lol, Thanks Ken, I've been thinking about a few ideas on how to improve it. I'd really like to see video of others as well but I also realize that unless you have equipment or a very nice video recorder, it's hard to get steady, clear pictures. I'll see if I can make a few improvements in the next video. No worries about my potted plants in this zone, though I've learned to make sure all of my cedrus are in huge pots or in the ground. Pines and spruce in pots have no problem here as our winters rarely dip below 25 degrees.

take out the wall between dining and kitchen.When you close up the door and get a window in,create a run along front wall that jogs around the support beam by brick zone, but does not make a 90 degree turn.Instead you'll pass thru to hearth room where the turn of counters was. Create a small L consisting of fridge/cooktop wall and perpindicular out from current fridge location.The fridge gets shifted over and recessed to where cooktop is- back into some sq footage of washer area[get a stackable setup for W/D in space remaining.] The other arm of the L could house a sink or possibly below counter oven-can you get the sink and cooktop along front wall? I see kids-the hearth room side of L can have stools/overhang. The house needs some flow-with the tight dining room and now removal of wall it will be more inviting and yet the living room still has that dividing wall for some separation. You'll get a visual"through" effect so the marginal view out the kitchen window will be minimized. When coming thru to hearth room,instead of the island in the middle of it all, you can do comfy chairs around brick/and the peninsula part of the L will have stools: you keep different uses for the hearth room - instead of all kitchen and all island taking over. Your linear feet available for these runs isn't really clear from your sketch-have to figure that out, of course. If you don't want complete elimination of wall between kitchen/dining-at least cut it back significantly...pretty much similar effect.You can keep the nifty original hallway storage setup behind the kitchen-don't you think that means less worry about storage in the kitchen and you can streamline the kitchen with a compact L and a long run at the front? Unless you gut your house,the kitchen is basically a pass through area-but by opening to dining and on through to hearth area and actually placing furniture at that end of the room,you connect the spaces in an inviting way....this would not be super expensive....I think you'd have budget money left for an outdoor kitchen.

Laura, It looks awesome! The hens and chicks that you mentioned looks like one I brought to one of the swaps a few years ago. Sorry I don't know the name. That does indeed look like a brussel sprout. You might get some harvest in October. They've never done well for me so I stopped growing them. Probably they do better in a climate like the Pacific northwest. Your peppers and tomatoes look great! Jalapenos are hard to figure as to how hot they'll be even on the same plant they can vary. I assume it's mostly soil, water and weather that makes the variability. The reason the squash flowers fall off is that they are male flowers. By this time you are probably getting female flowers and fruit. Yes the carrots would do better not under the shade cloth. I love all the pollinator friendly flowers you have, Great job!

I don't have a video but here are some pictures. Snow in summer around the fountain. Doggy exiting Ajuga. Very please with how the Ajuga has spread along the front of this bed. Phlox is fading while the ice plants and helianthemum (orange rock rose) are coming into bloom. I am loving the orange granita and raspberry granita (far right) ice plants. I put those in last year and both have done well. In the center is white nugget ice plant (first to bloom so on it's way out) and on the left if fire spinner (just starting to bloom). The purple broom always attracts loads of bumble bees and honey bees. It is also starting to decline but the ice plants around it are starting to bloom. So much is on the way. Our yard used to not have color all season long but I think we have remedied that. I feel like we have a riot of color early spring through late fall.