The kitchen layout does NOT work. Green is right that you cannot stand at your sink and load the DW. If you are going to do an angled island like that, it needs to be MUCH larger to work well and to adequately separate the cleanup and prep zones. You need at least 12" cabinet between the corner angle and the DW to be able to stand at the sink and load the DW. And that cleanup zone needs to be opposite the prep zone side of the sink if you are only going to have a single sink. It would be a better layout to put the cleanup zone on the top run next to the refrigerator, and then straighten the island out and put a prep sink on it to have actual prep space on the island. Right now, it doesn't meet the minimum guidelines for 36" adjacent to a water source for prep. And the clearance between the wings and the walls is tight. This is a one person kitchen. If you envision any one helping in here, then it needs to be completely redesigned. I'd personally swap it with the dining room so that it could be lighter. I dislike a dark interior kitchen, whereas a dining room can be a dark interior room because it's mainly utilized in the evening when there is no natural light anyway. The addition of a closet to the office may make it a technical bedroom, but I'd want more room to be able to realistically have a bed in it. And get rid of the angled entrance. It's only hurting the furniture placement in the room. I'm not a fan of the bathroom that ate the house syndrome, but I'd at least want a double vanity in the master. And I'd want the other upstairs bath to be accessible from the hall rather than just the bedroom. If the office has to count as a bedroom, then it HAS to have access to a bathroom. The two baths should also be back to back, as that simplifies the plumbing, and it allows the bedroom to have the choice corner location with windows in two directions. Most locations do not allow a direct stair from a garage to a basement living area. The stair would need to be in a mudroom type area with a fire door between it and the garage. I would redesign the surplus garage space to create a mudroom and pantry space from it and to contain the stairs to the garage.

The manufacturer's instructions for fertilizer dosage vary quite a bit. IOW - there is a RANGE that covers dosages, not just one specific dose for all applications. How you fertilize and how much you use has a LOT to do with your soil choice and how you water. I prefer to fertilize during the winter with a very low dose of fertilizer every time I water; and I can do that because I flush the soil every time I water. It works great - I never have deficiencies or toxicities, and the ratio of nutrients, each to the others, is always very close to that at which the plants actually use the nutrients. There is a lot of value in fertilizing that way because you can have the lowest EC/TDS (roughly, the fertilizer solution strength) possible w/o deficiencies, which is just about exactly where you want to be. You won't have trouble wetting the gritty mix, even if the bark is completely dry. The reason is, the Turface never becomes hydrophobic unless it's coated with algae; so when you water, the Turface sucks up the moisture very quickly and the surface of the Turface and grit become wet, too. IF the bark has become hydrophobic, water vapor diffusing from the internal pores of the Turface and from the surface of soil particles is absorbed by the bark, which breaks it's tendency toward hydrophobia in just a few (10?) minutes. Dry soil is easier to plant in, but after I get the planting situated, I pour water through the soil until it runs clear from the drain hole. That's so I don't end up with a thin layer of sludge on the bottom of the pot. Keeping your soil free from particles smaller than .100" (a BB is .177") means NO perched water and well aerated soil from the top of the soil to the container bottom, no matter how shallow the pot, which offers more potential than soils made of the same ingredients but with a smaller particle size .... within reason, of course. As soils become TOO porous, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep them moist, so you're looking for lots of water retention w/o having to resort to interparticulate (between particles) water to get it. Al

The house faces north, and this is the side yard, so the fence runs perpendicular to the front of the home. Fence (chain link)is on the west side of the home. It separates us from a next-door neighbor. I'll observe the sun...I have been so far. I'm fine with the height continuing the grow above 15 ft. I'm using the 15 ft as a measurement where the tree may start to slow down its growth, not stop growing...I know they will grow perpetually. I just don't want to put something with a listed height of 30 or 60 feet, as that implies it will get there before slowing down. Otherwise, why would anyone care about a height measurement at all? So, pruning the height is not a concern to me. Pruning the width may become a concern if the tree encroaches on my 11-12' area between the fence and the house thereby preventing the ability to walk through the area. I'm looking for privacy when in the yard too, as the kids may still play in that narrow area...don't need the crazy dude watching them constantly. We can put blinds in our windows for interior privacy. Thanks!

As a reminder, here's our proposed layout; blue dots mark the edges of the screening area. I want to screen the view from neighbor #1 into the front of our house and from neighbor #2 into the side windows where our kitchen/dining/living room are (represented by green arrows.) I guess my primary question is... If we reduced the (half tear drop shaped) planting bed depth from 20 feet to a 10'-15' deep half ellipse shaped bed, will we have enough room for a beautiful screening planting including a few boulders? Our kids love climbing on a neighbors boulder and I thought it would be nice to have a few in this bed positioned as seating to hang out and see the mountain view. Okay. Here's the view from our neighbors front porch with the edges of the proposed screening area marked with blue lines. Their living room, dining room and kitchen sink window look directly to the front of our house. Left to right is our master bedroom window - mudroom window - half lite front door - kitchen sink window. Here's the view from the proposed new driveway approach. Our current approach crosses the neighbors property a bit, so we have to shift the right side of the driveway to the left in addition to widening it for two car widths. I'd like some screening for these side windows because I think if you look out the windows of the little white house, you can see right into our kitchen/dining/living room and I'd like some privacy screening. We have a beautiful view out those side windows, so I don't like having them covered, but I have a four year old streaker so... Here is the view from our front door to the left, center and right. The blue lines represent the blue dots on the above drawing. I'd really like to look out the kitchen window or the front door and see plants and birds and have no awareness of what my neighbors across the street are doing. It's awkward for me to be working at the sink and see into their house or notice whether they're home or not; I can't help but see, but I really don't want to.