Whatever you do never plant a gum! They have no place in suburban areas! The sooner the council realises that these trees kill people the better! We have had two gum trees fall on the back of our house now, one in 2012 and one in 2014. We are so lucky that myself, my husband, three children, three dogs, five Guinea pigs, two parrots and one bearded dragon were not injured. It's just a miracle not once but twice! I still don't know how we escaped unharmed. The gums do not have a stable root system and they grow very shallow, they get to the point where they just fall over. And the scary thing is they fall silently. They are not called 'Widow Makers' in the bush for no reason. I like the Tuckeroo tree, not sure of scientific name. They grow with a straight trunk and keep their foliage in a straight and symmetrical line along the bottom and grow hiding their branches. Essentially they look like a large mushroom. They are green all year too. I think they get to about 6 metre or ten if they have to reach for the sun.

I agree that bench space in your pantry would be a better use of all that space. I'm not quite finished building this yet, but I have a narrow walk in pantry. I put a bench at the end and I will add some shallow shelving to the left on the wall. This bench will house my microwave underbench, and the coffee machine above bench. The draw is for microwave dishes, and the cupboard to the left will be for less used electrical appliances storage. It also has a fixed panel to allow for shelving that comes out from the wall and I still get to utilise that corner for storage. Eventually I will put overhead cupboards over this bench for coffee cups etc. It will be great to have somewhere close to pantry to put groceries down and it keeps my least used appliances still at a convenient place and out of sight. Closer to the door I have a recessed area for my narrow extra fridge/freezer. I have left my toaster on the main kitchen bench as we use it daily.

Having been raised in an era when TV was invented we ended up eating in front of it with dinner on lap. When I had my own family the rule was made that we ate at dining table no TV on, because that's how the Brady Bunch, My three sons, Little House on the Praire all did it. And we've done that ever since, in summer on patio and winter inside, but we all sit down together. I'm lucky out jobs and lives enable this to happen.

The worst part about my stainless steel fridge is that magnets don't stick on the front. I have to blu tac my kids art and other memories to the front of it. I think a few things on the fridge makes a house look like a home...