I just googled dry stream bed pictures. There are any number of images - some a really nice, others not so much. The nicest ones have a pleasant mix of big and little in a well planned "random" placement. I can see where your tendency was to make a border with the big rocks to hold back the mulch - nature wouldn't necessarily do this. But plants spilling over (or a buried edging) would. I also don't think you need curves or have it wend its way through the yard. I'd start by pulling away the big bordering rocks and do a little size mixing. Its not easy - takes a lot of stepping a distance a way and looking at it a foot at a time with a critical eye. You could even experiment with putting plants among the rocks - a few patches of Siberian Iris would be a touch of drama. Foliage stays upright after blooming. A fern would hide the downspout connector. There are a lot of plants that would enhance a dry stream bed edge; more pleasing to look at than a sea of mulch. Here is a link that might be useful: a few edging pictures in article

Gutters are SOP in my area, perhaps because heavy clay is the common ground soil. Clay does not permit water to transmit easily (from surface to subterranean), and it will quickly erode if water repeatedly hits the same area. Also, we often have tropical storms with several inches of rain pouring down within a few hours -- meaning there's a lot of water standing until it can move, and water always moves downward eventually - even if that downward is beside the foundation wall. (I'm against anything watering the foundation.) As MA points out, gutter placement is important to prevent ice from tearing off the gutters. Also important is to have a sufficient number of downspouts. I'm not mathematical, so you can compute how much water an inch-per-hour rain is falling onto your roof and then sliding into the guttering. All that water must go somewhere from the gutter (even a 6" wide gutter doesn't hold very many gallons), and downspouts are the outlets. Tract builders have a tendency to put a 6" elbow jutting out on the bottom, which means that water is hitting the grass and soaking into the soil just few inches from the foundation wall. Folks buy a flattish thingy to put under downspout outlet to prevent a water-dug hole, but those aren't very effective. Very best practice is to take the downspouts below ground level and hook onto pipes which drain into storm sewers or a pond. Next best practice is to connect underground into a french drain system designed for the locale. Third best (and by far least expensive) is entend the downspout to at least 10' downhill from the foundation and use a diverter system which prevents the full force of the exiting water from hitting the ground all in one spot. The point is that water is going to come off the roof. It's either going to slide off the perimeter in sheets (and often quickly digging a trench) while landing close to the foundation; or you can guide it off and away to a less damaging site. BTW, imo, all gutters should be installed with a fine screen mesh covering. The only thing worse than cleaning gutters is cleaning gutters that are installed higher than you can comfortably fall. Also, be sure the installer uses screws, not nails or spikes for installation. And eyeball the completed installation: there should be no midway dips regardless of run length, although the guttering should slope slightly downhill to the downspout; downspouts must be firmly attached to the gutter and to wall; and (with the occasional exception of short dormers) there should be no water-dripping roof edge without a gutter. Downspouts are usually located at each corner (whether inner or outer) and are sometimes needed midway betwixt if there are dormers or a roof design which forces running water into a valley. Gutter colors are often used as a contrast to roof and/or house color. Keep in mind that downspouts which are the same or a shade darker than the housewall color, will be less...

I don't have experience with this type of gutter, I had a regular type one replaced last year. My old on on my 50's type house was to narrow, as was the down spout which is just as important. This was a contributing factor in my basement when it flooded last year (we got 15 inches of rain in less than a week). If you look at them when it rains and water is flowing over the side, something is wrong, either installation or width of the gutter. Anyway, new wider gutters and downspouts were installed on my house, along with re-grading, and the problem was fixed. Good luck!! SG

Measure the length of your roof line, count the down spouts and then call some local gutter businesses for estimates. DS had new gutters installed last year on a 2600 sq ft, 2 story house. Cost was around $1500. Finding someone to do the gutters is something you can handle. Just call out a few companies and talk to them. They give fee estimates and they'll handle install. DS's house also gets very few leaves so after extensive research on my part of the cost and effectiveness of gutter guards, we chose not to add any. No difference in cost for colors. I'd cancel the install tomorrow. An increase of $2000 is suspicious, but he may have added the most expensive gutter guards!