You have a spruce tree that is too close to the house. Its limbs are over the roof and may be touching the roof. It will serve as a squirrel ladder to your roof. Squirrels will explore every nook and cranny they can find, looking for a way to enter the structure. Red squirrels have been known to chew a hole next to chimneys to gain entrance. You must keep squirrels off the roof. Secondly, spruce needles are acidic and will be a nuisance to the roof and rain trough. Those tend to stick to the trough instead of flushing away during rains. You will be forever cleaning the rain trough, and the acidic nature of the needles will promote corrosion. During winter snows, the limbs can droop from 1 to 4 feet from snow loads. It will rest on the roof - very bad. During warmer weather, it will tend to keep the roof damp and promote moss and lichen growth - bad. This tree will only get bigger and its problem grows with its size. I'm sorry to say, but you need to cut this tree. It should have been much farther away from the house. Spruces do not have tap roots. As it gets taller, it may blow over in a windstorm. If you sanitation sewer line exits from that corner of the house, the spruce roots are avid water seekers and may invade you drain line. It is nice to have an evergreen out front to have a bit of greenery during the winter months. However, do not locate a large evergreen at the southwest quadrant from the house. It will shade the house from winter afternoon sun, the opposite of what is desired.

For starters, I would group your plants together instead of alternating them. It makes a larger visual impact. I like to use the foliage in shade gardens. Consider using, japanese painted fern and pulmonaria. There are also many different colors of coral bells. The top picture also has woodland aster which is native and provides fall flowers. The purple coral bells pulls the red out of the japanese painted fern and the variation of the lungwort (pulmonaria) adds more depth and contrast. Good luck and show us after pictures.

You can plant fruit trees anywhere the conditions exist for them to grow well - front yard, back yard, side yard....... There are no "rules" about placement :-) As to what kind of fruit trees to grow, check what's on offer at local nurseries and garden centers. Not all kinds of fruit trees grow well everywhere. If I lived in SoCal, I'd for sure have a couple of citrus trees - lemons/limes - and probably an avocado.

Find a window that is near the size of those in the dormers. It also needs to match the number of panes (6) in the dormer windows. You don't need to mirror the dormers only the windows in them. You need a carpenter to cut a hole in the garage gable for the window, then place framing for the window on the interior of the cutout. The window is put in place, secured and trim to match the rest of the house is cut and fitted to the outside. Adding a vent uses the same cut and frame, but doesn't require matching other features unless you have other gable vents that you wish to match. Vents are made in square, rectangular, triangular, round, half round, arched and octagonal shapes. They should have metal screen or hardware cloth on the inside to keep small birds and such from getting into attic space. This can be added if not part of the vent as sold.