My kitchen is a mix of block and normal house brick with soft lime mortar joints. I'd prefer all walls to be solid rendered rather than dot dat especially on wall unit side. As i'm no expert but have reasonably adequate plastering skill (with sand/cement only) i was going to go for the battens on wall scenario,render between and level up with straight edge. Is it just personal choice whether to use sand/cement/lime 4:1:1 + sbr which i've used before, or is 'hardwall' more preferable (or more difficult)?... When it comes to the window reveals are the galvanised beadings the very same ones as used externally?