Hi Yardvaark, I was hoping you would chime in. Reading through other threads you often have some interesting ideas. There is a considerable slope at the front, but I think the photo is deceptive. It is not so bad that it can't be mowed. The tough slope is the one by the drive that has been mulched. The dogwood is a beautiful tree. It does hide the house, but really the house is no stunner (outside that is, I love it inside!). It also obscures our view of the less than picturesque duplexes across the street. I was looking for something distinct on the slope to the driveway. I settled on a weeping Japanese Maple after wandering around our neighborhood and admiring a neighbor's. It is interesting with leaves and without. This one is supposed to slowly reach a spread of 6 to 9 feet with an equal height, Putting it one day almost to the walkway. I've been thinking about the space to the right of the house between the maple and the corner. I think I would like a hedge of white hydrangeas like Annabelle, with some kind of deep green evergreen hedge behind (is there a laurel that would fit the bill?) with a green/white variegated hosta in front, with a creeping phlox at the very front, even falling into the right most window well. Sprinkle in daffodils clumps to add some spring color. Then place a couple of adirondack chairs in the grass in front of it painted the same red as my front door. It would hide the neighbor's AC unit as you were walking into the house and the red would give a pop of fun year round color against a pretty white / green background. At least that was what I was dreaming of last night. I don't know what to do as I go to the left across the house. I don't feel the need for foundation plants around the house, but I would like something tall and interesting between the two rightmost windows. And I'm at a complete loss as I go the left of the front door towards the garage and then down to the drive. A lady at the garden center was musing about dwarf lilacs in there. I'll continue thinking about to and would love some other thoughts. Thanks!

I'm transitioning my lawn to a low water, low fertilizer lawn of mostly native grasses. It requires a lot less mowing than a traditional (KBG, TTTF etc) lawn, but I do still need to mow (with buffalo grass, you can get by without mowing at all if you don't mind it getting about 4 inches tall or so). It probably needs a little more water than buffalo grass to stay green during the summer, but not much. I think I watered three times last year. I didn't kill my existing lawn first, but should have. If you go with buffalo grass, this is even more important since buffalo grass has a different growing season from cool season grasses. If you want a lawn that will be green longer than a buffalo grass lawn will be, you can try some of the grasses I'm using. I'm using my own mixture. I've overseeded several times and the mix changes based on price and availability of seeds. I've got three native grasses, one non-native (but well adapted and "naturalized") grass and a clover. The grasses I've used are western wheatgrass, streambank wheatgrass, sheep fescue (the natives) and crested wheatgrass (the non native). The clover is Palestine strawberry clover (similar to Dutch white clover, but better adapted to alkaline soils). Since you have sandy soil, you should use thickspike wheatgrass as a replacement for Streambank wheatgrass. The native wheatgrasses spread by rhizomes. Crested wheatgrass used to be a bunch grass, but there are newer varieties that will spread. Sheep fescue is a bunch grass. I've bought seed from a variety of places. Last fall, I bought from this place. You can buy their premixed Cabin Mix or you can buy individual seeds and mix your own. If you opt for a cool season lawn, you may want to wait until fall to reseed because if you seed now, the grass may not have time to establish well enough before summer. I put seed down just before the first snowfall last year in a dormant seeding and I've got new grass coming up all over. I can try to find some of the other sources I have for seeds if you're interested.

I've been thinking long and hard about the many good critiques that have been shared in this thread and I've made a first pass at a modification. First the image and then the explanation: The oven and the microwave have been relocated. The oven is now under the cooktop. I feel like an idiot for basically replicating a range, paying double the money for the same functionality, but that cursed wok on the cooktop is going to cost me a pretty penny - cooktop + wok + oven instead of just range + wok. I also lose the flexibility of having a kitchen that's workable for someone is a wheelchair but if that fate ever befalls me I can simply move the oven back to the original location in the wall cabinet, lower the cooktop and sink and then I've got a working kitchen that's good for a disabled person. The design can be modified without too much trouble if the need ever arises. So, now that the oven is underneath the cooktop all of the pots that I wanted handy for cooking had to find a new home. They're now in the island where the recycling drawers were. That was easy. They're still handy, behind me instead of below the cooktop. The microwave is now immediately below the countertop in the peninsula with enough space to have a cabinet drawer underneath the microwave. This is a pretty handy place for the MW because it's right across the aisle from the fridge and just a step more removed from the cooktop/oven. Now as I enter the kitchen I can grab something from the fridge, pop it into the MW, and then I can proceed to the banquette or take the food out of the kitchen. All of the bulk grains and baking supplies are now relocated between the microwave and the wall cabinet which used to house the MW/Oven combo. The side of the island facing the peninsula now has a top drawer and 4 vertical drawers underneath which will hold all manner of baking sheets/pans. The sheets are close to the bake prep area and they don't need to be close to the oven - I will transport what needs to be baked either to the oven or to the wood fired pizza oven. The wall cabinet now stores two recycling bins, canned food, less frequently used baking equipment, and other odds and ends. My fear was having a useless section of counter/cabinets attached to the peninsula, but as I thought about how the space would be used, it can still function as a secondary prep zone but with the secondary sink on the island, it functions well as the bake zone and all the equipment is close at hand. The suboptimal aspect that arises from this new layout has to do with recycling and garbage disposal - it's now a walk to get rid of stuff. Similarly, if I want canned good or boxed goods, it's a walk from the cooking area to this storage area. However, these inconveniences are not as mission critical as the impracticalities of the original plan - the use of the oven and microwave in the old layout were more of a burden than the need to get canned goods or to dispose of recyclables. Here's the exit question for everyone (besides anything new that you can find to comment upon): What are the inconveniences of having a microwave underneath a counter? I'm used to using microwaves either at counter level or in the upper cabinets.

Hi, Enza! Summer is keeping me away from GW and I'm glad you called me out so I can see what's happening with your house. I read through this thread last night and thought I'd quickly toss in an idea I got this morning. I'll preface by saying I may have missed an important piece of information, but this idea is based on the assumption that you're incorporating the enclosed front porch into your renovation. My thought is to keep the small existing front porch, but move the location of the front door so it's facing your driveway instead of the street. This *might* create space in the present vestibule area for a very small powder room. The present front-most room could become a foyer with a powder room tucked away down a short hall for privacy. The window area on your neighbors side of the porch area could be turned into something like this that you posted on a previous post. If you don't want coats hung out in the open at the front of the house, you could put lockers with doors there instead of open hooks. The benefit of turning the porch into a foyer/mudroom/powder room is getting all those activites out of the rest of the first floor, making for a much lovlier and spacious living/dining/kitchen. Also, this won't kill your dining room or any driveway side windows. Best wishes!