Basically, are you just wanting to know where to plant all this stuff that you already bought? I suggest that you open the photo of you lot in Microsoft Paint and enlarge it some. (Actually, with the way GardenWeb does photos, we don't know what's its real size is. Maybe it's fine, but here, it looks tiny. view it at 100% in Paint and if you think it needs to be larger, you can "resize" it by %. Experiment. Do a "save as" in case you don't like what you produce and wish to start over.) Then you might use one of the paintbrush tools to plot in where you think you want to plant whatever. Just a dot is fine. (Research each plant--easy on Google--and decide what it could be. For example, the Burr Oak is a large shade tree. The red cedars are a large screen.) Just concoct something out of what you believe these things to be, scratch it out the best you can and post it here for feedback. You can mark trees with dots and label them with the text tool. (It only works when you are working on the drawing at the 100% scale. If you work on it at other sizes, the text tool is inoperable.) You can use the eraser tool to get rid of unwanted "junk" lines & marks on the drawing in order to clean it up a little. (for each drawing tool there is an adjustment scale to make it wider or narrower, so pick what works for you.)

What a delightful house! I'd want something that is either naturally mounding or small-scale loose-form under the windows, personally. I've never been able to like itty bitty plants at the foundation, either. How would you feel about just a plain ol' Picea pungens 'Glauca Globosa'? The blue wouldn't be "blah green" to you. And there's also Thuja occidentalis 'Golden Globe'. Lots of people love golden evergreens with azaelas. These are hardly wild & exotic suggestions but would give a year-round root to your scheme. (BTW, this is an either/or solution, NOT a both solution!) I'd be tempted to say "forget grass!" under the trees on the right and plant a ground cover there (if it's still very shaded, that is). Mowing seems too much of a pain even if you mulch around them--way too much effort and turning for a very small space. You seem to like color, so maybe something that's evergreen and blooming? On the sunny side, how about some daylilies in front of the bushes? They will bloom throughout summer if you get the right types, and their foliage is very attractive even when they aren't blooming. You would need something to balance them on the shady side, too. One row of buches with some lower perennials in the front is all I'd want to do in a small front yard with a house of that style.

Tomato David, Congrats on your new property! Sounds like you will have some very nice soil by next year. My wife is looking forward to having a big chunk of wildflowers all around the house. Being Japanese, she is not as into having a patch of green grass as I am (although I just want a little one). 'Pup, I was thinking about the weeds, and decided totake a number of different approaches. One is to thin by cutting most of them off at the base and leaving them to rot in place. A second is to pull and mulch the desirable plants near them. The third is to cut, carry, and compost them. I am not too worried about bare ground, the vetch and other plants are spreading like wildfire. Now I have found some serious bamboo coming out of a few roots that got left behind. They are all pencil thin whips this year, but I don't want them to get established where they are now. I have a space set aside for them at the bottom of the hill, surrounded by a 50cm ditch. On the other hand, I have harvested a lot of cucumbers already! It was fun, walking around, then seeing a beautiful straight eight cucumber hanging from a vine climbing a lambsquarter! I found a lot more after that. But you really have to look for them in all that jungle. Eric in Japan Here is a link that might be useful:

Thank you all for your comments and feedback! I will add some more details here to better define my project. DETAILS: 1. Yes, getting new appliances. A big, french door fridge (35.5 inches wide, SS) Keeping current dishwasher (standard 24", SS) Adding a drawer microwave (27" Sharp SS) Still trying to decide about range or cooktop / oven. If I get a range, it will be 30" with a double oven configuration. If I select a professional range, it will be 36". If I do a cooktop / oven, the cooktop will be 36" and under-counter oven. All SS. Big, deep single bowl SS sink 33" (requires a 36" cabinet) 2. Yes, I definitely want an island that we can have at least 3 stools at for teens to eat, etc. 3. No table. In the lower left corner, we already have a table and eating area. (It's located off the design drawing) 4. Yes, we can move the pantry opening to the left. 5. No, sadly, I am not getting a prep sink . . . darn it . .. hubby won't allow plumbing changes. 6. From the bottom right corner, on the right side wall, the first 9 ft. have been removed to open up the kitchen. The remainder of the right side wall is still there though. DIMENSIONS: * 9 ft ceilings * Top wall is 210" total with 132" of continuous wall space (assuming I shift the pantry opening to the left more. * Right wall is 252" total with the first 108" now gone. (at the bottom of the wall). The upper portion of the right wall has 120" of continuous wall space. * The bottom wall is 140" total. It has a big window on it, so only lower cabinets can fit here. I have two sink hookup options that do not require plumbing changes. I can keep the sink under the window, where it is currently on my drawing. Or, I can put it off of the top wall, about middle of that wall. I don't really like the idea of my sink facing a wall, so I would prefer it stay on the bottom wall, under the window. Things I would like: * A pullout base cabinet that will hold 3 trash cans (21" cabinet) * I would prefer that most or all of my base cabinets be drawers. Is that a good idea? Or, will it look odd? If I have lower cabinets, then I want pull out shelves. * I'd like a big island, and I think I could accommodate that. * I would like to have a hood in my kitchen to help get rid of cooking smells. I like the hoods are are hidden inside cabinetry. (See pictures.) * Off white traditional style cabinet doors. PICTURES: A. . An example of the kind of hood that I would like to have. B. This is a picture of my old kitchen. You are looking at the bottom left wall area (on my drawing, for reference.) This is our eating area. So, no need to make any table fit into my drawing b/c we have this other area. C. We remodeled that dining wall area in Picture B, and it now looks like this. My new kitchen will have the same brick for backsplash to tie it all together. D. This is an old picture of my kitchen. You are looking at the wall that we knocked down (I drew a blue line over the portion of the wall that is missing now.) That window has been replaced with a 3 section window with upper mullions. Again, thank you for taking the time to read all of this and thanks for offering opinions and advice. I really appreciate it!