. Its just way too much timber! So the floor should stay, because its harder to change. Start by definitely at least pull out the part of the kitchen with the weird enclosed fridge space. that really cramps the room. Then pull of and replace the cabinet doors and the laminate bench top. pick some amazing tiles and have your husband work his magic! Paint the walls a nice colour to really make the space look more vibrant. Get rid of those horrible blinds completely! We are doing out kitchen up and we don't have much money or skills or access to tradespersons anyway. So we are keeping it to a minimum. Do it little by little. We started with a new stove with really changed the feel of the room. We plan to just paint the cabinets.

Yarnos I agree with Natasha. Your existing architect will have (well, should have after working on your existing design) an intimate understanding of your site, soil conditions and implications of levels on your design. He/She are in the best position (given his/her understanding of your brief and constraints) to illustrate to you how a design solution such as this can work. No one on this forum is currently in a better position than your architect to explain this to you and outline the affordability of it as an option, based on your site, your brief and your budget. You can visualise this concept by letting your architect demonstrate it for you. If they are not demonstrating it, then you have the wrong architect I'm afraid. And if you are not empowering them to use their expertise and provide design solutions for you, then you either need to get another architect, or be a better client. Architects and designers - the good ones - are creative problem solvers. They are design detectives in the art of living well. They spend their entire professional and personal lives and time studying how people live, and how to create environments (and homes) for them to support them living better - more functionally, flexibly, beautifully. The talent of a good architect/designer is invaluable in elevating your lifestyle ... of taking the 30 year mortgage you're about to wage on this bet of building a home, of taking this massive investment, and turning it into a physical building that is your heaven and haven, your place of sanctuary and inspiration. They expand your vision, interpreting both what you say, and what you don't, into a result that is beyond your imagining. That's why you hire them - because you can't do what they can, and you need them to bring your dreams into life in a way that's better than you could have ever anticipated or created yourself. As a client, you have a responsibility to brief them well, trust them to do their job, be open to their ideas, and be guided by their expertise. The not so good architects and designers are simply drawers and documenters. They 'convert' your brief, your expressed wishes and shopping list into a floor plan that fits, and can be built, but that's simply it. It's a house, not a home. It functionally will do the job, but it never reaches its full potential. And so your life in it never reaches its full potential. You unwittingly compromise, never truly aware of how different, how much better, things could have been. The catch is, you've made a massive investment, and created something that will outlast you and become someone else's home too. So the impact is generational. Your responsibility as a client to these architects and designers is to understand the difference, and ideally not work with them - not unless you can show design leadership yourself. Work out which one your architect is and make a decision. Trust them to do the job properly for you (and give them the ability to do it), or walk away and find someone else. Regards Amelia Lee Undercover Architect www.undercoverarchitect.com amelia@undercoverarchitect.com

I am not sure about the idea that your kitchen needs to look like it is in a display home at all times with nothing to indicate that you use it regularly. I love cooking and still manage to put used dishes straight into the dishwasher and keep the benches relatively clear. Any open plan kitchen layout will have the same issue ie you will still see dishes on the sink no matter where you place it in the kitchen. Stay focussed on the function, walking from one side of the kitchen between the sink and cooktop is not efficient nor safe. Next time you are preparing a meal imagine you are doing it in your new kitchen layout as this will test whether it functions properly for you. Definitely keep your larder/pantry you won't regret it. More than 3-4 stools at the island can be over rated, most people prefer to sit around a table as a family rather than line up at the bench looking at the sink and stove. It sounds like you have always been on the right track, just try not to over think it.

Hi Nick The vinyl is a no go unfortunately as it needs a nice flat surface. Otherwise you will soon see the underlying pattern through. You have a couple of options though with the slate as others have suggested. Firstly I would check out the adhesion of the slate to the floor ie check if there are any loose pieces. Tap on the floor lightly with your knuckles over the whole floor or VERY lightly with a hammer or other metal object. You will soon hear hollow areas. If there is a lot hollow, I would break out the jack hammer and pop it all off. It's a bit of a job, but you can strip a large area in a day easily then grab a floor grinder to remove the adhesive. Again another day and messy but then you have a fresh start, or you can get a floor stripping company in to do it with little fuss. Options then become standard ie vinyl, other tiles or epoxy coatings. If you want to go over the existing floor, you can have a flooring specialist out that does self leveling epoxys or flowcrete to either create a marble style or polished concrete finish, a clear mirror level finish in which the slate looks like a pattern within the mirror floor or create a level surface from which you can then add your vinyl etc. Cathy are thinking of Laminam? It comes in a 3m x 1m sheet which I have seen used on floors but you can also get the 1m x 1m for floors and it is 3mm thick plus the backing. Cheers