I have two Trumpet vines, Campsis x tagliabuana 'Madame Galen' & Campsis radicans ' Flamenco'. I wasn't sure if this is the kind of vine you meant or not when you said Trumpet vine. Anyway, if they are the same kind of vine, mine are both vigorous growing plants with one really nice advantage. They can climb a rough surface without any help from me. Although I have them on trellises, they actually hug the brick wall by themselves. They each cover a 3-4 foot wide space (could be more if I let them) and climb way past the trellises and up to the eaves of the house. I cut them back to the trellis level once or twice a season. Easy to do since I can pull them off the house by separating them from the wall at the top of the trellis height and giving one good tug on a bunch of stems, they tumble down and I hand prune them off. Foliage on both is always very clean and a deep green. Foliage lasts well into late fall-early winter and when the leaves eventually fall they leave a nice structure of creamy colored branches on the wall. They are late to start up in the spring, but fill in quickly once they do and give good coverage. If they can holdfast to the wood fence that would be a really nice advantage in using them there. I also have a Hall's Honeysuckle. This one I let go up a large trellis and flop back down in a waterfall manner. It cannnot climb the wall by itself I also have to watch this one carefully and catch all the long stems on the sides (wants to grow wider than a trellis) that get missed (not tucked into the trellis) and trail around on the ground. Whenever I find a bunch of leaves on the ground 10-20 feet away that look like honeysuckle leaves, I have to lift the stem up and trace it all the way back to the mother plant and snip it off. I've never had any trouble with the vine rooting where it lays, but I am pretty vigilant. Foliage on Hall's is shinier and brighter than on the trumpets. Mine always stays clean, no mildew problems, but I sometimes get dead inside leaves from the flopover growth pattern it grows in. Flowers smell wonderful, even in a cold zone 5. I do not get a ton of them because of the cutting back that I do on this one. (I'm not sure if this one grows flowers on old stems only or not, but it seems to bloom at least more heavily on old stems.) I would definitely put this one somewhere where I walked around or near it. Sorry, but I have not grown the Hydrangea vine. Sun/shade/dry shouldn't bother the others much. Of my trumpets one grows on the east side of the house and the other on the west. The hall's grows on the east side towards the south near my gate to the back yard. I have heavy clay moisture retentive soil. Plants were pocket planted only, in lightly amended soil and generally receive no supplemental water, only what they can get under the eaves. I'd probably need a bulldozer and a big truck to pull them out of the clay now.

Hi again Wolfgang -- Are you and your wife feeling the tidal wave of options comin' at ya? GW has no shortage of creative minds! This got long.... Hearing that the double sets of french doors have yet to be installed does shift things a bit for me. [And I know only too well the thrill of finding and buying something era-appropriate...and then realizing it won't work as well as another option. Luckily the finds often do work and become very special parts of a house!] Were I you, I would continue to explore options that put the "working" part of the kitchen in the main space, and saving the 8 x 9 area for other purposes. For me part of this exploration would include holding off on any doors in that area -- make it a dead-end space to eliminate it as a traffic path -- and considering whether I wanted above-the-counter windows for the most function or old-house low windows that are *almost* like having the FR doors. I think one of the hardest things about living with kids is that the child you're living with today is basically a different one in 6 months/year! Their independence and needs change so rapidly. So you've got to design from toddler-hood on. Depending on answers, you could make that 8 x 9 include various combos of the following: an eating area, pantry, small utility closet (for vacuum etc), mudroom-lite (kid outdoor dress/drop) zone, lots of drawers with additional counter space etc. When I visit my SoCal relatives the kids are in/out in/out in/out constantly. Not a bad thing at all! But if they had 2 sets of doors like you're contemplating ai yi yi there would be a real sense of "underfoot-edness." In conclusion: FWIW, I lean toward keeping the major elements of your proposed draft (sink and stove placement, give or take a few tweaks) but with the frig/freezers built into this streamlined zone by the DR. [Again, I know you don't like the frig there now!]

thank you! I hadn't considered gray for the rug. I know it's neutral but wasn't sure about adding another prominent color. I had been looking at blue (navy) or red, but wasn't sure if I could pull off a geometric or striped pattern with the stripes on the one wall and the busy coverlet pattern. Would anything like this work: https://www.wayfair.com/rugs/pdp/highland-dunes-jago-striped-handmade-tufted-ivoryblue-area-rug-hidn7327.html?piid=31943158 https://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Safavieh-Handmade-Childrens-Stripes-New-Zealand-Wool-Rug-8-X-10/7026050/product.html?kwds=safavieh kids rug&refccid=ULYBSLO26RNZEJ2EJNF43JVRCY&rfmt=&searchidx=40 https://rugs.com/navy-blue-5x8-angelica-area-rug-6254554?gclid=CjwKCAiAo5qABhBdEiwAOtGmbuh7jyBd8WHXU0Cy4nxOr8FmnfQYeKgen_8cOg94j-35Lq0Xpk_VKRoC3H0QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds https://rugs.com/red-5x8-lattice-frieze-area-rug-6293322?gclid=CjwKCAiAo5qABhBdEiwAOtGmbtT_VU-HM4GTX9IUynY-fVTzqNCAM2Sj-OIGPmKMEXcocrfrWtQRphoC0UgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds https://www.wayfair.com/rugs/pdp/breakwater-bay-edgebrooke-red-rug-w001802626.html?piid=2007201777 https://rugs.com/red-6x9-kasbah-trellis-area-rug-6295252 Or is there another pattern/color I should consider? thank you!!

IMO on a ranch keep the siding simple and I like vertical. As for the bathroom use the same 12 x24 on the shower walls as the bathroom floor and I hate bullnose for trim unless you have avery traditional style in the bathroom I much prefer a simple schluter trim that is virtually invisible and I really do not care what my tiler likes its not his house. I also do not like mixing creams and whites it often just looks a mess when finished Keep it simple you will like it a lot longer.BTW the siding color for the new addition the same as all the rest of the siding .