I would keep the chain link fence because it will keeep walkers and dogs out of your yard much better than any other kind of fence. You have a small lot, what if you planted a vine on the fence to hide it? It would not take up much of your limited yard and give you privacy and be an inexpensive solution at this time. Don't know what vines are good for your area. Nice looking little house. Are you going to keep the purple steps?

Great little house.

Anything you add by way of plant material will increase maintenance. But the improved appearance might be worth it. I would simply plant an evergreen hedge along the inside of the fence and keep it to whatever height you're comfortable with. I would definitely leave the fence in place, as it is a definite barrier (against egress by toddler as well as entry by others, litter blowing in, and so on). On the neighbour's side, you might use the same idea but use deciduous shrubs that will have a more open feel but will offer the most privacy in summer when you're more likely to be out there.

Making suggestions on patio placement is hard without seeing the whole yard and understanding how you're likely to move around it and store stuff, ie where is back gate, is there a garage, etc. as well as how you want to use a patio - for eating? Then you need to be able to bring food out easily or where is the barbeque going to be, and so on.

Hi there,

Thank you both for your comments.

Tibs - I was thinking of the vine idea too. I can come up with a few ideas to hide the fence, short and long term. But my DH really has a hate-on for chain link. :-) As to the steps, we plan to paint them, but haven't determined colours yet. The house is glass stucco, which reads a drab grayish colour from a distance. But close up, you can see all kinds of colours in the glass - cobalt blue, white, black, green, etc. I'm trying to come up with a colour scheme that will highlight more of the desirable colours in the glass, which for me is the blue/green tones. Once I figure that out, we'll repaint the window trim, stairs, railings, eaves, and drain pipes, etc. Any suggestions?

Karin -- I don't mind some yard maintenance, as I like gardening. But with a toddler, I don't want to get too ambitious right now.

I'm thinking the patio will run along the fence with the neighbour, which you can see on the left side of the first photo. You can also see our back door porch and garage in this photo. Right now, there are a just a few stepping stones leading from the back porch to the garage/back gate. You can just see them in the second photo on the bottom left.

How is the view from the front of the house? If that is your kitchen/dining on the left side of the house, consider putting a glass door in place of the front window, and build a deck that wraps around the corner of the house to the side where you are thinking of putting the patio? It would be a two-level deck and add a lot to your exterior 'living' space. I'm imagining the wood railings painted one of those greens you see in the glass stucco. (I love the purple steps and how they match the flowering shrub next to them.) Could be very functional and add some extra pizazz to the house.

I'm not fond of chain link either, I understand your husband's feelings. It comes down to how much money you want to spend. If it were me, I'd put the money in the living areas (patio and/or deck, kitchen) and worry about the fence later, using vines for cover for now.

Catkim - here is the dining room with the view out front.
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Just the one house with a big evergreen. Not a bad view, plus you can see the mountains in the winter. The dining room is the part of the house that juts out in front. The kitchen is to the left (in the first photo) with a rhodo covering part of the window. We have toyed with putting a deck out front or on the side. May need to give that some more thought.

I too am beginning to lean toward leaving the fence at least until next year and just putting in some runner beans or vines. There are so many things I want to do and I'm anxious to get started, but I know it's always valuable to see how things look over the seasons.

Where I live there is a lot of chainlink, and while I don't like it either, after all these years of watching it in action I have to admit it does its job well. If I were you I would leave the fence in place until you figure out why the previous owners chose to put it in. No one puts it in because they like it. But if you have a public walkway next to your house, you may be dealing with owners letting dogs into your yard to poop, with litter, with soccer balls rolling out into the ravine... whatever. You might well replace it with a panel fence if you took it out, but maybe the previous owners liked to see what was going on out there.

I too was really struck by how nicely the stairs match the hydrangea in bloom.

Thanks for your thoughts Karin.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a shrub or vine that I could plant out front to fill in the blank space roughly below the hexagon window? This is north facing.

And can anyone tell from that first photo what the shrub is under the middle window? There's a rhodo on the far left, but I can't figure out what the other one is, between it and the hydrangea.

TIA!

The first thing that stuck out to me when I saw your picture was the rather ugly shrubs out front. It looks like somebody planted them way too close to the house and then did not maintain a pruning schedule. If you cannot bring them back into a more natural shape with pruning I would think about removing them (not the hydrangea). I could easily see removing the shrub in the middle, enlarging the beds to 8 to 12' in depth and starting out with a backdrop of evergreen flowering shrubs that would max out (or could be maintained) at 5' tall. If you like the short stone wall in the backyard (I do) you could repeat this in the front bed.

- Brent