@Tribble - the situation is the same in Em Bee's part of the world as in ours. Aging demographic, lots of immigration and also internal migration, and of course offshore buying. But where I live, the issue isn't so much competition, as the inability of builders/developers to read the market. Our own builder (small builder, one project at a time, some of them industrial, not housing) told us that the two-story houses in our town were simply not selling that quickly, whereas the one-story houses were listed and gone. (He sold us our house before he tore down the old one, and sold the other house on the block about 3/4 of the way through the build and before it was ever listed. The two story house around the corner from us was on the market for 8 months). I'm not a huge fan of government intervention in housing (I saw public housing in the UK and that was not a good thing) but I do think strong regulation on foreign property buyers is appropriate. That said, I also think the builders need to get their heads together and recognize that there's a boomer population that has a bit of money and wants something different than the bog-standard two-storey box house. Time for the developers to catch up. Okay, sorry, second rant for the day.

Hi Siriuskey, They are timber looking tiles - we absolutely love them. We are considering the same for the new place but potentially herringbone/parquetry arrangement. Much more expensive vs. laminate but easier to clean and no concern in relation to water...

Can you extend the porch to 2.9m wide to fit a table. It does not need to be for the full 14m perhaps just 4m and not near a door. Also consider metal supports and tensioned wire which can look lovely and also is low maintenance. I'll try and find some photos of what I mean if you are interested in this concept.

Hi, since your kitchen is small and there's a lot going on I would go with a very light coloured back splash. A very light warm grey as suggested could work nicely here. It would also brighten up the area a little. I certainly wouldn't introduce yet another colour. Introducing something like a bright red will draw attention to the backsplash area, but the design of the kitchen doesn't lend itself for such a high impact visual focus. Keeping it calm and neutral will make the kitchen look more like a unit rather that bottom and top cabinets with a big red/black/maroon stripe through it. The company supplying the back painted glass should either have a range of available colours to choose from, but usually any standard RAL colour should be available at a minimum. They will most likely have the RAL standard colours fan available for reference as well. I'd go with the one of lightest warm grey shades that is in the standard range. Your worktop has warm tones in it, your wall is beige, going in with a cool grey will make each colour look "off". The last thing I'd recommend is black. I know it has been mentioned, but it is just too strong of a contrast and non of the other materials and colours would support such a stark, contemporary choice. If you are worried that the existing dark red paint will alter the colour of your new glass back splash, and that's a very valid argument btw, just paint it over with two coats of white prior to installing the new back splash. I'd do that a few days prior to installing the glass to make sure the paint is nice and dry. In terms of maintenance a glass back splash is probably the easiest to look after since its so easy to clean and there's no grout that can attract dirt over the years. Good luck with the renovation :)