This picture illustrates a few changes that you might explore. (The hillside planting is still too busy for my tastes; I'm just playing with what you already have.) My railing isn't a perfect copy of what you have, but you get the idea. Don't know what would be the best tree for you. Something like Arbutus might be a possibility. Surely, there are trees you've seen there that you'd welcome into your front yard. You could get some local advice on that. If your retaining wall is in "healthy" condition, you might explore the idea of modifying portions of it for improved appearance, rather than replacing the whole wall. For example, its saw-tooth edge could be altered so that each elevation runs for several feet before dropping to the next lower level. Each level could turn at 90* (as per the left side of drive) for a much more substantial looking wall. At the right side of drive I'm trying to show if the corner were rebuilt as a radius corner instead of 90* where the drive meets the public walk. (Or, consider a 45* bevel at the corners.) Another thing I'd look into is facing the wall with artificial stone for a much improved appearance. If that's out of the budget, then painting it a darker, stone-like appearing color instead of stark white I think would help a lot. I also like plants that drape over its top edge. Also, you might tweak the house paint scheme. I think a slightly darker body color might show off the white trim to better advantage. And maybe a little less busy scheme at the garage door would be an improvement. Those are just some ideas you might consider. You ask about removing earth to make the yard less mound-like. I can't see how that's a possibility unless you were to remove those extra retained areas that sit inside of your main retaining wall. You must have earth that connects the upper level to the lower level. There doesn't seem to be any surplus beyond what you need to accomplish that (except those retained areas mentioned.) This post was edited by Yardvaark on Tue, Mar 19, 13 at 10:29

Everything is flexible except the island. It isn't a question of just wanting one but as physical requirement for functionality. It doesn't matter how pretty a room is if it isn't functional. I got hurt in a car accident and after 5 years and 18 surgical procedures on my back I have to have an island I can customize to my needs because I just can't stand for hours on a hard floor anymore. However, thank you to everyone for shaking me to my senses. Sometimes you just can't shave the corners off to make a square peg fit a round hole. I really do know better. The family business involved every phase of real estate from pour the foundation to warehousing the mortgage loans. Unfortunately the family member that could always get me to move past a mental block has already passed away. I am about to get even with my husband for changing my color scheme that eliminated the sink I wanted. The sink and the island were the two things on my list and I am not about to spend a large amount of money and do the majority of the labor and not get at least one of the things I want. Therefore, there is only one solution. I can't steal the extra width from the office/library, therefore I have put a call into friend of mine that is a contractor to give me a ballpark price on drying in an addition. I can take it from there. So let's see if I can knock out three birds with one stone. I need a master suite, the deck needs to be replaced AND the kitchen enlarged. The blue line is a possible outside wall location:When the foundation is poured for the addition, I will have them pour enough for a patio to replace the deck. Then the roof for the addition can also extend to cover the patio. I already have plans for a new deck drawn up so I know where all the plumbing and electrical needs to be for the outdoor living room and kitchen. Here is a closer picture of the available square footage and possible addition:As for the kitchen, it can be completely gutted and everything moved. I bumped the outside wall out 8 feet but if anybody has a brilliant idea that needs more room the line is easy to adjust. I have one shot at this because I won't change it again other than paint or drapes. Since I will have to make adjustments to the roof line, I should be able to fix the ceiling height. Since any window would open out onto a covered patio, a skylight may not be a bad idea to bring in light. I mainly use upper cabinets for anything I need regularly. Since I can now access all the room I need I will bump the base cabinets up to 30" depths. Necessities in the kitchen: 1. ISLAND 2. Wall Oven (So it can be raised high enough to be easy for me to get things in and out of it. Currently, I have the microwave above the oven.) 3. Door going to the outside (I use it for ventilation and the storm door has a door for the dogs in it.) 4. Dishwasher on right hand side of a 33" double sink. 5. Upper cabinet within reach of the dishwasher for a short person. 6. Enlarge the little bathroom enough for a pedestal sink and have a door that opens into the kitchen (that way there is a restroom available close to the patio for when we have company). 7. 36" Cook top 8. Refrigerator The room directly below the kitchen used to be a two car garage that somebody closed in but just put carpet down instead of actually putting in a floor with insulation. The floor is about two feet lower than the kitchen floor. I use the 5'x9' closet for a lot of my storage including all the vegetables I can from the garden. I could move the closet to opposite the washer and dryer to create a laundry room/walk in pantry and the current exterior door could be the main entrance. By doing this addition I have to address the entrance from the garage to the kitchen. We normally park the car, walk down the side of the house and go in the sliding glass door right above the kitchen. Having to go around that addition would be a long hike carrying in groceries. After that all the square footage left over can be used for the master suite. I thought about converting the three bedrooms on the main level into a master suite and have all the extra bedrooms downstairs but it is never a great idea to reduce the number of bedrooms if it can be avoided. So I just have to figure out how to get the suite to fit in the space available.At least this way I can have roughly a 20'x20' bedroom with 10 foot ceilings so it is in scale with the bedroom furniture. Yep, my husband is going to really wish when I showed him the granite slab I wanted that he said, "That looks wonderful dear. Would you like me to go pick up that copper sink for you?"

I'm in my 30s with two little kids and another on the way. I typically despise most light wood cabinets - often see them with the raised panels and they just look kind of cheap - but yours are actually really cool and I don't mind them at all. I wouldn't want to see your cabinets painted, and I'm normally totally in favor of painting wood cabinets! Please don't waste any money on painting them. Your house looks very beige to me, particularly the bathroom. I don't think painting things gray will help because I think it won't look great with all the tan beigey stuff. So "de-beige-ing" the house might help if you can find the right shade to tone it down. I don't mind your sofas, but not a fan of the brown rug in the living room. The house looks clean and nice, however. The layout issue would be a huge turnoff for me. I have friends who have purchased homes with similar layouts (master bedroom on a separate floor from kids' bedrooms) and they just used a regular bedroom as their master and the other bedroom became a playroom or guest room. If you're looking to market to families, then making the top floor a playroom could work. I don't know what the rest of the property is like (yard, etc) or what the neighborhood is like, but staging a better layout could certainly help. If you're looking at comps for your home, but these homes don't have the layout issue, then they're not good comps.

awm03 - That design is really amazing, thank you! capist - Thank you for your mock ups as well. I am a very visual person, so seeing these examples really helps. And the more I think about it, the more I agree that incorporating a subtle Craftsman vibe is probably the right approach. I have always loved the farmhouse look, but I'm realizing that it just doesn't work with our house. And because our house already has such wide room pitches, it already has a slight Craftsman feel. I am surprised to see that I like a darker color better and I think a more earthy tone is better because it works better with the red brick. I am really liking some of these brown tones. A new, wooden door is already on our short list and I love this example. I am a big fan of double doors, so we plan to go that direction instead of side lights. Windows are also in our plans too, but probably a next year project. So my thoughts is that we may get a start this year with paint and landscaping (and MAYBE a new door) and then we can do some other upgrades, like windows, next year. It's worth noting that the top windows do a decent side trim around them already, but you can't really see it in my original pictures because the trim and stucco are basically the same color. If the trim were painted a bright white, it would stand out a lot more, especially against a darker stucco color.