It sounds as though you should plant whatever you want to look at, while at the same time, being mindful of what could have an impact on your yard, as far as future shade, blocking your views, re-seeding, etc.. I would certainly go for shade from the SW for her, a mix of low growing shrubs and small trees, maybe evergreen, with flowers and fruits, and fall color, that won't block views for the property lines, and things that enhance the view from both your yard and her house. I am thinking of things like magnolia species, bald cypress, beech (purple or green), a grouping of deciduous magnolias, deciduous hollies, various spring flowering understory trees and shrubs such as Juneberry, fringe tree, itea, calycanthus or redbud, the more rare species dogwoods (pagoda, gray, red- or yellow-twig), various viburnums, summer to fall flowering plants such as vitex, franklinia, stewartia, gordonia, sourwood, abelias, caryopteris, clethra, bottlebrush buckeye, woody sages, camellias, witch hazel or native azaleas, etc.. I could go on, but.... Keep in mind that someone will have to water things, whether her or you. Setting up an easy watering system of temporary drip hoses around trees (for 2-3 years) might be a time and effort saver for all concerned, as connecting a hose, or two, to the end of a run of drip hose is relatively easy, while dragging hoses from tree to tree and spot to spot is a pain! Making beds or berms, and groups of trees, which you mulch, will both pull the look together and unify the yard, and make watering issues simpler. As I am sure you have already thought of...

There's a lot of truth to many of the things brought up, and people wax nostalgically about "the good old days" but not many people really want to go back too far. Few will give up their cell phones, cars, remote controls, cable/satellite TV, microwaves automatic washers and the like. I'll admit I sure appreciate a lot of the conveniences but I also enjoyed going "back to nature" at the lake. No electricity out there so you got a taste of what it was like 100+ years ago. And certain conveniences there too. But that's a different topic. And me, I really like a large yard. I don't like being where you can reach out the window and shake hands with the neighbors. One of the reasons I bought where I did. Nice large lawn. I much prefer grass to blacktop or concrete. Healthier too. Trees and grass absorb CO2 and emit O2. It's part of photosynthesis. My dad couldn't figure out why I planted so many trees in my yard. I run the a/c much less because the house is much cooler when it's shaded. With grass rather than blacktop or concrete, it's much cooler in the summer and the smell of fresh cut grass is a nice smell, quite unlike the chemical smell of "mountain freshness" or whatever they call that stench they put in the laundry detergents and softeners that people seem so addicted to. Used to be when the clothes would stink was an indicator it's time to wash the clothes and yes, back when, you could wear a shirt and/or pants more than an hour before changing them. Having lawns instead of hard surfaces also lets the water tables fill up again from the rains and snow. Look at the areas with water shortage issues. Generally they have far more impervious surfaces. We are doing our best to fight Mother Nature and can't figure out why she gets ticked off and gives a little slap on the wrists now and then to remind us to wake up. And FWIW, I haven't watered my lawn for over 25 years and have a much nicer lawn overall than most of the neighbors. The hottest part of the summer the grass will go dormant. When that happens you don't need to mow. If you water it, then you have to mow it! What's wrong with this picture? :) And the one I'll add is how people used to "cook" coffee at home. They didn't have to go pay $5 at Megabucks for coffee with a lot of milk in it! Used a mug or a cup and saucer (how many remember saucer and blow? Course the coffee was much hotter then too because women in those days knew that coffee was hot and not to spill it in their laps and run to a lawyer. You'd fix it rather than just toss it and buy new. And nobody bought all new appliances because the color trend had changed! You could get your appliances in any color you wanted, as long as it was white, possibly with some chrome trim. Home buyers didn't know the phrase "kitchen needs 'updating'"! And for the rare circumstance if the washer quit for good and was unrepairable, you surely didn't buy a new dryer to go with it! And back then if you didn't have that item you wanted needed for whatever, you didn't make a special trip to the store. You called a neighbor or went over and asked to borrow a cup of sugar or whatever. Or you would "make do" without. If clothes went out of style, you wore clothes that were out of style until they wore out. Although few would go back to those days, many sure could learn something from those days couldn't they?

