This isn't a 'shady' area. It is an area that gets decent sun. Shade plants can often handle an eastern exposure, but not always. Start by deciding what you would like it to look like *in the winter*. Deciduous shrubs look like dead sticks. So it is usual to plant shrubs that have some sort of color during the winter. Instead of the hydrangea, a blue colored conifer like a blue juniper would provide that color all year, then a shorter, flowering shrub could be planted in front. There are also gold conifers. BTW, the shrubs on the left are probably some sort of flowering shrub. I'd get them ID'ed before yanking them out. A lot of things are looking unusually ratty after this winter, and they may just need a bit of time and some pruning to look decent.

Good advice here from everyone... I've got a chicken info site that may help, here: http://jackshenhouse.com/ As for the nesting issue with the chickens, to encourage them to lay eggs where YOU want them to, make the nest you build the best and most attractive play to lay. Chickens like to feel that they are 'hiding' their clutch of eggs from predators, so I've found that they prefer a dark nest. Mine are wooden boxes with one open side, and the open side has a curtain of black landscape fabric over it, with a slit cut up the center to create an opening. There is also a small wooden lip along the bottom front about two inches high to retain straw and eggs. Add a layer of straw a couple of inches thick in the bottom of the nest, and you've got Hen Heaven! As for the dogs, I'd either hang the nest boxes up off the ground a few feet, and add chicken ladders for the hens to climb to get to them, or build a henhouse that is strictly two rows of nests, facing each other with a walkway in between, with a chicken-size opening at one end. Add a hinged roof over the nests themselves that can be secured down, for you to lift and remove eggs that way. If the dogs are larger than the hens, then they won't be able to get into the henhouse and on to the nests. This will also make the hens feel more secure about using those nests over somewhere else in the yard. Even so, some girls are stubborn and will get it into their heads to go exploring for a new place to lay...my hens have found some of the weirdest places imaginable! They will also roam the yard, hollering about the upcoming egg, frantically searching for JUST the right spot for it...and then just go lay it in the nest, like always. I've also got some girls that will lay later in the day, just to be special princesses. Little nutjobs. Have fun with your animals, and keep them safe! :) Velvet ~:>

Check my response in this thread. It's the response that begins with "Seed recommendation" so scroll down to locate it. Some of the links in that thread direct the poster to help in her area. For you in your area, specific information for soil testing, sampling, and test kits can be found at the following links....... Soil Testing information PennState Cooperative Extension Offices or County Directory A soil test will let you know if you need to add lime, sulfur, or other nutrients (that are not in Step 6) and will tell you how much to apply and at what intervals. My suggestion is to follow steps 2-9 in the fall. If you don't want to kill off the lawn to start over, then skip Step 2 and gradually mow the grass down to 1.5 inches before proceeding with Step 3. Here is a maintenance schedule to follow through the year. It's the 9th or 10th response from the top. For now, clean up the yard and lightly rake when the soil is dry. Apply a pre-emergent herbicide like Halts (without fertilizer) to prevent crabgrass. All other info is in the link to the maintenance schedule. Always mow high at 3 inches or higher. Irrigate 1 inch a week. The tuna cans test for measuring 1 inch is also explained in the maintenance schedule. The best way to remove weeds is to pull them, roots and all. If there are just too many to pull, a Weed Hound is very, very helpful. If still too many, an herbicide can be applied when weeds are actively growing. The link contains suggestions and there is a suggestion for broadleaf (dandelions and such) weed prevention.

Its a pretty house but I think you're going to find it a bit "tight". The previous poster's comments about the garage not being deep enough or wide enough for two full-size cars is spot on. With three kids under six, you probably drive an SUV -- or at least something big enough to fit 3 child car seats into! Go out and measure your cars (length and width). Then consider that you need a couple of feet (at least) on each side and a couple of feet between the two cars when they are parked in the garage to get doors open. You also need a couple of feet (at least) at the front to manuver around the car and at least 6 inches of clearance at the back to close the garage doors. And those are minimums. If you're lugging an infant and all his/her stuff while shepherding the other two little ones and getting them buckled into seat belts, you're going to want more than the minimum clearance. Most people "solve" their tight garage issues by loading and unloading passengers out in the drive way so that only the driver has to squeeze into/out of the car while it is in the garage. With three small children, you are NOT going to want to do that. And, if you plan on storing the kids' bicycles, a lawn mower, and/or any garden or yard tools in the garage, that 2 ft deep "storage" bumpout is totally inadequate. I also don't like the 6ft wide utility room that also must serve as the family's entrance area from the garage. With 3 small kids, I would bet you do several loads of laundry every single day. You need space to sort dirty laundry and to fold clean laundry that is NOT in a high traffic area. You NEED a separate laundry room even if it is very tiny. And, having a "mud room" area with cubbies to collect coats/hats/books/etc would make your life so much easier. If you read this forum very long, you'll find that most posters absolutely love their mudrooms and cubbies. Additionally, the master closets each appear to be barely 6 ft wide and yet are drawn showing hanging shelves along both sides. Once you have clothing hanging on both sides, the remaining aisle way is going to be barely 2 ft wide. A walk-in closet with hanging rods on both sides needs to be at least 7 ft wide. The lack of a pantry may not bother you as you will have a fairly decent amount of kitchen cabinet space. But, where do you plan to store brooms, mops, and the vacuum cleaner? I also don't see any provision for the HVAC unit or hot water heaters. Since there are no stairs going down to a basement, will these be in the attic? I strongly recommend against putting your hot water heater in the attic. Those things do have a tendency to burst when they get old. And besides, getting a new water heater into the attic when you need to replace it is a real chore!!! If you're planning to use tankless water heaters, that won't be a problem. Otherwise the water heater is going to take up part of your utility room. You said you've been settled on this house plan for a several months so I rather doubt you want to start over fresh looking for something else. But I think you can modify the plan without significantly altering the overall floor plan or the elevation to solve most of issues above. I hope the Gardner people won't mind but I've taken the liberty of using my paint program to sketch out some possible revisions. The red lines indicate where the exterior walls have been pulled out. You'll note the right hand wall is pulled out by about 2 or 3 feet and the front of the garage is pulled forward by a few feet. The two bedrooms are about the same size they started out as. This gives you room for a separate laundry room - albeit a very tiny one so I'd recommend that you to look into getting a stackable washer and dryer - and a shallow broom closet. I also think this gives you room for mud-room cubbies in your back entrance hall. And, it would solve the tight garage issue. To gain useable storage space in the garage, the storage bumpout portion of the garage is pulled foward an additional foot or so. If the bumpout is 3 or 4 feet deep, it will be much more useful than if it is only 2 ft deep. Finally, to increase the master closet sizes, I pulled the masterbath and the room labeled bedroom/study forward by about a foot. (Whatever amount is necessary to make the closets a full 7 ft wide.) You'll need to move the bathtub down a little bit to make room for the closet but the bathroom will be a little bit larger overall. Again, the bedroom is kept the same size as it was initially. Sorry but I couldn't figure out a good place to add in a pantry without totally revising your plan. Maybe someone else on this forum can come up with an idea.