dainaadelle - We do have a porch 7'x 8' and considered putting columns on it. I decided against it because I didn't want anything blocking my view from the garden window over my kitchen sink. As far as color, I'm still in a quandary. My contractor is encouraging me to stay with lighter colors. The designer I consulted suggested mountain sage green and timberbark or woodstock brown. http://www.jameshardiesidingcenter.com/p_colorplus.shtml I would like to stay in the colorplus options because the color is baked in and is guaranteed for 15 years. However, I have done quite a bit of research and it sounds like the darker colors fade more than the light. jakabedy - I will look for this at the library. I couldn't find many good images of the Clif May houses. The different finishes are an issue. The house has a stone front but the stone is not used anywhere else. I think it would have been much more cohesive if there had been stone used on the porch and/or the garage side. Having said that, I can't find anything to match and was planning to leave the stone alone. Whatever accent color is used, I will also put on the garage side. Now the only accent is the red shutters on the right gable. stacyneil - yes, I plan to extend the overhang on the gables. Not sure how much space is under the existing wood but I am hoping to do that. gsciencechick - Thanks for the lead. I'll look for that!

I love the arts & crafts/mission/art deco tiles. Thought about going in that direction but too expensive for me. Maybe I'll start collecting a few tiles to just use as art. One thing I thought about doing was taking an individual picture tile or pair and surrounding it in wood-like tile as a frame. Then insetting it in less expensive field tile. But I was uncertain if I could get the looks to match well enough ... I wound up picking a rather inexpensive cement tile to be my backsplash. Haven't installed yet. I was a little surprised with this tile at how thin and surface-oriented and smooth the design was. It almost felt cheap to me, almost like a photo-laminated coaster? But I decided it wouldn't bother me once it is installed. I'd make sure to have a sample in hand though to see if you like it in person. I didn't investigate the use as floor tile though.

The shrub/hedge is a ficus. The trees on the side came with the house. I am not sure what it is but blooms pink large flower. I agree, the fence is nice. The hedge is to cut out noise and to create more privacy in the back there is an apartment sitting up on a hill behind the house that looks into the yard. A 9 foot hedge would give us the privacy. We thought about trees inside the yard but that would take away space from an already small yard. The front flat yard is small. I am attaching the size. Flat land on left is approx 24' wide x 15' and right side is 16' by 15'. The left is actually larger. The lop is a aprox 30 degree 5'9" I am definitely going to hit Pasadena area. My neighborhood is mixed with landscape styles. It's a neighborhood that is changing. The new kids are doing the complete drought thing and some mixing covers, and grass with drought. The older homes have low fences/gates around the front yard (predominantly to keep the homeless from sleeping on their yards) We were one of the first to take off our front door security gate, and now, others are following. So it is hard to gauge the neighborhoods theme. I would say, 10% of the houses are fully drought resistant(new kids), 75 % grass and tree (50% with gates) and the rest of the folks have dead grass (could be considered drought tolerant (GRIN) or total hard-scape. I have to admit, I dig some of doug's designs. I am not a fan of the palm trees but that design is appealing

Apologies for being MIA, but I'm back with a better floor plan roughly showing doorways and windows. Our dining table is shown in the dining room in the plan (dashed line = with leaf). Each square on the plan is 1' x 1'. I should add that as of right now our residence here is only for 3 years, and we don't know whether we'll be taking the furniture with us when we leave -- hence the need to stick to a budget and make do with what we have!