Of course one does also need to consider the spatial functions when designing a garden, but it is not necessarily wrong to design around what plants you want as well. I was just reading the notes of a garden lecture that the famous Brazilian landscape architect, Roberto Burle Marx, gave when he was doing a lecture tour back in 1982 both here in California and England, and he stated that he ALWAYS starts any new design by thinking about the plants he wants to use, FIRST! If that is good enough for one of the most revered modern designers in the world, it also works for me. It does need to be said that this requires some cautions; it helps if one is wanting to use plants that can actually work in your climate, and that will be able to combine together well. These intended plants will need to be vetted against your existing conditions, your intended level of maintenance, amount of water and fertilizing you intend to provide and/or make sense in your situation. As you can see, there is a lot more to designing around plants first than simply coming up with a list that pleases you. Right off the bat, it is more apparent that you will probably have some strong winds in your location, and using things like a Japanese Maple which tends to get burnt leaf edges in hot and/or drying winds would probably only work well up against the house where it is more protected. The distant views looking out over the right side neighbor's fence might also be something you want to keep? If so, planting something that only gets about 5 feet taller than the fence, and kept closer in to the midpoint of the fence would help preserve a view of the distant mountains while still blocking the sight line of the building visible in the distance, but then again, maybe keeping distant views of the surrounding mountains is not important to you from the ground level, but more privacy is. You look to have good opportunities to plant climbing roses against the fences/walls at the north side in particular, where they would get the most sun. Or it could also be an opportunity for other flowering vines that are more evergreen in your intended color range, there are pink/white tinged Bougainvilleas such as 'Blushing Thai' or pink vines such as Pandorea jasminoides 'Rosea', or a deep purple winter blooming vine such as Hardenbergia violacea. Other even longer blooming vines that are evergreen might include a Passiflora 'Lavender Lady', or the semi-shrubby scandent Plumbago auriculata 'Royal Cape/Imperial Blue', which can be pruned to stay flat against a wall. I also quite like the densely foliaged Grewia occidentalis, Lavender Star Flower shrub, especially when grown flat against a wall, and blooms nearly year round. Climbing roses that are quite easy in southern California would include Altissimo(deep single red), Iceberg(white), Mermaid(yellow) and the already mentioned Joseph's Coat(a vivid red-orange), but there are many more, and it mostly depends on whether you want one massive bloom spike or repeat blooms throughout the year. Combining Mediterranean flowering shrubs such as the various Rosemaries(upright or spreading), along with various Lavenders, perhaps some similar lower growing plants like Teucriums, Convolvulus mauritanicus, Armeria, etc could be a good choice for a lower water using part of the garden with more sun. Other shrubs that might work well in this mix could include fragrant foliage of Coleonema pulchrum 'Sunset Gold', Erysimmon 'Bowles Mauve', Helleborus argutifolius. If you like the idea of evergreen iris as an accent, I would highly recommend the less commonly seen iris relative from Brazil, called the Walking Iris, Neomarica caerulea, which blooms for about 6 weeks in mid summer with brilliantly blue flowers on top of 4 to 5 foot tall stems, and is a very dramatic accent foliage plant even when not in bloom. Other Iris members that have great foliage as well as blooms might include Iris pallida 'Argentea Variegata', along with other classic Bearded Iris cultivars. It might look very nice nestled within a lower mass of silvery foliage of a Lavender angustifolia 'Hidcote', or one of the Helichrysum petiolare 'Limelight'. Some grassy leaved plants in groupings, such as Leymus condensatus 'Canyon Prince'(tall and pale blue),or dwarfer Dianella revoluta 'Baby Bliss' or the deep greens of Zephranthes candida can also liven up a garden. Other taller growing sculptural grassy plants might include some of the Restios such as Chondropetalum tectorum or Elegia canpensis, both of which give wonderful movement in the wind and look good combined with flowering herbaceous things. If you wanted a few very fast growing shrubs that can also act as small trees in the garden, with long bloom seasons, I might suggest Psoralea pinnata or Lavatera thuringeaca 'Barnsley'. Some of the larger growing, virtually everblooming Salvia species such as Salvia leucantha 'Santa Barbara', S. 'Waverly', S. 'Indigo Spires' or S. involucrata are all very long blooming in the garden. As you can see, there are a million ways you can go with planting choices in your garden, these are just a few things that come to mind if you want things that grow well/easily in your area, have a long season of interest, and might combine to give a blues/purples/pinks range of colors over a long season, with accents of soft blue and silvery foliage. If you like the idea of interesting color/texture ground covers that continue the lower water use theme, you might also look into the wonderful silvery low growing Dichondra argentea, Dymondia margaratae, or Ophiopogon japonicus. One of the low growing Iceplants, such as the silvery foliaged Oscularia deltoides, or the Hens and Chicks, Echeveria elegans or Echeveria imbricata also make good massed ground cover plantings.

