Wow - you seem to be the room of the day! I wanted to share this after reading some of the comments: While we do NOT have little kids, I entertain a lot, have a HUGE Argentian Mastiff - who lives in the house, a cat, I garden and our french doors go right out onto the deck - so there is a LOT of in and out, and YES - we have wooden floors in the kitchen. IF you are in the kitchen a lot - wooden floors are MUCH easier on the back and feet. And, my house if very old, and has original heart pine, and I put prefinished OAK in the kitchen because it was on sale, and the original floors in the kitchen could not be saved. BUT you can MATCH the other floors - there are a lot of flooring places wihich will do this, and you can ask for repurposed wood - and then you can just have the finish matched. Wa-la! We are in the process of chosing what materials we want in our kitchen - which will be a redo of a house which is 116 years old. I looked at soapstone - but very expensive - but was a material in victorian homes AND it absorbs light - as I have a wall of windows - without curtains as they start way above where regular windows are now - I wanted the soapstone because it DOES ABSORB the light. If you want a bright kitchen YOU should consider this before chosing soapstone? Yes? I have recently been to home depot - looking at counter materials and they have a entire new line of WOOD surface materials for countertops. I THINK you might be impressed. Check it out. Also: please check out VanDykes.com - I like the idea of you painting your island a darker color - even love the red idea - but you can purchase the legs and corbels from this vendor. They have EVERYTHING you can think of, from lights to hinges. If you extend the counter on the island and add some legs it would add some very interestng architectural detail to your room. They also sell all of the matching hardware you can dream of. Please keep us posted. But do check out the wooden countertops at Home Depot, and personally I like the idea of the black and white angled flooring AND there IS a new UNDERpinning for tile floors that is both waterproof and mositure proof - which is laid down under the tile. It might make it a little softer and warmer if this is what you choose. Let us know :-)

I can see that this post is eight years old. I kinda wish bichonluver3 posted some photos of what was decided for the final project. I personally have been struggling with this as I now live in the Palm Springs area and have had two disastrous fails with my attempts at planting around the pool. My pool is on the north side of the house but the area to plant along the pool faces south. The area gets southern sun most of the day. I wanted a formal look and planted seventeen Tiny Tower 'Monshel' Italian Cypress trees all around the pool. I did this in November and they did so well until June/July when the temperatures hit 118-120. I thought this occurred due to my not giving them enough water in the summer. So I tried again but this time I planted Skyrocket Junipers. I think these are also gorgeous and was planning to keep them very columnar by carefully pruning them. Again, I planted these in November and they thrived and they even grew about eight inches. But by the time the temperatures got to 115 all but four of the eighteen that I planted just dried up. I made sure to give them more water and was working with a horticulturalist. Sadly, it came down to me learning that the reason why my trees died was due to the reflected heat that occurs when plants/trees are planted near a lot of concrete. Not to mention, since the pool itself was just north of the area where the trees were planted the sun reflected off the water and onto the trees. Thus, baking them to death literally. Concrete can be 20 to 40 degrees hotter than the ambient temperature during a hot sunny day. The garden space for my trees was was only about 20" from the sidewalk along the pool the the back cinderblock wall. That whole area is like a masonry oven trapping, holding and reflecting WAY too much heat for the trees to tolerate. Now, throw in the reflection of sun and heat from the pool onto the trees and surrounding concrete and it's a guaranteed death trap. I'm only sharing my experience to hopefully help others make the best informed decision when planting in extreme hot desert conditions. Be sure to work with plants, trees and shrubs that can withstand reflected heat. That's very important. In my case, although I know I'm going to possibly kick myself due to the high level of maintenance involved I've decided to go with bougainvilleas around the pool. I know they're messy but they're not much messier than ficus. I'm not a fan of the ficus here at all (unless it's a real genuine ficus). Actually, most of what people are planting around their homes that they think is ficus is actually a type of laurel tree, which I can't stand. My neighbor has a citrus tree that has branches that extend into my yard which I cut down at the fence line. Those neighbors don't maintain their citrus trees and the fruit drops into my yard and attracts rats onto my property. Not to mention, it also sheds leaves on my side which I have to clean up. In bichonluver3's case, I actually think the garden looks great. I would just clean up the area under the citrus trees and place a beautiful gravel to cover the dirt. Maybe get some up-shooting landscape lights to shine up along the bark of the trunk and toward the canopy of the tree themselves and call it a day. Not to mention, if you put other types of plants under the trees, they'll compete for water with the trees and they might have different water requirements which means you'd have to run a different irrigation line just for the new addition of plants.

Perhaps several plastic jar caps filled with vinegar or moth balls could "train" the dogs to not like that corner of the yard for relieving themselves while an easily accessible faux fire hydrant suddenly available on the same day might train it to use another corner of the yard. http://www.canidae.com/blog/2015/11/five-smells-that-dogs-dont-like/ Feeding the dog near the lavender could make it less likely to urinate there as well.

Toats, Ima put this guy here so I can delete him from my desktop now... I saved it for you a while ago. Made me laugh. Have a sunshiny rainbowy fuzzy kind of day! :)