Sue36--You're not understanding Buehl's duct. The opening is in the floor, next to the wall. It's not spaced out from the wall where she could use a floor duct. The duct is not coming up into the stud cavity. This style of register is quite common here in the upper Midwest though they were new to me when I moved here from the south central part of the United States. My house has them & is 30+ years old. And it is the overwhelming choice for forced air systems in new builds. They looked weird to me for a while, until I got used to them. Now, I don't notice them because they're 'normal'. We've owned houses with both styles of registers. I prefer these because less dirt & stuff gets into the duct than what does with floor registers. And, there's no need to attach a deflector to them, either. Moving that opening out from the wall is a big deal if she has rigid metal ductwork. I can guarantee blood loss & depletion of one's French vocabulary. :) And for no good reason other than, to a few people, a minor aesthetic one. No one is going to notice that duct except for Buehl and only for a few days and that's because she is admiring her beautiful new floors. Everyone else is going to see the gorgeous floor, the pretty windows & what's outside the windows and the duct is going to disappear in the same way that outlets & switches do.

A FUNNY STORY. A few years ago my friend and I went to Las Vegas. She had a brother from California who was going to meet her there and I had a friend there. We live 4 hours from Sioux Falls SD. We had to drive down there, get on the plane and go to St. Louis and then straight out to Vegas. Well we got there without any problems. It was time to comeback and we got to the airport early and my friend told me to wait for her while she went to a smokers hut for one last cigarette. She said I cant get on the plane without you I will leave my boarding pass with you. I went to play some machines in the lobby there and there is no clock so you dont know what time it is. She came back and didnt see me and thought that I had gotten on the plane without her. She told the stewardess this and they went on the plane and paged me. Well it was time for the plane to be leaving so someone else told her they would just make her a new boarding pass. SHe got on the plane and first thought that they had just given her a new seat. Well she got up and couldnt find me. So she sits down and tell the stewardess " I think I just left my friend in Vegas" she says no maybe not so she checks her seat chart and asks what my name was so she checks the whole plane and says looks like you did. So my friend goes on tho St. Louis. Meanwhile I am still waiting for her to come back. Then I notice that the place is empty. I go up to someone and ask them and they tell me I just missed my plane. This is the first time I have ever flown on a big airplane. I flew once beforeon a 4 passenger one on a 3 hour flight. So I asked him what I should do. He told me to go down stairs and see if I can get on the next flight. SO I sm running down there and I had to stop because I am having an anziety attack and couldnt breathe. I got a ticket for the next flight and had to wait another 2 1/2 hours. My friend found out that I was on the next flight. She got to St. Louis and went to the ticket counter and asked if she should just keep going to Sious Falls or wait for me there. The clerk said "Honey if your friend didnt knnow enough to get one in Vegas, she sure will be lost here I think you better wait. So she got to sit in the airport all day. Well I finally got there and I didnt know if she would be waiting for me. I saw her and I was so happy. We went into a smokers hut and we were laughing so hard we were crying. Im sure everyone was looking at us. The first plane we were supposed to be on had mechanical trouble so we had to change planes. But it was in a different tarmack quite a ways away. we didnt have much time to get there. She is a nurse and there was an elderly lady that was having trouble and she was trying to help her and I didnt think we would make it, but we did. I was supposed to be at work by 6:00 the next morning. She said she would drive home and I could sleep and we would still make it. I said OK. We got to Sioux Falls and he couldnt land the plane because of fog. He tried a couple of times and then they announce we are going back to St. Louis. Mt feind wasnt very happy because she had just spent all day there. This was in April I think. We got to St. Louis and they said the plane was leaving at 5 the next morning and they werent putting us up in a motel. Well some of the more experienced flyers grabbed pillows and blankets, but not me. I had on shorts and a short sleeved shirt. This is in April and it wasnt very warm but it was when I left Vegas. My luggage is in SF. I told my friend that a few weeks ago I had read in a Readers Digest that most big airports had a chapel and I asked her if she wanted to go there with me because I thought they would have pews that we could lay on. She told me "If you think Im going any place with you again you are crazy and if your not here in :the morning im leaving your butt here" I went to the chapel and everyone else must have read that same magazine. People were laying all over and covering up with anything they could find including the rugs. Well I was cold and the only thing left was the altar cloth. So I used it and I thought Godf wouldnt want me to be cold and he would forgive me. It took me a long time to finally tell my mother that. Ny oarents were very strong Catholics. Well the next morning we left at 5 and got to SF and it was still foggy he tried 3 times and finally found a hole to come down in. Now I blame my friend and she blames me but we are still friends and still joke about it a lot. I hope you all enjoy this story. My husband got stranded once on the Interstate in ND when he was hauling mail to Fargo from Bismarck. A blizzard came up and they were stranded in a rest area and we didnt know where he was for a while.