If you are less concerned about how the house looks from the street, why did you take the picture from the street and why are you focussed on a sketch that also looks at the house from the street, and why did you sketch it from the street inward? I'm not trying to be troll, but it does not make sense to me. Most people take pictures the same way they view things. Most people do like the presentation of their house, if not to the people on the street, certainly to their arriving guests and to themselves as they come home from a long day at work. It is OK. There are a few things about the BHG sketch which help make it "homey" that you may be missing. The first is that it has a visible front door. When a door is visible on a house it is somewhat the equivalent of a face on a person - when it is looking at you, you want to look at it (and not get caught looking somewhere else). It draws you into the middle or heart of the composition. The sketch adds to that by putting a tree in front of the door with a skewed perspective that allows you to look over it and adding weight to the middle with a low center of gravity to balance the composition of the DRAWING rather than the landscape. You have to know that if you were standing in front of that landscape you'd be looking at a tree with two ends of a house visible to either side and no door to be seen. The second thing is a psychological response that people get when they see a place that is made for people to be. This is very real and as much a good design tool in a landscape as it is in a sketch. It is the area of lawn to the left of the front door - you want to be there and it draws you in and you stay there. That is reinforced with an arbor going who knows where. The arbor is not there to make you feel like you want to go through it, but to strengthen the space that the area of lawn is holding. The 800 pound gorilla that is missing from both your snapshot and the BHG sketch is the driveway. BHG left it out and you have a truck and trailer (not saying that you did it on purpose) that is framing the front yard. The empty driveway acts in a similar manner as the patch of grass - the viewers see it, subconsciously, as a human space and project themselves into it if it is more powerful than another space. Unlike the lawn area on the left, the driveway does not have the supporting plantings or other elements to contain you there - you just blow through that part of the composition and don't come back. If you truly are more concerned with looking from the inside out, you should be taking your photos looking outward and start to draw up your concepts in the same manner. The biggest challenge is that your landscape currently flows, like most of ours, out into the street. My belief is that you want to build space in your front yard that is separate from the street. You don't have to make a solid screen to do it, but you can combine several elements that can incrementally overcome the power of the street (sounds kind of urban militantish). You can build background, middle ground, and foreground and strengthen that layering with vertical layering as well. It would be easier to describe if you provide a picture looking outward from the house.

johnfromperrycopa: What a great idea to use the hose! and yes, I agree about not runing vines up the columns. I read in an article on bhg that suggested doing that, but when I messed around with it on photoshop yesterday it looked awful. Yes, the long step is like a landing. And yes the tree on the left is alive, The tree on the right with green leaves is a Magnolia and the one in the front of it holds onto its old leaves until feb/march (or so my neighbor tells me). The tree you see down the driveway is a pine. (I took this picture a few days ago on Jan. 5, so it's a winter picture). I love the idea of a Japanese Maple. Sure it's on the expensive side, but I've got five years to enjoy it! Thanks so much for your thoughts. It's kind of like what I was thinking, only way better. mactac: thanks for the plant suggestions. I looked up the leadwort and it looks beautiful! It would also go very well with my large container plants (I have purple cordlylines as the tall spiky plant) I probably couldn't use the evergreen in the backyard . . . there are so many trees back there I've got to consider taking some out. :( Do you, (or anyone) know somewhere I could maybe "donate" them? Do people do that? I don't really like the evergreens, but my trash could be someone else's treasure . . . I also like the idea of using some annuals. Thanks to my two-year old and his love of the backyard, I'm afraid most of my gardening is going to have to be in the front yard this year, so that'd give me a chance to play while I'm waiting for the perenials/bushes/etc. to grow. Thanks again to you both for your thoughtful suggestions. It helps make the whole process less intimidating and more fun.

Since you are "next" to the bottom, I take it that there is a lower elevation, left of your lot, that acts as an escape route for water leaving your property? There seem to be basic flaws in the grading. For example, your driveway is pitched in the wrong direction relative to the overall flow of water. Without pictures, it's hard to gauge at whether the building elevations are reasonable, or make a true fix difficult or impossible. Also, details of the lot may impact the problem but not show up in your diagram. The real fix is a proper grading. One problem with your approach, so far, is that you're asking contractors -- who may not have expertise in grading and only know how to put "band-aids" on the problem -- to design a solution for you. Each contractor will likely have a slightly different solution so it will be hard to compare one proposal to the other. And since there is no promise of being paid for the design work, the effort might not be 100%. Another problem is that the band-aids may work for a time but have failure potential. (Power can fail in a storm so sump pumps may not work ... and drains clog, especially during storms. Or a monster rain can simply overwhelm the system.) The real solution is proper grading so you need someone who is capable of creating a grading plan ... a drainage engineer, landscape architect, or possibly a grading contractor. If it turns out re-grading is too expensive, you may need to opt for the "band-aid" approach.

I'd start by researching with your town what can be done on your easement. For instance, can you put up a fence of any kind such as a wire fence that would restrict a dog but allow sight and water flow? Are there limits on what you can plant? Woodies, herbaceous? Does the backyard easement start where the dirt ends or is that the property line? I can't tell if the star is giving both the side and back boundary or just the side. What do you want to do with your backyard other than have a dog? A patio or entertainment space or a spot for kids to play or lush gardens or . . . For now, have your meeting with the engineer and find out if the city has a written policy on drainage easements so it's clear what you can and cannot do in those spaces. Get grass seed and preferable straw down quickly so that you keep erosion from happening and seed can start growing before it gets too hot. Consider mixing in some annual rye grass to help with protecting the soil while perennial grasses fill in. Once you have a clear idea on the limitations the easement will create and have a wish list beyond the dog and screening from the neighbor's slider, come back and let us know so you can get suggestions.