What about 2 outdoor love seats facing each other, small round table in the middle, and a suspended swinging bench from the edge rafter of the patio? Most of the larger swinging benches can seat up to 4. That way, if you have fewer guests and don't need the swinging bench, you can pull it off and maybe swap in some chairs from inside your home and put the bench in your garage to open the space a little more...and if you have kids there, they'll love the swinging bench, as will adults. It's a win-win!

Small deck, no view, except of the fence and the neighbour's garage. We have had a few BBQs there, and hope to get into a pattern of having breakfast and lunch there in better weather. I've got some herbs planted (but not really enough sunlight) and am working on other plants. Dog loves it: he sprawls on his bed or rolls on the 1.5 m of grass, and is content. Birds also love it: they come in at regular intervals to eat the dog's food. Me, I'm just deciding how to best enjoy the fairly new house, and I think the deck will be a big part of it as we go along.

The plan looks a nightmare - bedrooms facing the street, a tiny internal bathroom with no window to the outside (is that legal?) and a "lounge" that looks like it was meant to be a third bedroom. If the internal walls are stud and don't support the roof you're in with a chance, but I'd say to do a proper job the cheap option is NOT going to work. I'd put two bedrooms where the current family room and lounge are and extend the bathroom into the boot room to give window access, or scrap the current bathroom altogether and use some of the space in what is now the kitchen for a new one. Keeping the WC separate is a good move. If you make the street side the social side of the house you can open it right out and create a big front porch that's a social spill-over from the kitchen/dining area, creating indoor-outdoor flow. Planting (two or three shade trees and some stands of tall perennials rather than a "green fence" hedge) keeps your front garden private yet inviting and stops your front porch becoming a stage set for the street. Good luck! I think you'll turn this very ordinary house into a much nicer place to live!

I believe it is possible to extract the cooking smells, steam etc downwards, so you wouldn't see the fan. You would need to make some enquiries about those. If you have an extraction fan that isn't vented to outside the air is filtered and returned to the room which is almost the same as not having one. You just have to realise that the ceiling will need repainting sooner than otherwise and the ceiling fan and tops of cupboards need degreasing more often. Is one of those extraction fans that come up out of the bench a too expensive option?