I'd go for the higher privacy screens within your own boundary. Get a car junk yard to store some old crushed car bodies on piled high on top of each other for 3-6 months to create the screen. They will be au fait with safely securing them. They may even pay for the temporary space leaving you with enough money to later build a truly aesthetically pleasing barrier, something like that big reflective glass barrier to her if she doesn't move! Hopefully she will decide to move when that is all she can see. My dad actually used this strategy successfully with a problem neighbour in the past! Meanwhile have a chat to a lawyer. We have one of those problem neighbours who complains about (non) barking dogs and gets her kicks by watching us put out washing. She now looks onto my chicken coop and thought it was a dog kennel. It makes me feel like going naked when I tend the chickens to give her something to really scare her and having a heavy metal rock band rehearse regularly in my garage. It is horrible to be overlooked by a neighbour who is so problematic and likes to use your family as her reality television set! Do check with a lawyer about her possible trespass onto your property. My guess is she used Round Up on a windy day!

m_mdimond; My constant whippet! Yes change is inevitable. Youth was great! Middle age more challenging, now the dread of what happens as the body slows, bu the mind still runs at top speed! Funny how we eventually become our parents and live with all the things they once complained about: eyesight less sharp, glasses, threading needles a challenge. Oh what we so easily dismissed or took for granted when we were young! Pain at bay to this point. Sad to hear of yours, but fantastic you are still managing to walk your Shepherd, despite it! Dogs keep us centred and motivated. They shower us in love and lack of judgement. My dad had his Jack Russell at his side into his nineties. He was his constant companion and often his sole company for days at a time, other than his twice weekly cleaner. Animals are so special. They deliver their own unique greetings and communicate in such different ways. My life would be so much the less without the animals who have been part of it. So lucky to have had two wonderful ponies and an incredible galloway. So lucky many of my friends had horses too. Horses, dogs and cats are always a point of connection into special human experience and also lead us to new human and animal connections. Nothing wrong with memories and sentiment. I think we feel it even more accutely as we age. Glad I kicked up my heels, as well as keeping those "heels down, legs close to my horses side and and elbows close to my own" for much of my fantastic and sometimes wild youth! I was a pretty good kid really, but do admit to having been a teen groupie, back in the day, wouldn't swap that either. Somewhere here, I believe is my scrapbook and definitely a few photos in the albums. Still like to kick up my heels, too! Yes. Gratitude is vital.

To give another perspective, engineered wood can be sanded and refinished and is the only flooring type that adds value to your home. We have replaced an engineered floor with a new one after 15 years ( it had water damage from the dishwasher and we were replacing the kitchen, otherwise I would have had it sanded and resealed. During that time we had two kids, teens, adults, a cat and dogs rampaging across it. Just prior to replacing it had a couple of dents as well as some scratches under where we ( stupidly) had a magnetic knife block that wasn’t quite magnetic enough. Engineered floors are made with natural timber so each board is unique. Vinyl is a printed image of wood that is repeated in the floor. Pic of blackbutt from recent install.

Great ideas, dreamer. I love the idea for the front entrance. Would you think going down to 3 bedrooms would reduce the value of the house significantly? What would you suggest with the current entrance and steps? Would you keep them or break them down and seal off that entrance?  For the carport, do you mean directly in front of the house or over the current driveway?  The ground floor does feel pretty "basement" at the moment. The ceilings are a good/normal height, though I can't say the exact measurement at the moment. Maybe a bit too dark for a kitchen and daily living for my preference. There are nice views from the first floor.