Front garden - paving, fencing, hens.

[Chasingsquirrels]

Just posting for ideas.
I've got space at the front of the house which currently has an area with hens, a path from the gravel drive and cottagey garden type planting either side.
At the moment you can only access round the back of the house through the hens.
I need new fencing around the hen area and along that side all the way.
My current concrete path is "okay" but because of the front door steps it is hard to get things round the side, wheely bins have to be lifted round the step.

I'm considering having the path taken up and a new one laid, the width widening, and maybe sloping it towards the house so the step isn't needed.

I'm also planning to enclose the hens so that the side of the house can be accessed without going through the hen area. This will cut down their space but still leave them approx 5m x 5m which I think is fine.

Plan of area as is and picture from upstairs window attached.

Options to follow...

All options bring trellis straight down from the garage, widenening the planting area.

Option 1
Approx 5m x 5m area for hens.
Path to stay where is it - although probably new paving and widened slightly.

Do I then
a) pave the whole area rather than have a path, or
b) have the path as shown and planting in the rectangle in the corner created by the house and the bit between the path and the fence.

Option 2

Bring the hen fencing down along the side of the path, giving them a bit more space. Then plant (or pave I suppose) the area created by the corner of the house.

This would be option 1b.

Plus what paving would you use?

I've got cream coloured textured concrete slabs down the side of the house and as a patio at the back. But this is 17 years old, has had the surface removed by numerous jet washes, has sunk a bit in the middle of the patio and despite having repointed it last year some of the pointing came up again with the last jet wash.
So I am very open to relaying / replacing the whole thing at the same time as getting the front sorted so any paving option would have to look good as both path and patio.

.

I’d go for 1b as that seems to give you more planting space. I’d get a decent path put in too. We are getting decent stone put in and a similar size amount of paving for £2k. I’m leaving deep borders for planting though.

Having drawn them out I'm tending more towards 1b too.

I have an ok amount of planting area in front of the house (this bit is more to the side) and will be doubling this side by moving the fence.

The back patio is about 5m x 6m plus 5m x 2.5m plus the area down the side of the house. So add in the front path plus that area if I pave it all is going to mean a lot of paving.

Quite fancy block paving for the front path, but not sure how that would look round the back.