and much more in keeping, but then the windows and extension aren't in keeping, so perhaps no need to be a purist... But those mortar straplines are very harsh. I'd stay with white windows or the sage green and contrast the door with either a dark blue if your windows are white or if sage, then the same colour. If not use Colourhappy's last photo suggestion all round. Nice and warm and mellow.

These hiccups are natural during renovations. Here how you deal with it:- Firstly don’t lose your nerve- you won’t make a cost saving by binning the builder as the next builder won’t like taking on a half done job and so they will be more expensive. Secondly you need to ask the electrician questions in a non confrontational way - a quote a year ago is irrelevant but you should ask how the quote has increased by 30% in 6 weeks since nothing else has increased that much in that time. It may be that you have added significant extra jobs to the list and are unaware of their impact. If there is a credible reason for the increase then you can be informed and might even consider accepting the revised cost. But personally I think you will be parting ways with the electrician due to extortion. Builder- it’s thorough to strip away cosmetic covering to examine the structure of the building. So although stripping the stone was unexpected it’s not a bad thing- indeed if you intend to upgrade this conservatory it’s important to understand what you have to work with. And although the cost of upgrading that structure is unexpected you have an opportunity to do it right now and if you don’t do it now you will never do so. My advice is spend on this conservatory, make it a quality room that is connected to the garden- then make it a more useable room by taking down the wall to the kitchen / dining room- unless you do this you are in danger of spending a lot on a room that is only 8’ wide and given it has a door at each end it’s little more than a corridor to the garden. Personally I think this square footage is more valuable than other spending so if it means that you have to have second hand wardrobes and cheaper bathroom tiles then so be-it.