I have dial up and I didn't have any trouble with the pics. I loved the woodland setting of your house. If it were me, I'd fill up the area in front of the chimney with a woodland type island. A small group of trees as ilima said. I don't know all the southern ornamentals, but dogwood, serviceberry, redbud, fringetree, silverbell, are all small trees that are easy care. Even some magnolias I guess. A friend of mine recommended sweet bay magnolia as an easy care small tree. Some shrubs to consider are witch hazel and spicebush, winterberry holly, perhaps elderberry. These are all natives, and personally I think a native grouping is your best bet for low maintenance. I've grown all of these plants and you can basically forget them once planted if you place them properly to start. Of course all the rhododendrons and azaleas are gorgeous options too. I'd throw in a dwarf hemlock because I just personally love them. But anyway, I'd opt for a natural arrangement with my selection of trees and then some shrubs and then groundcover under that, with bark mulch around it all. Then basically that whole area would become "maintenance free" as far as mowing. You will have to watch the weeds and do some pruning now and again. As far as how to arrange it all, I would have a hard time describing it. If it were me I'd get the combination of textures and foliages I liked and then move them around a bit until I came up with something that looked nice. So then instead of having this big blank space at the corner of your house you'd have a lovely woodland garden that blended your home with the surroundings and took care of itself. Plus would attract lovely songbirds to serenade you! I am not couching this in "design" terms such as line of sight, etc., more in terms of the "look" or style I would go for. Of course you may not like this and your style might be more formal. But to me, a native small tree/shrub/groundcover option looks great and is low maintenance. Oh yeah, and I'd try and find a small maple, I don't know the japanese maples that survive in your climate. If the area is still shady (don't know how it looks without the trees you dropped) then I'd try and find a mountain/striped/goosefoot maple 'cause I just love the bark. Acer pensylvanicum or something like that I think. I've seen them in the mountains of NC, but again, I'm not familiar with the flora in GA.

"By the way, the conversation pit made it easier to pass around the peace pipe, if you know what I mean." Ah, that makes sense. I guess I never thought about that specific activity. "Conversation pits were popular because people actually had conversations. No computers, no cell phones, no texting. You actually looked people in the eye and talked." I do understand that the 1970s were certainly a social era. Perhaps I'm out of touch with the generations younger than me, but I'm fairly certain people still have conversations. I absolutely understand making a seating area just for conversations. But what I'm wondering is: why a pit? Why not just a circular or semi-circular seating arrangement? Did it make the room feel more open? Make the conversation area feel more intimate? I've never been in one and have always wondered what drew people to the idea of a pit.

In its own suburban way, that's what the PO did to this house, magnaverde. We've been spending a lot of time taking out white colonial Home Depot molding and putting in small simple molding (painted the same color as the room), taking out 6 panel fake wood hollowcore doors and replacing them with solid core slab doors or fir single-lite pocket doors...one eyesore I haven't been able to fix yet is in the double -height foyer where a massive foyer fixture once hung, the PO put a cr*ppy white HD fan with shiny fake brass trim...UGH UGH UGH. I actually found a rather tasteful 70s Fredrick Ramond fixture in LN condition at a Habitat store, which would be much closer to what should show in that tall window above the door, but it's *difficult* to get up there and change the fixture out. We've given away so much colonial molding and use the doors for work surfaces. This is no masterpiece house, but it felt like it was being suffocated in faux-colonial trim and we've resimplified it so it could be itself again. Which will probably go completely unappreciated in this neighborhood, but it passed the time. palimpsest, if you have a feeling that you shouldn't post, I completely respect that. Don't want to jinx anything. We'll just have to wait until you have found something and then settled on it and then we can celebrate with you! I have faith that you can do anything you want and will make whichever house (and cash IS king right now, so I understand the drive to underspend) into a photogenic and soul-nourishing home.

You also might consider something like a china cabinet (a Haywood-Wakefield -style china cabinet would be very hot!) as a furniture-style solution. It can hold more than china -- vintage staples canisters, cookbooks, linens on the bottoms etc. That way you can just move it around the house as needed. Some people find things stay cleaner. (I have open shelves and don't have a problem.) You can definitely replace the laminate counter (they pull the whole counter out, not just peel off the skin) and put in a new laminate counter, or put in another kind of counter. Sometimes a "period feel" can be done with just what you have and some accessories. You don't need to add a thing that would turn anyone off. I also wanted to raise the issue that some people, contractors, designers etc, may come in and advise you to rip everything out. They may do this for a silly reason -- it's just easier for them, or a real reason -- a slow drip has been rotting the sink cabinet for 15 years, and it actually does have to be replaced. It's easy for things to get the "while we're at its" as someone here called it, and before you know it, your very modest kitchen plan calls for bumping out 3 stories and adding an indoor pool. I just want you to remember that, no matter what you decide, YOU are the one in control of this project. It's YOUR house. You can really say "No, we're happy with X as it is. We'd just like a quote on the Y right now, thanks." If you needed to get a couple of cabinets built because one is very rotted and unsalvageable, it might be done by a local carpenter for a reasonable amount of money, less than getting a whole new set of cabinets. But if what you really want is a whole new kitchen in 5 years, then -- get the leak FIXED, come back and let us know.