You have a few options here to make some big improvements. 1. You could remove the wall that has the doorway in it. You may need to relocate your stove and range hood or you could have a range hood that you can see "in the round". You would lose those upper cupboards though. or 2. You could remove the other wall to the side of the doorway. This would then mean that your kitchen would open up to the living area but you would lose some full height cupboard space along that side. I also noticed that your TV is located in that corner. Do you need it there or can you relocate it to free up that wall? or 3. Perhaps you could flip your kitchen so that the breakfast bar is near the dining table rather than at the other end. The stove and range hood could then go at the end where the current breakfast bar is as well as upper storage cupboards. Having the kitchen open onto the dining area could be very nice if that's what you are after. It depends on the rest of the living area, too, whether you would like to open it up totally as well. There is a lot to play with here and it can be a lot of fun. I wish you the best of luck with your renovations.

Are you talking about the wall that is currently white? I'd leave it. Once you have everything including yourselves in the room it won't feel boring. You can add art, as suggested, as you find it. Plain spaces are needed in rooms to allow your eyes to rest and for the other features to be, well, features.

We have the same challenge with those cream window frames. If you use window coverings (I will probably add warm white blinds and sheers) think about what they will look like from the outside as well. Stark white will look wrong with our style of home. I love plantation shutters, but again, can’t have them because they’d look terrible from outside.

We were considering a limestone retaining wall to support the slab but our builder recommends a brick build up because it is a little cheaper. Our previous house had a limestone retaining wall and we never a had an issue with it aside from very minor crumbling (it was over 60 years old and not too far from the coast). Are there any advantages or disadvantages of limestone compared to brick? We've read that brick readily draws up moisture does limestone do the same? Also, the brick build up would have a concrete footing but I'm not sure about the limestone retaining wall.