Hello everyone -- Thanks for taking the time to respond to my question. I appreciate all of your perspectives and suggestions. Let me clarify a couple of points. FYI (and perhaps your comic enjoyment), our subdivision is in high desert country, where we enjoy an average of 300 sun-days but only about 13 inches of rain per year. The lower level building lots have few trees and only minimal ground cover (desert grasses, cats claw, weeds and the like) -- the lots higher in the subdivision have considerable growth of good sized juniper trees, scrub oak and pine. The two lots in question (about 2 acres each) are half way up the mountain -- the higher lot has 8 or 9 trees, the lower lot just one big one. The point being, the owners of the lower lot could have purchase a building site (assuming they were willing and able to pay more money for it) that affords a good amount of natural screening. Instead, they bought a lot that has virtually none. With the Committee's approval, the owners of the lower lot have now installed grass sod on a large portion of their lot, which they are watering with large golf course-like Rainbird sprinklers(and are evidently willing to pay the water bill) to keep the grass alive for their kids and dogs to enjoy. (See, our Committee is not totally adverse to family living.) In contrast, all neighboring lot owners who have built or are in the process are landscaping with crushed rock and low-water consumption plants fed by drip sprinklers. The BB equipment issue is a precursor of things to come, since the owners of the lower lot have informed our Committee that they also intend to apply for permission to install an outdoor jungle gym for their kids (the one they brought with them from their prior home, which they now have disposed of but intend to replace with new equipment, was around 10 feet tall and quite massive -- something you'll not easily miss sitting on the highest part of their grass lawn in front of their house (where they want to install it) as you drive up and down the main road of the subdivision. The large hedge that they plan to plant as depicted in their proposed landscape plan may some day screen the jungle gym (I figure just about the time the kids are ready for junior high school). As to rolling the BB equipment into position when the kids or dad want to shoot some hoops, the equipment does have wheels and is intended to be mobile -- however, setting it up involves adding about 500 pounds of water to the base, which renders the BB hoop tough to move around -- and, of course, you wouldn't want to be wasting a lot of water by filling and emptying the stand every time you want to use it (my editorial comment). The owners of the lower lot also resisted a suggestion to mount the BB hoop on the roof above one of their three garage doors, which would make it much less conspicuous. The expressed concern is that the garage door and stucco siding of the home would take a beating as the kids learn how to play BB and sharpen their skills. Finally, in defense of my "garbage can" comment, actually, our trash containers are not all that bad looking, particularly when stacked neatly against the side of a home or garage. Depending on which service you use, they are either blue or green in color. And, they're also mobile, nicely equipped with large rubber wheels to accommodate the trek down our long driveways on Wednesday morning and back in the evening. For me, it's a toss up -- garbage containers -- BB hoops sitting 10' in the air -- jungle gym's that tower skyward on treeless lots -- mechanical equipment (air conditioners, and the like), RV equipment (tents, trailers and the like), etc. Our CC&Rs provide that our Committee can require they be screened from view. My question is simply, does that mean now or sometime in the future? Thanks again. You've all been great. Peter

Oh, fun! I would suggest miscanthus gracillimus or m. sinensis - there are alot of different ones to choose from out of these. The bulk of the plants won't obscure the view from the window, though the flowering plumes will be taller. Still not too much to block the view. I have them here in my mid-MI garden. Sometimes the plumes don't mature until late in the season, after frost, but they are a nice architectural addition to the winterscape, when there is so little else to see. Oh, and they grow into a sizeable bush 2-3 ft across. Good bones for your spot without being oversized. I personally love perennials, so I'd include an accent plant or two of Carolina thermopsis - Carolina lupine. It's yellow, looks like all lupines, but is taller and very hardy here. In your sheltered location, I can't imagine it would require staking of any sort - the stalks are very strong and woody. The leaves would be a nice contrast with the grasses. After blooming, the seed heads are rather attractive for the winter also. Another grass that I'm going to be starting in my garden this year is Hakonechloa macra - Japanese Forest Grass. Also many varieties and it seems to be in most of the catalogs I've looked at lately. The leaves are wider than some grasses, which lends interest, and some of them get nice fall color, too. Other possibles: the rudbeckias - any of these are great for a splash of color, and there are more than just the yellows out there. Daylilies are great! And the varieties, colors, shapes of bloom and size of plants are virtually endless, plus they've got all the rebloomers out there now to give a late season flush of color. So, there are a few suggestions! (I have to stop myself from gushing on...LOL)

Thank you all! You are making me so happy. :) I am not really a cook and have to say that the new space is inspiring me. I love being in the kitchen. Roserx - the faucet is Grohe's Bridgeford. It is awesome. Megaul - the window is an Andersen 400 series. The sides are casements and the center is a fixed picture. The dimensions are 6 feet wide by 3 feet tall. We originally discussed a taller window but it didn't work out and now I am so glad - with the taller backsplash behind the sink we get to see more granite and we don't have all the water splash on the window! :) I love my new window! :)

It is normal for doors (especially interior doors) to have lower heads than windows (doors relate to the floor for access, windows relate to the sky for light) but French doors are part door and part window so they can present a challenge. An inch or two unavoidable misalignment can be helped by a larger head trim on the shorter opening. The first thing to do is be more accurate in predicting the top of the openings. A door is sized by its frame opening height above the finish floor (AFF) so it is easy to predict where the head of the opening will be AFF. An exterior French door is sized by the height of the rough opening or the top of the frame above the sub-floor. To determine the head opening height above the finish floor you must print out the detail of the door head and carefully scale the dimension from the rough to the finish opening and then subtract that and the flooring thickness. Also nominal door heights do not always relate to the actual door heights. For instance, a nominal 7-0 Marvin Ultimate French Door has an opening AFF of 7-0 but an nominal 8-0 door has an opening height AFF of 7-9 1/2. If such arbitrary framing dimensions seem strange it is because windows and glass doors have traditionally been sized by standard glass sizes from the days when only the glass was fabricated in a factory. Modern synthetic framed windows have dropped this convention. You would need to do the same thing with the windows to find the difference between the rough opening size (or frame size) and the top of the sash. Unfortunately this can differ between double-hungs and casement/awning windows. To get even more accurate I always determine the height of the bottom of the casing trim A.F.F. for all of the different openings. I keep this information noted in my window catalogs so it is easy to align facade elements. I would not worry about a slight difference between a curved transom light and a nearby window or French door.