I agree wwith kiwikaryn. Some modern artificial grasses are indistinguishable from the real thing. And, yes, proper installation is crucial. susandawn, you'd be surprised how far artificial turf has come. Check out some of our grasses at our gallery at http://www.globalsynturf.com/gallery. We also have a warehouse in your area where you can check out our grasses in person or pick up free samples. The warehouse is located at 3320 E Miraloma Ave, Anaheim, CA 92806. And like littlemissk mentioned, finding a good installer is key. We can help you find one in your area if you call us at 877-796-8873. littlemissk, all great recommendations you've made. The only tweak I would make is that artificial turf shouldn't be uprootable (even by a dog) if installed properly, i.e. with proper seaming and infilling. A good deodorizing infill to use is ZeoFill.

It is essential to work with a designer familiar with your country and climate. All we can offer here are general strategies and ideas to get your creative juices flowing. It is critical for the garden planner to know the path of the sun across the space, where it rises and sets at the equinoxes, and how high it is at noon at the solstices. Are you in the northern hemisphere or the southern hemisphere? Plants are extremely peculiar about how many hours of sunlight they get and their orientation. Shelters should be planned so light can enter them during cool months, but the overhangs block most of the sun during the hot months. Grass will not survive in heavily used areas. Once the infiltration areas are decreased and replaced with paving, considerable thought should be given to drainage, to insure that excess rainwater does not flow into the house and does not pond where mosquitoes will grow. The choice of plants is very dependent on what is available to you from family and friends or for sale in your local market. In temperate climates, we use a lot of wooden platforms, pergolas, and wall decoration. The closer you get to the equator, the more termites, fire ants, and other wood-eating pests dictate stone and concrete terraces and structures, metal poles and polyester sails for shade. Where mosquitoes are a problem, screens are a great blessing. In very hot climates, a ceiling fan under the ramada is very cooling. The big easy chairs look so comfortable, but they are too crowded under the small overhang. I would like to see the main seating area moved further out into the yard under a new sheltering roof, a ramada, with a masonry barbeque/pizza oven/buffet/drinks refrigerator and high chimney on one side of the ramada. By moving it away from the house, sunlight is not blocked from entering the house, and you can get some landscaping close to the sliding glass doors. Children may appear satisfied with a corner, especially to a parent who sees them primarily at meals and when they are tired. However, children like to roam and it is healthy for them to do so. Consider the tricycle/roller skating circuit around the yard, 2 feet wide will accommodate one way traffic. A climbing wall is very fun, and inexpensive. Swing set, slides, and jungle gyms and rings are great. The more adventure offered, the more they will use it.

That's pretty much exactly what our approach has been! We made the front room our living room, and the back room is our split dining/seating area, and we've been calling it the "hearth room". Things are still very much in progress, but this is what we've got so far: This is when you walk in the front door, and are standing in the front room/living room. We know we need to move the credenza over (to the right) to give the chair more space, but my husband has been putting it off. We've also considered moving the chair to the other side, though the credenza would then move more to the left. Also, the light fixture will be replaced, but towards the end of this process, after painting and curtains probably. As an FYI, we are planning to paint this room a matte, saturated blue like the "Stiffkey Blue" or "Hague Blue" colors that we've started to see more of. It looks really nice against bright white trim and teak/golden colored wood. Kind of like this shade: Anyway, continuing the tour... This is standing now on the opposite side of the living room, standing in the barn doorway. We are considering replacing the couch with something closer to a flat or tweed grey than the tan/beige one we have now. This is with the intention of painting the walls the above color, too, and will use pillows/throws + hanging our art to give additional color pops. And that random dining chair in the corner is not permanent. We think we should put something there but aren't sure what yet. Now turning to the right, facing the front wall of the house. We will be hanging curtains and replacing that curtain rod eventually too. Now turning around so that the living room is behind you... This is looking straight back to the hearth room. There's furniture in there now! And no lawn mower... We plan to repaint the kitchen area too (so that it isn't that country blue anymore) but haven't landed on a color yet. We will keep the trim bright white though, and repaint the wainscoting so that it's bright white too (it's more of a cream color now). Moving closer.. Turning around and looking back - FYI, that wall color directly in front of you, before entering the living room, is the same color that is in the living room - taupe. We'll be repainting that too but still not sure on color: Now in the hearth room: Once again... we'll be repainting. The color in this room is again the same taupe used everywhere else. Also not sure on color here. The black chair is really close to the coffee table right now - my husband moved it today, but it is usually spaced better. Also, you may notice the random side table in front of the fireplace - there's a long story there, but it is not in its final place either. We are uncertain about this rug - it used to be under my round dining table (which we sold - my husband decided he "hated" (!) a round table in this room) so I repurposed it. I was initially surprised to find that I thought the rug worked really well, but once we added the black chair I didn't feel so good about it. I'm starting to think a rectangular one would work better, but still unsure.. it'd be 8x10, enough for all four legs of the couch to sit on + the majority of the chair. Plus, we will be adding a second chair with a similar low profile to the black one. Turning around and looking towards the other end of the room. We call this our "Furniture Graveyard": We'll either move the big armchair into the study, or sell it. The dining chairs are sitting around waiting for us to buy a dining table, and we'll be selling that black bookcase. We're planning on a rectangular dining table still, but not as long as originally considered. One night we ended up moving our 7'x3' patio table in to see what the footprint would be, and were surprised at how good it looked - though it was still longer than we'd like. It just felt like a nice, cozy space for entertaining, and that sealed the deal on rectangular vs round. My concern though is that we'd put an 8x10 rug under that table too... as a reminder, the room is 23' long, so (if we replace the current round rug) 16' of it would be covered by two separate rugs, spaced a couple feet apart from one another with a couple feet of bare concrete floor on the edges too. It's hard for me to visualize but I'm on the hunt for two complimentary rugs...

Claire Larece That section of the house is a project for another time. The wall between the original cottage and the 20'x20' addition was knocked out in the name of "open concept" somewhere 20-25 years ago, because the previous owners (not the previous-previous owners who built the addition) were deeply stupid. The previous-previous owners, on the other hand, didn't bother doing anything with the lumpy natural-stone chimney and just built around it, leading to perpetual roof leaks. o_O Eventual floorplan will look something like this, with the chimney demolished and replaced with a pipe flue and the original entry repurposed back to a foyer again.