Thank you for the replies. Really validating to hear some of the same concerns I've been chewing on. I appreciate y'all taking the time to look at my plans :) Marcolo - re: prep space, I imagined myself prepping mostly around the sink. There is 40" of space on either side of the sink, and 18" of drainboard on both sides of the sink. I'll also have those pull out bread boards for extra space if needed (have them now, use them often). On the stove wall there is 34" of space on either side of the stove. I don't intend to do a lot of prepping at the table, just that it could be used to as a landing space. Sorry if I overstated the extent to which I imagined prepping there. Currently I have two 24" spaces that are not consumed by the MW, coffee maker, bread box etc, so the proposed counter space felt huge to me :) Do you think it is insufficient? The pantry in that corner does interrupt the space a bit. However, it seems so appealing to use that corner space in that way. The house juts out a bit there and allows for a comfortable walk-in space that allows us to maximize storage space. Unless it's really problematic, I hope to keep it :) We will panel the DW, for sure. Going with an entry level Miele (not drawers as pictured...apologies that my drawings aren't 100% accurate). I'm clueless about cabinet support issues (and now a little worried!), but I see that Arlosmom and others have successfully installed a dw adjacent to a huge sink, so I'm optimistic we can figure out a way. "Two-depth uppers" - thank you for finding the language to describe that!! I've really struggled with what that's supposed to be called. Mtnrdredux - I've been watching your kitchen take shape for months, and it's one that I've returned to in the course of refining my ideas. When you first posted the preview shot of your subzero being paneled with icebox hardware, I immediately showed DH, because he was skeptical that it could be done, and that it could be done well. Your entire kitchen is beautiful. 1. The window above the sink. Originally I *really* wanted no uppers, and a great wall of windows instead. But, I finally conceded that you can't put a square peg in a round hole. That side of the house faces a neighbor, and our sink location looks right into their kitchen. So, I think the actual window will be even smaller than the one in the mock up. I plan to have a double hung, but put a bahama shutter on the outside of the house, but at the mid-point of the window; the lower half will block the view of the neighbor's kitchen, and the upper half will reveal sky (the neighbor is downhill a little). On the layout drawing, where the family room is labeled, that entire back wall will be floor-to-ceiling windows, letting in a lot of natural light. Do you think I should re-think the window in the kitchen? 2. The sink pic is from Arlosmom's kitchen. Her curtains look great - and I suspect mine would be often wet & stained, so no curtains for me. Arlosmom's old threads have been very helpful; I'm planning to do a similar curved/fitted cabinet under my sink, with garbage under one of the drainboard sides. 3. The hardware. Those tab pulls don't feel good in my hand either. I'm going with PB pulls which use a handle instead of a tab or bin pull; and I'm drawn to the design b/c the "label" piece slides onto the back of the screws in the handle. If I want to take off the label portion, I can :) I really liked the clever use of colored map clippings on that desk, and wanted to do something similar but not have to commit to permanently attaching label hardware to the drawer. 4. No island, what about a small work table? Ya, I like this idea. DH not so much. So, we're going to start with the farm table fully in the kitchen and see how it goes. Down the road, we can add a small work table to abut the end of the farm table, or even add a large island and re-orient the table so that it runs perpendicular to the stairs. 5. Fridge. I'm planning on a Thermador 36" bottom freezer, single door top with stained paneling and icebox hardware. I'd like the cab above the fridge to be painted creamy white, as a continuation of the adjacent top upper cabs, like this inspiration pic (btw I am so smitten with this kitchen - I want to cut & paste my face right in there :) : 6. Thanks for the thumbs up on shiplap. I love it too, but I'm realizing I like it in small doses, so the pantry might be a good place. 7. The blue paint...I like that too. Not sure if we'll do that. The pic was to show the kind of lighting for over the farm table. 8. Thank you for saying that the Victorian screen looks too fussy. My gut says that too; I think I've enjoyed seeing other people's pantries in this style. But you're right....I don't care for ornate objects, so a more humble look would work better. Many thanks for the thought-provoking feedback!

