It's hard to vision what to plant without the stone wall and other hardscapes in place. The only advice I have would be to make sure that in addition to planting the evergreens, make sure that you have a bushes doing something different in all seasons - some Spring and Fall color in there. The summer will be where your perinnials get in the action. I would definitely do a curved path of pavers (maybe in a warm dark brownish red tone)going to the driveway and then put spots of raised beds on either side - low growers facing the road and somewhat higher plants on the side with the house - but that is my idea without seeing all the hardscapes in. Whatever you do, it's going to be great. How exciting to start with an open canvass. We moved here three years ago and I am still trying to undo some of the previous owners mistakes - why would anyone plant a bush smack dab in the middle of the backyard??? ha ha

maz1234: I'm currently waiting on one more quote from Jeld Wen, however, my mind is made up, Integrity will be our choice. Integrity prices were very competitive. Keep in mind, my windows are simple and the pricing reflects that. Also, not sure on your window size, but I think Integrity does have size limitations.... Anderson 400 were 30% more...... Send an email if you prefer. Jared

funkycamper, don't worry about stressing me out! Building this house and being pregnant with my first child has made me pretty much perpetually stressed out. I wasn't even really given any notice that I needed to be the one who helped design the house before construction started. My husband's family owned the lot and we thought we could get more money if we built a house on it and sold it (rather than just selling the lot)--but then we figured we might as well live in it for 2 years to claim residence to limit the taxes. So that's when it became my husband and I's task since we were actually going to live in it. So I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off! haha! The plumbing is too far down the road to really do much movement of sink/DW in the kitchen. Is there a way to make the peninsula more inviting to be primary prep space instead of secondary prep space, to limit the interference with the dishwasher? At least if it is totally annoying I won't have to live with it forever. And hopefully it wouldn't be something someone buying the home would notice. We are planning on remodeling the current house we're in while we're living in this one, so I can learn a lot from any mistakes I make here. Which sounds totally selfish to whoever buys this house, but it will probably be a vacation home anyway. And yeah, the fridge is a Sub Zero built-in (not the integrated one), so it has that grill at the top. A battle I lost with my husband. I like the integrated ones better, but they don't have a french door option :(

You have a challenging position. Even though completion is 'many months away' the metric you need from the builder is time to window install. That's going to be considerably sooner. When you have an approximate date for install you can begin searching for product. They have to fit his time frame to have a chance. I'd look for a quality product his crew can install. Possibly a product he can order and make his markup on. Other ways of configuring this seem less likely to succeed. This guy has some reviews and can offer consultation. It could help with your time and quality options. The more solid info you have when you discuss this with your builder, the higher your probability of success.