You have so many choices, what fun!!! I'm with esh - a mix of deciduous and evergreen is much more interesting. And I'm all for natives as well. I was faced with a similar foundation-type challenge this past year on the front side of my house. I had a whole lotta shade from huge Southern Red Oaks so I didn't need to add any more shade. In fact I had a hard time finding beautiful plants that thrive in full shade but I managed. I've been mostly happy with my choices (again assisted by all the wonderful GW folks here.) This has been a most beautiful autumn here (I'm just north of you in KY), despite the Easter freeze and summer drought so I thought about your question in terms of fall color. I ran out with my digital camera and snapped off a few shots of some shrubs I have around my foundation in full autumn glory. I didn't get around to all of them as I lost the light. Sorry for the flash pictures, I still don't know how to turn it off when I want to. For my part on the north side I chose heavy to moderate shade evergreens - Mountain Laurel, Pieris, Leucothoe and Sarcococca, and some shade tolerant deciduous shrubs - Itea, Calycanthus, Cornus, Hydrangea quercifolia, Fothergilla, Viburnum, and some perennials - Hellebores, Heucheras and Liriope. I can't remember them all right now. But just around the corner on the east side of my house I have the hottest, sunniest driest garden - and so the plants change dramatically from my northside shady garden - the transition is kind of tricky. I have a mature Fosters holly at the corner, limbed it up a bit and underplanted it with a Clethra (another native favorite of mine.)It'll take a mix of sun and shade. BTW it has a great golden fall color not to mentions its fragrant white summer blooms. I second the idea of planting an Amelanchier (serviceberry) in your front yard. It is a beautiful tree, larger than a florida dogwood with less disease problems and the birds love it too! Great fall color. Again the shade from it will be light. Don't be afraid to just dig in and go for it. There are no mistakes in gardening, just "learning experiences" LOL! Some late afternoon pics for you: Fothergilla - I LOVE this native shrub, I have several planted around my deck and in the wooded area in the backyard. Oakleaf hydrangea - also a native, and look at that fall color! The flowers are amazing too! My "hot" eastside foundation wall - with a rugosa rose and Miscanthus, a pleasing combination, in all seasons.

Thanks , we considered that but had two concerns . First , given that it's a cottage , there will be times when the whole system , heat, water, etc will be shut down , mostly in the winter and we were afraid that the expansion and contraction associated with that could affect a glued down floor also , again because as a cottage , people will be in and out a lot , there could be a fair degree of wear that would mean re-finishing which , as I understand , is a problem with engineered flooring . I was hoping tha there was a new application process for hardwood that I didn't know about such as a sheet underlay with a plywood overlay or something like that . If not , we may have to consider tile throughout .

Turns out that for our 60-yr old house, we have copper pipes being attached to galvanized pipes (interior). Apparently not ideal. I assume you mean the developer con-game where all the below-grade and beneath-slab runs are cheap galvanized, while all the risers and stub-outs are copper, so the happy home buyer THINKS they have "all copper" plumbing, then decades later the galvi completely rusts away... SURPRISE!... the phookin' Bastiges! ASIDE: I'm always surprised to hear about concrete slab construction in a seismically active area like SF Bay... always thought it would be too "brittle"...? Do I understand that you also have a concrete ROOF, with zero attic space? Do you also have hollow concrete block walls (aka CBS)? These will really limit your options... OTOH, sunlight and weather will never ever damage exposed copper, painted or not. Careless roofers, maybe, UV rays, nay way. Anyway, concrete slab is the norm here in So-Fla (Hurricane Alley), with a shallow peaked roof, and at least a small attic space, PLUS we don't have the freeze issue mentioned by first respondent. Here, when the original (galvanized) pipes beneath the slab give out, the new replacement copper is typically just run straight up the exterior wall from the service entrance (which is outside the footer/foundation/walls), through the soffet (copper pipe painted to match stucco walls), and then branched off in the attic to where it needs to go. So except for that one main feed, the rest is out of sight. Same with output of the water heater, except it's vertical output is interior. This exterior pipe run can be avoided if service entrace is outside of a utility room--or relocated there--since you can then punch straight through the block, and go vertical inside, typically right near the water heater, i.e. do all your ceiling punches and exposed piping in one spot. New copper feeds for interior fixtures are fished down interior walls, but of course you still have to knock out some drywall to tie them in, and retire/cap-off the old feeds coming up through the slab. (Plumber ain't fixin' the drywall either!) Outdoor hose bibs and pool showers usually result in more of the "dreadful" exterior pipe runs, again, unless it's outside a utility/laundry room. Essentially, with Florida CBS construction, you can't run/hide pipes inside the hollow vertical channels of the block walls, because the wall is topped off with a solid poured-in-place concrete header, which starts below attic level. (In fact the roof trusses rest on top of--and are tied to--the top surface of this header.) SUMMARY: 1) I would be VERY wary of Option 3, and it sounds like you are; 2) I would like more details on your roof, but I'd be very reluctant to punch any new holes in it... OTOH, you probably have stack vents and all sorts of other "penetrations" already, so... 3) Exterior pipe runs, if horizontal, and low to the ground, could be camoflauged with landscaping...? Paint to match in any event. And there's always those "architectural" (aluminum) channels used to cover bundles of conduits and cables. 4) You GOTTA have indoor plumbing, or the neighbors will say bad things about you, LOL!

I would do a neutral so there is some contrast to the white but not too much.