We are building our first pool in AZ and I have no prior pool experience. We have 2 boys (4/6) and a third boy on it's way. Our yard is narrow but long ~80 feet. The pool will be 14x32 with a 4x6 sunshelf with an umbrella sleeve with wrap around stairs. I have a few concerns 1) I'm wondering if its worth taking up swimming space with the small shelf or remove the wrap around stairs to make more space 2) is it too long once the deck and fence is in place? Will it not leave enough backyard to play in and will it also obstruct a potential additional sliding door view/ direct exit the play area. There are 3 sliding doors but the main one goes to the patio. 3) any other must haves I should consider? Unfortunately hot tub out of budget:( I am considering adding a bubbler.

Thanks all for the good feedback! @Pam AWe don't bake as much as we used to. Mostly roasting veggies and potatoes. We do want to do stir frying/wok cooking, which is why a big goal of the remodel was to move the stove from the island (where it currently sits) to the wall, so we can externally vent a powerful range. (We purchased a BlueStar RNB366BV2NG!) @mama goose_gw zn6OHYes it is a remodel, so moving the pantry is probably out of the scope of the remodel. How much clearance do you think is enough? We were targeting 42 for work aisles, and ~39-40 where people would just be sitting. Although we do note in the floor plan that only part of 1 seat has a wall behind it, the rest of the island that has seating is open to the living room/breakfast room. Also thanks, we did check and most all the slabs of the styles we are looking at run 120-130". Also, we planned 40 because we tried having someone sit at a bar with 40" clearance and it seemed OK clearance to still have someone walk behind them. @Beth H.Right now there is about ~41 inches between the wall oven and fridge? The oven door is 27". So we did try, with 13 inch gap on open we can stand in front of it and open, but if we want to crouch down next to it, looks like it would take about 48 inches of clearance between the wall oven to the fridge. How much do you think is a good amount if the door is 27"? If we wanted 48" of clearance, we could just shrink the cabinets next to the fridge, and move the fridge down that wall by 8-12" (depending how much we needed/wanted). On the 2 dishwashers. We realize it is a bit extra, but from experience at our current place, we have to run a new load of dishes almost every other day (usually 3 times a week) since we eat most dinners at home, and meal prep so have dishes from lunches and breakfast. We're also both out from 9AM-8PM M-F, and most days have to WFH some after dinner before bed, so we end up having dishes pile up in the sink as we have not had the time/energy to unload the previous load from the dishwasher. So we really wanted 2 dishwashers to have a "ring buffer" where we unload 1 clean one in use as we fill the other 1 with dirties, to avoid having the build up in the sink and to speed up the process of doing dishes. @lopipopiThe double trash/recycle pullout right now is on the end of the island directly across from the sink. @Chris T Thats kind of what we have in the plan now? The back row has 1 36" full depth lower. And the other 2 36" ones are half depth. So there is a 12" overhang on 2/3 of the back side, and on the shallow end facing the breakfast room. Thanks again to everyone who provided suggestions/feedback again! It's a lot of information and all the help has been really useful to give us ideas on what to think about/pay attention to.