I'm a sucker for the neatness of the square.

Hi mluh You've obviously done your research on these products, so it's most likely going to come down to personal preference. As you've mentioned, a natural stone is going to come with an amount of maintenance but the beauty of Travertine is within its variation. Once sealed with a good quality sealer (I recommend Guard Industry), the maintenance is really quite low and most spills are lost within those natural variations. 99% of spills can be cleaned up without too much trouble. Porcelain, on the other hand, can be quite difficult to clean once it's been marked. That said, the external porcelains have a great non-slip texture and are very hardy when used as paving/tiles. I'm personally not a fan of using them as pool coping, but many people love it. Again, both have their advantages and disadvantages so I would recommend using the product that you're happy looking at for the next 10-20 years. - Jordan

If you look at your inspiration picture , the door there is a similar tone to your timber , the stone is similar , the charoal trim and windows are similar . The render is lighter than Self Destruct , and appears to have an 'effect' so it looks aged and rustic . So personally I'd go lighter , but also ask your contractor if they can do the subtle rustic effect , using two slightly different tones of render , and some water and brushes .

Today I’ve gone and bought road base, manual tamper and concrete mix bags so I can do this properly. My question here is, a lot of places mention haunching edges as a way to keep pavers in place. If I was haunching both sides of each paver, do I still need concrete mix underneath each paver (that connects to haunches sides so all connected as one?), is is it sufficient to have the compacted road based, some bedding sand to level pavers, and haunch edges all the way vertically on driveway ? (Obviously asking this given pavers will have 50mm spacing rather than all butted up against each other). Thanks again J