Don't feel you have to hide the whole thing, just the worst parts, The rest you can work with. If you add some value to the gate, and de-emphasize the concrete barriers, that will help. Tweaking the plants inside, will make a big difference. Solid fencing would make it worse. Plants in line with the fence, are not so good... The yard is now, hard and formal, right up against the cheap looking concrete structure, and into the wild... TRANSITION! As Laag said above, soften that transition zone. Hide the barriers. Formal linear rows add an unfortunate emphasis. You need curves, and height variations, that can play peekaboo. The glimpses from the house and street, can be tantalizing, not dizzying. Treat it as if it were a wonderful area that's so lovely, that it's too nice to share. The great English designers of centuries ago, Would ADD ruins, for interest. Look up Capability Brown. Hack down a couple of things you hate most, in there. Use strong plant arrangements and plants with strong shapes inside, to emphasize, a continuation of a curved line. Or use a plant insider as a featured design element. There will be some cool plants in there, that can be your friends.Add a flowering tree or so, IN there, like Carolina Sweetshrub, native azaleas, and Redbud. These are wild, and, decorative and it won't seem such a weed patch. * See about having the gate straightened. Having it banged up doesn't seem fair. Why does that happen? If the pond serves several houses, maybe the others could also chip in for the gate. A little decorative reinforcement, [say, steel scrolls, at the corners] could bring it closer to giving a sense of value, & mystery, beyond. -Little durable, onion shaped, or pointed elements, on the posts could give the fence a less ordinary air. Flank the gate with sweet olive. * Next, the concrete. You can mossy up the jersey barriers, with sour milk, well thinned with water. If you tint them, use a different dull tone than the drive. A line of shrubs just taller than, & in front of, the barriers, will keep the neighborhood from looking slummy. Tall Annuals will help for a year or two. The very pale driveway is the most dominant feature in the landscape, and steals most of the attention from the house. Stain it a more medium tone. A value closer to the deep house color, will bring the focus up to the house. The major focus is on the drive. The drive adds power to the concrete jersey barriers, uh oh... The curving line of shrubs, could be: *Oval shrubs that get to 10' high, like Sweet Olive, and some camellias, *shorter shrubs, out in front of The taller ones, like azaleas. -A cutting, garden and/or short veggies tucked in behind, out of sight. A curved flower border of wonderful favorites, in front. *** Keep a hard edge on the side towards the drive, and a softer, taller, looser, growth towards the wild, and farther from the house. Maybe try a short row of crisp shrubs, between the gate drive and the house drive. Try some sketches. * If you reeeally like rows, Make a rectangular decorative planting feature to the right of the house. Try a vine on the far side of the pond. Dutchman's pipe, loses leaves in the winter, but it grows very fast and is the host plant for the lovely pipevine swallowtail butterfly.... Not a lot of vines keep their leaves. Tiny shrubs are cheap and grow much faster than large plants. Flowers, fruit, perfume,... have some fun. Have you ever been to Florida? Most town lakes that you have seen there, especially in the large parks,[!] are used not just for runoff, but for water treatment. These are landscaped areas. .... Kudzu that has not been poisened [ with any pesticides] is edible. Yes, you can eat it.

Ours are hardwired and that works very well. I'm not sure I'd like the remote, however our installer didn't offer that feature so it wasn't ever in question :-) Smaller doors *would've* been nice, however. Of our seven outlets, only one is really visually obtrusive-- the one in our entry. It was the best location to reach the north side of the house, but still, it does bug me sometimes. I might've been a bit more careful about placement if I'd known what it was going to look like. You can see it in this picture-- its about 18" from the floor on the left. Everyone that walks in for the first time wants to know what it is, which makes me think its pretty noticable. Here is a link that might be useful: Hide-a-Hose

We have 5 cats and 6 boxes. And because a couple of our kitties don't get along, we can't put all the boxes in the utility room. We have 2 in the basement, and four in a room that I use as my office/tv room. Three of the four are tucked into corners, and the fourth is this Hol storage cube from IKEA. I cut a hole into the end for easy access and put a blanket on top - and am looking for fabric so I can put a cute cushion on it instead. I put the whole thing in front of a window and the cats do use it to nap on, however, I have to say, it is the least used box in the house. As mentioned by a couple of other people, a lot of cats just don't like to use a covered box. I also like the looks of the IKEA Hackers Pretty Potty - will have to figure out how I can fit that one in one of these days! Here is a link that might be useful: Hol Storage Cube

Could you close off that passageway and walk around through the living room, or would that be too much impact on traffic flow? I realize this won't work in many cases -- just brainstorming some options for you. I think the beads/cloth panels will be the easiest/lowest cost by far but its a look not everyone will want. You might also look at freestanding trifold panels which could be moved as you need them (fully blocking, partially blocking so you can squeeze by, or taken away if you need full access).