Can you redraw your pictures with your house as just a block and not all the furniture?

Why are you planning on all the gravel to the south and west of your house?

The most obvious element that jumped out at me was the fantastic opportunity that you have in regards to your front entry and the long viewing corridor that you have to the back yard.
That is an axial view that I would want to capitalize on by placing a strong sculptural piece at the end of your view.
Something strong like a wall fountain with great night time lighting would make a wow statement.

.... opps, I was assuming that you had a glass door at the end of the corridor.
If not, then the strength of the idea is probably not very strong.

like the simplicity of your first draft. It evokes a modern aesthetic that I am attracted to.

Sorry about including all the interior suff, the program I'm using doesn't distinguish between inside and outside objects so I eliminated everything inside the house. It is much easier to focus on landscaping this way. Just hope you can still tell what part of the house is where.

There's a lot of gravel along south and west for two reasons: 1) large yew is 60 years old, beautiful, but huge and blocks out direct sunlight. I've redrawn yew to give a better sense of how much sun it blocks. We originally had ivy growing under yew, but after we got a puppy all the ivy died and I haven't been able to grow anything well in this area and 2) I'd like to use this part of yard as a dog run. Dog is inside most of the time, but we want to have patio part of yard free of dog mess so that means designating area back behind house as a dog run.

I love the idea of making the view from entryway through to back yard as more of a focal point--with a fountain or lights. Door at back of the house has a 6 lite panels so you could definitely see through from entryway into back yard. Have to think of something that is high enough it blocks out view of neighbor's living room from over the 5'11" fence but also serves as a focal point. THank you for the great suggestion!

{{gwi:17036}}