I live quite near you and have considerable shade. Viburnums are a good choice; there is a big variety to choose from too. Other understory trees/shrubs for our zone include dogwood, pieris, rhododendron, azaleas, euonymus (not burning bush, invasive here!),and hydrangeas. I have a caryopteris that does well in medium shade with late afternoon sun, and a weigela that is also happy in shade. Also grape holly and boxwood. There are others, like daphne, that I haven't tried but are supposed to be shade shrubs. You have to be careful about which of the colored hydrangeas; some are "cold hardy" meaning the roots don't die, but the rest of the shrub will die down to the ground and you never get blooms. The labels will not tell you that! Others like "Endless Summer" do fine since they bloom on both old and new growth; and there are some that are native here that don't bloom pink or blue, only white, yet are reliable. Of the colored varieties, to get blue flowers you have to put peat moss or ammonium sulfate in the planting hole to get them the acid they need; otherwise they bloom pink. Rhododendrons and azaleas will also require acid amended soil to do well, but they can do very well For almost all plants we need to lighten up our soil to improve drainage. Easily done by digging in some vegetative material, sand, pebbles etc. The county soil and water district is offering plants at great prices right now: Here is a link that might be useful: budget friendly plant sale from Franklin County

EEP! Screen the deck so critters (and kids) can't get under it. To the right you could build in some storage area with doors for toys and garden tools. Regardless of budget, lay out the WHOLE PLAN right now. Check out the sprinkler system and see where each zone waters, and mark it on your plan. You can easily change an entire zone to be a drip system for veggie gardens or landscape borders. You can't have a single zone for lawn sprinklers and drip system ... neither will work correctly. Identify all those plants along the fence - most of them are probably poor choices and can be removed now, but you may have some things worth saving. You also may have some vines that will destroy the fence if they don't get a proper trellis (I think I see grapes). 1 - Minimize the lawn area. One big enough for a soft play area for toddlers is no larger than 20x20. To have a good play area for older kids, send them to the park - they need huge areas. 2 - Set up your activity zones ... landscape planning is just like furniture and house planning. Where does it make sense to do what? 3 - Decide on the future plants, generically speaking, and have a list of species and varieties and a spot on the plan for them. Native and whatever non-native can do well with minimal watering will also For inexpensive to free landscape stuff, keep checking Craigslist and freecycle for free plants. Whenever I divide perennials or remove them, I usually advertise them. If you have a plan, you will know whether the freebies are going to work or not, and save a lot of time. Xeriscaping Tips: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/45812/tips_on_xeriscaping_its_not_zeroscaping.html I like the deck - re-staining it and fixing any loose boards is all I would do. Here is a link that might be useful: landscape design for novices

A steep hip roof should be significantly more expensive to build than something like a 6/12 gabled roof. You won't save money going to a hip roof. A steeply pitched roof in country that doesn't require one is a design fad. A few months ago, someone posted something like, "What current fad will scream 2009 twenty years from now?" I think it will be the needlessly steeply pitched roof and the gables galore syndrome. Both drive up the price of the build, increase the cost of maintenance, and probably will hurt resale in years to come. This is just my opinion, so take it for whatever you will, but there is no way I would build a "buried" screened porch like the one in your plans. A screened porch needs to be in the open as much as possible in order to get that outdoors feeling and some breezes. There are other problems with yours as designed as well. As designed, you will have to build and insulate three exterior wall portions common to the porch, instead of just one or two. That is going to increase costs. You are also building an outdoor environment over your basement. That is an invitation to leaks and adds additional insulation costs. Your terrain shows a very steep slope due to grading in a manner that brings the land up to the screen porch level. That will require a retaining wall, another expense. If you don't grade that way, your screened porch will have to have a 36' railing, which will add to the closed in feeling of a three walled porch. If you really want a screened porch, redesign the house so that the porch is only dependent on one exterior wall and is not over the basement, but on decking, like our build (not yet screened). You don't have to extend the entire roof to covered the screened porch, which is essentially what we have done. You can always add a shed roof over the screened porch. That seems to be the most common way it's done. If the deck extends beyond the screened porch, the corresponding screened wall will not require a 36" railing. The deck railing will meet the code requirement instead. It's something to keep in mind. Lastly, orient the house and the screened porch so that it is shaded or sunny as you desire at the right time of day. The wrong orientation can ruin the functionality of the porch.

I really like the look of the glass 'stripes' (not a full glass panel - I think you would loose airflow). http://www.ufpi.com/product/deckorators/balusters/scenic.htm However it was out of our budget for now... so we went with the basic black Aluminum Balusters..... I think it impededs the view less then wood would.