Everyone, thank you for your excellent suggestions. I think I now have some good ideas on what to do with my front yard. Gonativegal - thanks so much for listing your plants. I need hardy plants in my area as well. Although I;m listed a zone 5b in Canada, I believe my area compares to a US zone 4. Eduardia - nice to hear from you. I've always admired your garden. Just love those roses particularly the one that looks like a pink/peach double cup rose. Are these David Austen types? Threedogsman - love that look. It may just work for that median I was talking about. Although it faces a south east direction, it does have parts that are shaded and so your ideas could work out for that part of it. Some of the ideas I could also use for my backyard fence which has lots of light shaded areas. herblady I still love the idea of the wildflower garden and will use this idea for the main garden. I can imagine the wildflowers peeking through the ornamental grasses I have in that area.

Coneflowers, (Echinacea), Butterfly Pentas, Agastache, Jacobina, Yarrow, Pink-flower Indigo. I planted Angelonias last year and they all came back this year. Mexican bush sage blooms spring and fall. Country Girl Chrysanthemums bloom in the fall. They look like light pink daisies. Cosmos are also great, but they're late spring bloomers. Same with larkspur in case you're making a list for next year.

Thanks Plumfield! The cistern idea is a good one; my mom does love her gardens and we have a well so it would be really take some of the strain off the well in summer. I did check out the Tumbleweed houses but to get something of comparable size was about 16,000 more and that was just materials to build versus the Elder Cottage which is pre-fab. The site is here: www.eldercottages.com and I was really impressed with their pricing for the floor plans available. Many similar options we explored looked very much like an efficiency (one open floor plan with separate bath) and were as much as 20,000 more.

If the existing 1,000 s.f. house is too small and you cannot increase the footprint, how can you avoid adding another story and a new foundation? If the lot restrictions include sideyard setbacks and your existing house falls within any of them, a second story would normally have to respect the limit. Would the apply for this house? I built one in northern VT and renovated another in southern Maine. You will need insulation in the walls for the Fall and and Spring but the windows might be allowed to have single pane glass and true divided lights. What is the applicable building code, if any?