Dilly, ultimately about the kitchen, but regarding your statement that you wanted the deck off the living room because that's the nicer side of the propery: Decks almost always block the view of the landscape beyond from inside, replacing your view of garden (or valley, marsh, etc.) with a clutter of chair backs and legs, table and legs, railing and posts, BBQ, cushion storage, and of course...decking. No matter how expensive and how well done, at the best of times it will be less attractive than what it's blocking (and in many climates a desolate unappealing wasteland in winter). Besides you'll always have plenty of chair legs, tables, etc., inside to look at. How about instead: * moving that deck elsewhere, where it has a nice view of the good end of the property from a different orientation, * taking some of the current deck space *for the kitchen,* and * having the living room feature a pretty view of your garden while still having good access to a nearby deck? (BTW, balcony-type walkways can connect doors to large open deck areas without destroying views).

buehl - yes, the big rectangle is the kitchen, and you were right about the gray walls. There isn't much contrast there - sorry about that! To answer some of your other questions, our home is 100 year old brick, so moving windows would be very difficult. The sunroom was originally a porch, and it was enclosed sometime in the thirties. It is not well-insulated and would be extremely expensive to convert into a kitchen, plus we have dreams of opening it back up one day. (It's a beautiful two-story, columned bump out on the back of the house). We are knocking out a wall in the kitchen that currently forms our mudroom (a six-foot wide "hall" from the back door to the sewing room wall) in order to enlarge the kitchen. As much as I like having a mud room, I would rather have a bigger kitchen. We are going to have hooks for coats in the side hall, and one base cabinet nearest the back door will have cubbies inside for shoes. I'm very strict on the no-leaving-your-junk-by-the-back door-rule as it is, because as you can imagine, 14 junk of 14 people adds up quickly! ;o) We do plan to build a storage area in the garage, right outside the garage entry, which can be used for coats and boots in the winter. Doorways - back yard door is 36", garage door is 32," and side hall doorway is only 29.5" Doors could be moved on the inside, like the side hall and/or bathroom/coat closet. I've thought about switching the dining room and kitchen spaces, but the large window seat would take up a huge chunk of the available wall space. I'm not sure how to work around that. laxsupermom - the windows in kitchen have cabinets under them now, and they are about 38" from the floor. The sunroom windows are 36" from floor, but as I said above, using the sunroom for kitchen space would be an expense we can't afford right now. bmorepanic - we can't take space from the garage for the pantry, etc., because the garage is so narrow (plus we drive a 15-passenger van and our "small car" is a Suburban!) but your second layout hits on something I've been toying around with. It has really inspired me and I appreciate you taking the time to draw it out! I love that I could have a "mini-mudroom." :o) I'd have to figure out where to get a substantial pantry and laundry space in there, but I like this idea! Thank you! If anyone else has any ideas, but please keep 'em coming!

You are in "conversations." Will get much more feedback if you post in Home Decorating.

I would pass on Jacaranda (invasive), Palo Verde (long thorns), Eleagnus (nonnative and often invasive), and Lantana camara (invasive). And Crape Myrtles are also nonnative, extremely overused and their wood is heavy (from water), yet weak. Anacua does sound like a cool native with edible berries, though. Otherwise, I would suggest: [Trees[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/favorite-underused-trees-dsvw-vd~1735953): American Persimmon Texas Persimmon Oriental Persimmon Desert Willow 'Lucretia Hamilton' 'Little Girl' Magnolias Western Soapberry Fig Pomegranate Goldenball Leadtree Kieffer Pear Oriental Raisin Tree Mexican Plum Pineapple Guava Red Mulberry Paw Paw Loquat Jujube Rusty Blackhaw Texas Mountain Laurel Eve's Necklace Bushes: Texas Sage Rosemary Hardy Hibiscus & Rose of Sharon (Thornless) Blackberry St. John's Wort Elderberry Flowers: Iris [Compass Plant[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/what-are-you-choices-for-foliage-interest-in-both-sun-and-shade-dsvw-vd~5357531) White Rosinweed Pitcher Sage Standing Cypress Texas Bluebell Texas Bluebonnet Wine Cup Lemon Beebalm [Allium canadense[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/is-this-wild-onion-and-how-to-propagate-dsvw-vd~5231628) Echinacea Yarrow Maypop Black-eyed Susan Clematis 'Madame Julia Correvon'