a front yard plan

• A crescent berm with mostly native shrubs & perennials on the N & W. Currently there are 10-15 rose bushes there...very labor intensive plants!
• extending the back-yard fence N to enclose the newly expanded basement window well on the NW corner of the house for security
• adjusting the path of the front walk to reflect where people *actually* walk ("desire path") thus protecting the lawn
• a small arbor/trellis over the entrance to our front walk to increase the sense of public/private space & to reflect the existing trellis/gate on the E side of the house
• new steps on E side of driveway
• NE planting bed already installed ('03-'04) rescuing a Philadephus lewisii (native mock orange) from our neighbors' yard. It's planted next to our bedroom window & smells soooo nice in the early summer!

facade sketches

The idea for the 2nd story on the E end of the house is a Master suite /c a small cantilevered deck above the main deck we just replaced. We'd like to improve the front porch facade so it looks a bit more substantial & inviting (which would possibly allow for a higher ceiling in the living room, too). The BIG project would be expanding the kitchen/dining space S into the back yard on the SW corner...it's soooo small right now & made smaller by the fact that there are 4 doorways & a window taking up wall space in the room.

We probably won't do any of these things except perhaps upgrading the porch posts & some of the front yard landscaping since we aren't likely to be here long enough for the other stuff, what with our Oregon plans...oh well, they're cool ideas regardless.

Early spring '01