Bay is nice, some people have trouble with it suckering. Could be due to incorrect planting. Strawberry Tree do you mean Arbutus unedo? Do you want to see the soles of my shoes that are full of mashed fruit? Lovely, lovely tree, but It's messy as hell when that fruit falls. Fruit attracts rodents, too. Eriobotrya deflexa, Bronze Loquat (non fruiting). Agonis flexuosa Cupressus arizonica 'San Pedro Matir' (slow). Here is a link that might be useful: 25 footers, evergreen list

2 years ago we bought a 1952 stone cottage. unfortunately over the front door is an ugly aluminum awning. we want to replace it with something more fitting of the rest of the house. we just had a new roof put on, and its exacerbating how ugly the awning is. we'd like of course for the new structure to provide rain cover. we are considering a pergola design and growing vines...any ideas would be great..ive posted a picture of the front of the house Here is a link that might be useful: Picture of house/awning

I love full glass doors. We have four sets of french doors and two entry doors that are both full glass. The one in the master bedroom to the sleeping porch has miniblinds between the glass. Now that's perfect. The front entry also has two sidelites. I have tabbed "macrame" panels in all three sections. I'll have to take a better picture if you'd like to see better detail, but this should give you an idea of how I wove the bottom rod through the lace giving it a poof and ruffle. For the sunrooms french doors I made two loops that fit taught between two rods above and below the windows. I can either leave the front and back parts both straight. Or I use a sheet garter to hold both in the center or I can just hold the front one as shown in the picture below.

I agree a gable will look all wrong for this style of house and so are the doors and that arched trim is also wrong over the door. Google modern house entryies and see what might work I honestly have no idea wahy you would want to cover a window at all. I could see a cedar 2 step deck at the front with a flat extension maybe over the door and attached to the jut out on the right . IMO a new paint color and trim would make a huge difference along with the new doors.