Do not apologize for your bungalow! They are wonderful. It's great you are taking up the challenge of restoring one. 'Silver Sheen' is a gorgeous airy tree, but it struggles away from the coast. SFV I think it might be too hot for it, but look around your neighborhood and see if any are growing and thriving nearby. If you see some that have been there more than five years and look great, a definite option. For the dense area I would look at Syzygium paniculatum, which for decades was the ideal narrow screening plant for Southern California; this all changed when a psyllid arrived that ruins the foliage, HOWEVER, the state released a psyllid-predator that seems to be keeping the psyllid under decent control; you get some damaged foliage, but not enough to make the plant look particularly bad or kill it off. Let them grow to the height of your neighboring apt building or a few feet shorter, then top and shear as a hedge. Quite drought-tolerant once established and do not plant too close to the fence, 4 or 5' apart and at least 4' from your fence. If you keep them topped and trimmed, they will be happy and well-behaved for decades to come. The Syzygium you see would be historical to the youth and middle age of that bungalow. A another really classic choice would be Hollywood Juniper, Juniperus chinensis 'Torulosa', which was so popular 1920-1970 it got named after Hollywood. Another historical choice for the dense portion, if you can sacrifice some space, would be citrus trees, which are also beautiful ornamental trees--a lot of people forget that, not to mention the out-of-this-world fragrance of the blossoms. They made nice screens and do not get too tall (avoid grapefruit--they can get huge, unless you get one on dwarfing rootstock). Choose a citrus you are going to enjoy eating, not an oddity with fruit you don't know what to do with. For the airy, you have a lot more choice. Look at some small, choice palms (NOT trashy, reseeding-everywhere-pest Washingtonias, which end up costing a fortune to trim and are habitat for rat infestations, avoid!). For example the Mexican blue palm, Brahea armata. Some of the smaller Crape Myrtles are lovely. See "patio trees" section in the Sunset Western Garden Book for more. Your lot is probably too small for a larger tree and a large tree with ruin the look of your bungalow by overwhelming it proportionally. Medium shrubs (20-30') can make excellent shade and screen for bungalow properties.

There is extensive experience with CBS construction--probably 96% of residential and 60% of low-rise commercial--here in the rainy sub-tropics of So-Fla. I'm suprised to find this block construction in NJ, done Florida-style, i.e. without insulation, and wonder how good the local builders are at executing it. But, I believe the OP that the issue IS wind-driven rain. The 'S' in CBS stands for Stucco, and that is the ONLY thing that makes an inherently leaky bare-block wall watertight. What jumps out at me is the OP mentions a "light" coating of stucco. There is nothing "light" about a proper stucco job. It is a THREE-coat process, and the end result is over 1/2" thick. Again, the stucco is the primary water blocking factor. Paint/sealers only enter the equation "down the road", after foundation settling has caused hairline cracks. Proper stucco IS the waterproof membrane. However, in a place like NJ with real winters, the other posters are correct that, rain aside, you probably need to clad the exterior with some kind of stiff insulation and, style permitting, fiber-cement planking. If you wish to keep the stucco look, there are EIFS systems that can be stuccoed-over. The EIFS systems typically include features that allow exterior condensation to drain away... make sure the stucco guy does NOT clog these.

Sorry I was not very clear, I was just referring to the walls proper. You can run each wall conduit back to the house or from wall to wall then the house, depends on what is convenient. Just be sure to size the conduct properly (larger is ok) for the number of wires required. Your local building inspector can tell you what he will accept. Add one wire for the earth ground, it must be connected to your panel. I would suggest you get some landscape wire and run one to each wall, then you can connect speakers to it (the purest s will complain) but it works. 5 amp at 8 ohms will give you about 200 watts. Remember to check the voltage drop in the wire so you can size it properly.

look at T. o. degroots sprire ... look for single leader plants.. and try to maintain them that way ... they will outgrow many of the other arbs.. like emerald green etc ... height wise ... and i would diversify the planting .. perhaps the holly gal mentions ... i would also plant at the bottom ... why not .. i would go no more than 4 footers ... ken https://www.google.com/search?q=Thuja+occidentalis+%27DeGroot%27s+Spire%27.&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAmoVChMI59iW_ampxwIVB0KSCh3LTgG7&biw=870&bih=745&dpr=0.9