House is facing east? I see you are using the shaded side for a patio with chairs and table. I would preserve that, along with a straight shot from the exterior stairs to the front door. In keeping with the cubed home design, I would do any cuts to remove concrete along practical grid lines. At the same time, I would look at ways to add some elevated features to interrupt the flat parking lot look of the front. Consider adding low seating walls around a succession of large overlapping square or rectangular raised beds, and/or a lily pond? Consider changing out the fence for something less institutional -- even a lower chain link fence would seem more welcoming. Budget constraints will dictate how far you can go with it, but you have a different kind of blank slate, and a terrific chance to be creative with it. Take your cues from the cubic assymetry of the house for a cohesive look.

Many of these roses are familiar to me from the J&P catalogues my dad used to get. Chrysler Imperial, Tropicana, Nocturne ... I loved them all. As one who came of age in the 60s, however, I don't recall the "Mad Men" era with anything like affection. Conformist, buttoned-up, alcoholic and reeking of tobacco, with lame music and dull jokes -- I was glad to see it all go. Not a great time to be a teen, unless of course one could go to one's own room, plug the tiny one-piece headset into the brand-new clock radio (it actually received FM!) and rock out to the Stones. Oh yes, and drag the one telephone in the house into the room and engage in endless live, voice conversations with one's friends.. Nostalgia for the roses, yes, but not for the social order. And please, don't bring back black-and-white TV! ;) Sylvia

This is my same post to a blog from a few days ago, but answer applies here. Let us know who you go with! I got new windows installed over the last few months. I wanted fiberglass, brown on both sides. I got quotes on Anderson Fibrex, Milgard Ultra, Marvin and Pella. As stated above, Anderson's Fibrex is NOT fiberglass. When I asked if any vinyl was in the product the sales rep stopped replying to me. I lost faith in Marvin because the sales rep here tried to sell me windows with argon in order to qualify for the tax credit, but failed to tell me their warranty is VOIDED if windows installed at over 5000ft don't have breather/capillary tubes because the seals can pop and glass bows. http://search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A0oG78xF119NszsANUdXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTBybnZlZnRlBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkAw--/SIG=129s3ps6l/EXP=1298155461/**http%3a//www.marvin.com/download.aspx%3fDocumentID=1547 I ended up going with Milgard. Over the warranty was the best, the product has great ratings, and it was pretty cheap to get triple pane. You can read my blogs here of problems I have had though, but it is not with the product itself. Between the sales rep and the company they have made FOUR mistakes on my order from the wrong size to missing grids to non-matching grid patterns. They were supposed to be done with installation in Nov, and it probably won't all be fixed until March. I still like the product though. Out of the 4 quotes, Marvin was the most, Anderson was 2nd most expensive.

thanks for the antler link firsthouse_mp! Are you working on another project now? Can't wait to see photos of your new house! I discovered Jessica Martin at a gallery in SF about 6 years ago. I was helping decorate the offices of the company I worked for at the time in and they bought three of her pieces that hung in our SF office. One was very similar to the one you have. I have been yearning for one of her pieces for years, so my husband bought me one of her pieces for Christmas, but it's sitting in a closet right now because we're trying to figure out the best place for it. I need to get some furniture in this house so we can find a spot for it! The house does have ocean and city lights views. And the house also came with a peacock that lives in the yard. I wake up to him at our back door every morning. My dog is getting used to him being around. Here are some recent shots of our progress - we're working on the interior first but the property needs a lot of TLC too: