Dear Abelloseq: I so understand of what you speak! I will share this: I have 115 yr old Victorian Farmhouse. I have very carefully retored the outside, and the house needed this - I really cannot be anything else - and Yes I love it. HOWEVER, I AM NOT restoring the inside! I am taking out wall, opening up rooms. I AM keeping the original heart pine floors, the beautiful heart pine doors (restored), etc. I will use cottage windows on the back. In the kitchen I am doing a beamed ceiling to the roof-line using the repurposed 1/2 inch PETRIFIED Knotty Pine currently in the DR (office) - My point: I think embracing the structure of home can be done - without living with it inside. And while I will use reference materials in the home - I want light, open and airy! Not dark, heavy and oppressive - as much of victoriana was. YOU could change your home completely to a more cottage feel by using the first model I suggested - adding shakes over your horizational wood lathe; under all roof peakes? And simply changing HOW you apply colors? Adding non-functioning hardware to your garage door - until you can get a new one with cottage doors? Using different materials for lighting fixtures and house numbers? NOT chrome. It is a simple switcheroo! IF you like cottage - then perhaps finding a book at the Library on this period of style home would be the best concept? Simply cover ALL of the Board & Batten with shakes you can stain to match your home? You could STILL use Bermuda shutters on the front windows - for heat protection; privacy; and cooling purposes - I have seen these used all over Las Vegas - especially at restaurants. On your entrance - use a pergola, which incorporates some Arches - stain a darker color - you could still plant vines along here - use a darker flag stone to your entrace way - cool this down again with deep planted materials in a newly built stacked stone planter and CHANGE the front door to an OAK door? ALSO for that FP in the LR - you could have someone build a BOX over it for the base - and cover it with anything you like - bead-board; paneling; stacked stone; I think this would be very simple - it might be more of a modern interpretation - but with arts and crafts - cottage - it is all about the material and color. All of these designs : Arts & Crafts; cottage, Praire was the knee jerk reaction to the overwhelming heaviness of Victorian imposed styles. Let us know - we will be waiting for your fabulous re-do!

I thought the trap thing would be a big deal, but seriously, it was a 15 minute trip to home depot for PVC pipe, the joint pieces to make the T and the plastic caps (all in the same section of the store). Hubby made about 10 of them in less than an hour. You want the bait in the center of the bottom section so there isn't any kind of barrier like it appears in the picture. Just pipe and the plastic joint and a cap so the bait won't get wet. Pour in a pellet pack, tie it to a fence post and you're done. They can be used every year and you'll never have a problem again. Those traps were the best thing that ever happened to our grass. The pellets don't kill the voles for a few days so the voles just kind of disappear, but they won't be dead in the trap, so you won't have to deal with that either. We did have to get rid of one dead guy just laying in the yard one time, but they usually go away and die.

Does the footing go straight down? That looks like excess concrete that you could break off with a sledge. Otherwise, mulch, gravel, dirt ...

A single kind of bush would likely look better. Different bushes likely will grow at an uneven rate and, unless they don't keep their leaves year round, they'll not cover your foundation as you wish. You could replant those you've purchased in a circle with the tallest growing one in the center, and create a patio around or beside them. Then move the really nice blue planter from the stoop (and out of the way) to the new patio. http://www.theclusterfest.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/concrete-paver-patio-ideas.jpg Aucuba bushes can grow over 6' tall and are often found around the foundation of older homes in the southeast. I have two rows of them and recommend them highly. http://www.todayshomeowner.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/how-divide-propagate-shrubs-6.jpg My yard adjoins a national forest so deer nibble away at my azaleas, stunting the blooms on all but the white azaleas, but have yet to bother my aucuba bushes. Voles try to eat any bulb I plant except iris -- they've left them alone (thus far). In front of the planting area around your foundation and around any planting area you create in your yard, adding an outline of flat paving stones with the tops level with the ground helps define the planting area while making mowing easier than a row of stones or landscaping post above ground would. Flat paving stones let you define where you'll add mulch and throw your crushed egg shells (serve as bone meal) and work to keep the area weed free, leaving the rest of the yard to mow.