Highalttransplant, West facing beds can be a problem, but less so in zone 4 or 5 than down South. Remember that a west facing bed will actually have north and south ends. If it is an island bed (not along the side of your home) it will also have an east side. You will have less sun at the north end than the south end of your garden and only morning sun on the east side. You can also plant part shade plants on the north side of any taller shrub or perennial to give them some shade. As your garden gets full (mine's crammed!) nothing is in full sun anymore - every plant competes with its neighbor for sunlight, just as it does for root space, water and nutrients. As you continue gardening you will find that there are lots of places to tuck in part shade & shade plants, although that may not seem possible when your garden is so new and open. You will also learn to create/find/adapt to little microclimates on your property. Half the fun is experimenting - if you want the heucheras, my advice is try em - you can always move them around until you find the perfect spot, maybe on the north side of a tall grass. Vines can provide a lot of shade too. You'll come up with something that works. My Peach Flambes are in my south facing backyard garden but on the north side edge of a long island bed. There are in a curving line in front of a small Mugo pine, Strawberry Candy daylily, a small Blue Spruce, and then 2 Crimson Pygmy Barberries as you move to the west. You can just barely see some of them getting some early afternoon shade from the little tree and the denser shrubs as the sun moves east to west across the sky. P.S. Marietta Gardens is a reliable daylily source with plenty of inexpensive daylilies and lots of Siloams. Click on General Price List with Pictures. Here is a link that might be useful: Marietta Gardens

Oh trust me, it bugs me, but if the alternative is having this idiot rip out the tub and try to install a new one, forget it. I just want him and his merry band of morons out of my house. The original gouge was less than 1/2 an inch long, so if he had just filled it in, I probably wouldn't have noticed that the filler color was slightly off. I have NO idea why he decided to leave a huge patch of stuff on the completely undamaged surrounding areas, and basically what I would like to accomplish with sanding is to remove the unnecessary area of the patch and just leave it in the actual gouge. I'm a little concerned that they may have gouged the tub further to try to repair it, thus resulting in a larger patch - but there's no way to find that out other than removing some of the patch. Anyway, I guess I will just see what the contractor thinks he can do to make it look better and if that's not satisfactory, I'll find myself an expert.

Removing the popcorn always looks better, IMO. Popcorn or no, I'd strike that zigzag midline evenly, consistently all the way around the room. Do the green on the bottom half. Do the yellow on upper walls AND ceiling to bring some cohesiveness to the architecture, dilute the choppiness of the different sized walls. Keep in mind you'll be repainting eventually so you'll want to keep the edges of the zigzag and anywhere colors meet as flat and as non-globby as possible. Otherwise, you'll have one heck of a prep, sanding project on your hands next time you paint that room.

I've been following this thread with interest but hesitated to recommend anything, and I think pinkmountain hit the nail on the head - everything I've thought of, I've discounted because I don't know if it would look good in this situation, and I think it's the formal vs. informal thing! I think the garden as you have it now is a foundation planting, when you are looking for a perennial garden. Of course, there is no "rule" so you can do whatever you want lol. While others think some of your suggestions are too tall, I feel that it *needs* something taller in there! I also think you have more sun there than most people realize - I believe you said 6 hours, so you don't necessarily need full shade plants. Also, if you house faces north, I'm guessing (and could be wrong as I sit here turning around to face north in my office lol) I'm guessing the sun comes from the right side of the photo, so your maple shouldn't add too much more shade as it grows except underneath it. I was thinking of phlox, veronica, peonies, echinacea, perhaps astilbe (although I find it needs a lot of water!), liatris, lupines (I think their foliage is actually quite nice, as are the blooms, and I grow them from seed quite easily as well as having reseeders), scabiosa, roses, irises, lilies, daylilies, and montauk daisies, asters, perennial mums, and monkshood for fall bloom. Perhaps a trellis (or two) in the back of the garden with a clematis might give some height. Also, you can consider dahlias, which you would likely need to lift each fall, but then you can move them easily next season if you don't like the placement. As someone else mentioned, perhaps you consider annuals as well. Rudbeckias, zinnias, cosmos, larkspur, cleome come to mind. Everything I've mentioned above, I grow in my part-shade yard, with my "sunny" areas getting no more than six hours. Now, for me, the problem comes in in WHERE or HOW to place them! But that's a problem for me in my own perennial garden, so I'll leave that to you lol. Lastly, if you don't want to deepen the bed, perhaps you can extend the garden along that fence? Is that a sunny area? Good luck! Please let us know what you decide and be sure to post pictures. :) Dee