I had thought this thread was coming to an end as the plants are in. Admittedly, the as-built landscape is not as nearly as impressive as those big-buck TV shows with a professional LD leading a crew of 20 working overnight putting in large plants and carpets of sod, but as the thread is back, I will provide more about my cross-cultural design experience and my own implementation of the design process, because I still have a lot of exuberance for the whole adventure. Several differences in national cultures and plant culture do present themselves, which put constraints on the design, and were some paradigm shifts in thinking , which a few years ago this would have just blown me out of the water, but with some limited experience, reading, and being inspired by these forums this whole process really interesting and fun! Changes were made to the design (though not apparent in the above photos) to accommodate more parking and courtyard views as insightfully suggested. Lifestyle Hawaii Lanai life style or a pre-AC/TV southern veranda/porch outside lifestyle is probably the closest US equivalent to how outdoor spaces are used here. AC is available, but very expensive to operate, and not really necessary despite the heat. Sitting outside in the shade with a rocking chair or laying in a hammock and chatting is very common, especially in the evening hours. Walls Nicaragua is one of the safest nations in Central America, but walls/perimeter security are a necessity as an engineering control to the prevalent opportunistic re-allocation of ownership� after all if you really wanted to keep it then you would have secured it. From a N. American perspective perimeter walls and iron-bars do take getting used to. On my first visit, I was staring at my BILs tall walls and thinking I was in Alcatraz, but he saw my expression and remarked very affectionately his feeling for the walls� keep the problems of the world outside and the enjoy the family on the inside. That is the other cultural difference the very strong influence of family and family bonding, which is reflected in this house architecture (actually more of a beach bungalow in N. American concept), with rooms off the common porch for each family and a common kitchen. His wall is representative of more modern architecture� bottom 4 feet in solid concrete and the upper portion finished off to about 10 feet in a scalloped picket fence of sharpened angle iron, which allows a view of the house. Very safe, can�t easily scale the picket of stakes with a ladder, and doesn�t block the breeze. There a wall is not considered an eye-sore to be covered up but rather something that enhances your comfort because it satisfies a primal need, and seeing a tall solid-built wall enhances that immensely � a wall as art and function. Typically walls are just smoothed/painted and occasionally bougainvillea are used on parts of a walls for more color/form and additional security. Tropical "Look" Nica ladies like their flowers, but in-country there were not many of the lush tropical vignettes with bright colors and widely contrasting foliage suggested in tropical design books and websites. If their plant material were replaced with zone 6 plants, then many of the landscaped locations I saw would like very much like a typical N. American landscape- very bleak perimeter and foundation plants and usually very formal/symmetrical. No huge swathes of color that could be had from a bed of crotons or coral trees, but lots of shades of green, dull and shiny, and varied textures leaf shapes - figs, ixorna, gingers, mangos, palms, and aloes.

Thanks, Yardvaark. I’m definitely taking all this feedback into consideration. Thankfully (?) because of the rain we’ve been getting they are running a bit behind, which gives me time to still play around with color choices. I’m leaning towards the middle picture that you posted. I‘ve been told that with the amount of sun our patio will be getting the reds and dark charcoal will fade sooner, the contractor we‘re using said the charcoal will need yearly sealing to keep its color.

This is how I had the porch set up a while back but those fake deck things were awful, they made a click clack sound when you walked on them and just felt awkward and cheap. (To be fair, they were cheap ones but I wasn't spending $$$ on the teak or bamboo ones). I've thought about having someone install a small wooden porch floor, or even trying to make a freestanding one myself, because the cement walls and cement floor just make everything look so cold and the wood adds some warmth.

@lisedv, I didn't know about the slip-resistant-concrete-topping, I'll try find more about it. Are those etched onto the concrete or is it a new layer on top of the existing cement? As I said at the start, we don't use the garage for parking, The previous owner had a home-day-care she operated from the huge garage, and it's all carpeted, etc, so we kept, no point in dealing with this now, but we may in the future. As long as there's space for 1 car in the driveway we should be fine for the future. @Jana Kadlic, I had thought EXACTLY of that. The wife is still opposed, I'm doing my best to convince her :) It's a great Idea, together with the fountain idea from @tracefloyd, (which I had also thought of, and the wife also opposes, for now. The string-lights might convince her, she loves those.) But that still doesn't solve the massive cement look, which in my opinion kills the entrance and makes it look like something you just want to walk on by and not stay. Well, maybe the slip-resistant-concrete-topping will fix this, let's see. @tracefloyd, the front door can be seen in the last picture I sent. It's kinda hidden because of the stairs. It's painted red now. That red-brown concrete painting color in the picture you sent, we could change it to a lighter color and add simple decorations like the pictures below, to create some interest and break the boring concrete (we saw them at an open-house. they look worn-out, but you get the idea.)