Id have Raised planter boxes put in around the outside of our yard so my mother in-law doesn't have to spend hours on the ground with a bad back to do the gardening!..

Gosh what a funny turn around - this discussion started right after I had finished my last kitchen and now it is revived just as I'm going through all this madness again trying to replace a kitchen in my new home .............. when I can find someone interested in doing some work. Jennifer, I'm leaning to Bosch appliances if they meet my requirements. One of my joeys lives in Germany where Bosch and Siemens (made by the same company apparently) are made and are very highly esteemed. Because I have so much renovation work to do on this house, I'm watching my pennies a bit so I will probably stick with a Dishlex Dishwasher that has always served me well and these days they are extremely quiet too, but I am looking at Bosch for the oven and cooktops. In earlier posts I praised the Fisher and Paykel oven and cooktops, but then discovered a BIG flaw in the design of the oven - it had a double glass door with a gap between the two sheets of glass and guess where every crumb and spill went, so they will not be on my radar again. I'm also hearing good reports about Electrolux but very bad ones about Miele and their service which is really letting the brand down. For those getting on in years too - beware of push button settings and slide controls, arthritic fingers just cannot manage these. As well, I'm told the slide controls on cook tops are not as accurate as knobs.

I would leave the render colour and just tile a trim around the base in a pattern and over the arch of the brick. But I also recalled the pizza oven at a pizza place where I grew up. They make great pizza, but the oven is so cool! You could do something like this!

If you are considering using aluminium windows then ensure they are thermally-improved or thermally-broken frames, standard aluminium windows conduct a huge amount of heat into and out of your building, decreasing comfort and increasing running costs. Timber windows and thermally-broken aluminium windows are similar in terms of thermal performance. Well painted timber windows should be maintenance free for 10-15 years, yes they will require more effort over time than aluminium but it is not a weekly event. This is still a major factor for many people in making this choice. Accoya timber (have a Google) is relatively new but does appear to allow a painted finish to last even longer. Double glazing, yes it costs more but not twice as much. If you buy good quality frames why would you not also buy good quality glass (and vice versa). It can be relatively easy to replace the single glazing in your existing frames with double glazing although this depends on the frames themselves. These are probably the largest areas of glass in your home, if you use single glazing you will lose more than 50% of your heat through them (depending the level of insulation in the remainder of the building, possibly more) hence choosing the right glass is incredibly important. Building comfort is a product of many many factors, each decision contributes to the whole. Be mindful of 'death by a thousand cuts'. I hope this helps a little.