I would suggest a good anchor plant. I loooove hydrangeas, be careful to the light needs, everyone is different! Honestly my approach is to buy what ever i like, i have a spot for it all!!! I love anything thatll attract bees and hummers, or butterflys too. What do you like? what colors are pleasing to you? Thats how i do it!

The deck isn't cantilevered at all: its supported by the house on one side and the perimiter posts on the other. The plan doesn't acually show how large the upper level deck is, but it does look comfortable. The surface of a deck over an enclosed space is usually pitched slightly, enough that the water rolls off, not so much that a glass tips over. Typically a few inches in 12 feet. There are several ways of doing this. Sometimes you see a regular 2x6 deck built over a low pitched roof, but more often the roof and deck are the same material similar to the asphault used on flat roofed structures. A cool new option is LockDry, an aluminum surface that you walk on, but interlocks in a way to channel off water. A certain amount of care must be taken with flashing, siding etc. so that water can't inflitrate, but your builder won't have to invent the wheel, here: the procedures are well established. Just make sure your guy know and follows them: he'll probably tell you it won't be a problem, but ask how many such structures he's done. Still, a certain amount of all this will depend on your area [more care has to be taken in Seattle than Phoenix], and the exposure of the deck [A south or west exposure will dry more quickly, lowering chances of mold, etc]. But if proper practices are followed, you can have a large deck on the north side of a Seattle home. Here is a link that might be useful: LockDry

Your split level style doesn't lend itself to wraparound porch. You could add a porch over the bay window section, like this: http://imperfectlypolished.com/2011/08/29/getaway-cabin/ But be aware the roof pitch will be very shallow. If you add a porch here I would advise you to excavate out in front of the current porch and extend the patio or slab out to the end of the new porch and create stairs there to connect the two. You wouldn't be able to walk under the side of the current porch if you tried to connect the two at that point.

Hello cpartist, here are the elevations which have the deck running on the two sides of the house. I was also digging through the plans this morning and found a spec note from the Architect about the Deck Coating & Waterproofing Deck coating: Liquid applied elastomeric two part urethane traffic bearing surface. Install per manufacturers specification. Minimum 60 mils multi-coat DFT, finish with walnut shell non-slip aggregate. Finish embedded aggregate with aliphatic polyurethane topcoat. 24 gage GSM perimeter flashing, saddle flashing provided and installed by deck coating subcontractor. Prime flashing, center spun polyester flashing fabric over joints. Vulkem 350NF/351NF or GacoFlex U66. There is definitely going to be waterproofing done but the top finish coat(material) is what i was going after. From the note above, it appears to be 'Aliphatic Polyurethane'. I am not sure I've ever heard about this product before. I wish I could see an example of this on the internet somewhere. @jannicone, yes, this is definitely sloped and will be water managed.