I guess it's time for the "yes, but's". 1) first of all, thank you for explaining about opening up the view of the house. I took a walk around the neighborhood this morning, and (finally) could actually see the difference between those houses with "opened up" landscaping, and those houses looking "all boxed in". 2) I went to the gardening center this afternoon. Yes, perennials are on sale now, but shrubs are still expensive. I definitely have to do a lot of reading (I went to the library yesterday for some books) to see what plants I can consider. I want to plan carefully first. 3) We're going to move the sand cherry and Japanese yew to the backyard next weekend. 4) Reluctantly I will remove the arborvitaes - I'm guessing we'll just try to dig most of the roots out somehow after the trees are down. However, the ugly roof support columns (with the ugly 1960's metal swirls) will be visible until something manages to grow tall enough to cover them up - ugh. 5) I cannot bring myself to take a picture of the step up from the driveway - it is just too hideously ugly - old carpeting on the uneven concrete porch, ugly railing, ugly driveway, etc. When I can afford to change it, that porch and railing have got to go, but who knows when that will be. 6) I can demolish the buckthorn, but I have to leave a bed there. There is a gas pipe directly under that side of the house, and I can't dig down to get out the buckthorn roots, so we'll just lob it off as close to the ground as we can and put some plants there to hide any little bit of stump still left. 7) Here is a closer shot of that side of the house. The yellow lines show the arborvitaes of the neighbors - tall past the point of no return. The orange line shows their lilac almost touching my roof (which is fine with me, I like lilac). The white line shows my boxwood and the blue line shows yet another arborvitae. If we can get these 2 (the white and the blue) out without the gas pipe giving us a problem, we will do so. But a path has to stay clear on that side of the house so the guy can read the meter, so no, I can't extend the neighbor's flower bed. The green line shows the 3rd arborvitae. We were wondering, seeing as you've drawn in a tree for that side of the house, perhaps that arborvitae should be left in place to satisfy that requirement? Or should the blue, the white, and the green all go? As always, thanks for your continuing help.

Which way is the shade? in front of the trees in the afternoon, or behind. Could make a difference. How about glossy abelia? It is evergreen, or red tipped photinia, also evergreen. Moni

photos and sketches would help.

Old thread but let us be realistic about adding a drawer. 2 2.x 4's stacked is only around 3" of space. 3" minus clearance allowance for the drawer bottom. Minus 1/2" thickness of the drawer bottom. You might get a 2 1/4" deep drawer in there. Using side mount slides. And a drawer with a planted on plywood drawer bottom. Forget using those fancy Blum bottom mounts. Those require drawer bottoms that are recessed. 'In there'--means you have to pull the oven out of the hole in order to mount the drawer slides. After you get the 2 x 4's fastened down and square with the cabinet. Those 2 x 4's cost you at least 7" of potential drawer width. Then you have to come up with a drawer front that matches the cabinets. Not. Worth. It. And dang, I forgot all about needing to use at least a 3/4" wide piece of material at the top of the opening--face frame construction. Your drawer just shrunk by another 3/4". The metal trim is a good idea. Another solution is to glue and pocket screw a filler in place to cover the gap before installing the oven.