I think I would ask why exactly you want a lot of landscaping (at least the amount suggested by the terracing idea). The house is actually nicely framed and grounded by the surrounding treescape, and the lawn is nice. If you really want to do something you could get away with a couple of nice shrubs in the lawn or a little grouping of conifers out front somewhere. If you want riot of colour or a formal set of boxwood hedges, those would be personal preferences rather than real needs indicated by the site, at least in my opinion. Maybe if you tell us more what look you're after, people would be more able to make suggestions.

Hey Mike, Ouch! Did you really need to be so harsh on me, guy? It's somewhat of a relief you weren't here from the beginning. I asked for the constructive criticism before & during the job. It's not really all that 'constructive' when you focus on telling someone all the things he or she did not do, pointing out all the things done wrong and throw out a bunch of subjective, opinionated insults in my opinion, but never offer any ideas or solutions. I hope you don't waste any of your time in this forum insulting people and calling it constructive. If your intention is really to be helpful and not hurtful, focus more on the ideas & suggestions to correct the errors and omit the meaningless comments such as 'The design is too timid' or 'A professional would show some clout' and instead share some ideas or make suggestions as the other professionals here have done. It would serve you well to read some of their posts so that you can gain a better understanding of how to be constructive with your criticism. I was a teacher for a little over 12 years before I burned out & went back to school to study horticulture. I've always really loved gardening & filling empty spaces with lots of plants, but after this job, I realized, at the age of 40, it wasn't something I could do for the next 20 years or more. (notice how I figured that out all on my own) (>‿◠)✌ So I actually pursued another dream I had for quite some time and started my own dog walking & pet sitting business. I didn't just put an ad out there on craigslist and call myself a small business owner either. I have a registered business in SF, pay my taxes & carry insurance. I celebrate 1 year in business this January! Anyway, I just wanted to share that because if I still was working as a gardener, I would have woken up this morning, read your comment, & felt like a complete failure on my birthday! Here is a link that might be useful: Golden Gate Dog Walking

I have been working on that front yard area this weekend and its already looking better. I just can't believe how much more room I have there to plant now than the workable space I had before. Cindy, it doesn't need any sort of special drainage, any extra water just draines thru the bottom because its just the walls with soil in there. LLoyd- No lily beetles here fortunately. I hope they never get here as I have so many lilies all over the yard.

If you are thinking of fruit trees, I'd think about American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana)...one of the few native fruit trees, and one of the few tough fruit trees. Put some males near the road and females elsewhere. I like American Holly (ilex opaca) for areas you want an evergreen for screening.