Whatever you do never plant a gum! They have no place in suburban areas! The sooner the council realises that these trees kill people the better! We have had two gum trees fall on the back of our house now, one in 2012 and one in 2014. We are so lucky that myself, my husband, three children, three dogs, five Guinea pigs, two parrots and one bearded dragon were not injured. It's just a miracle not once but twice! I still don't know how we escaped unharmed. The gums do not have a stable root system and they grow very shallow, they get to the point where they just fall over. And the scary thing is they fall silently. They are not called 'Widow Makers' in the bush for no reason. I like the Tuckeroo tree, not sure of scientific name. They grow with a straight trunk and keep their foliage in a straight and symmetrical line along the bottom and grow hiding their branches. Essentially they look like a large mushroom. They are green all year too. I think they get to about 6 metre or ten if they have to reach for the sun.

Luke, don't mess around with gum trees. As beautiful as they are, they are prone to falling suddenly and unexpectedly and that is one huge tree that could take out a couple of homes in the process. I've also found that if part of a tree dies, it can affect the balance of the rest of the tree so it becomes unstable even though it may look healthy. If an arborist says it needs to come down then I wouldn't waste time, you could void your insurance by not heeding advice. Do you need Council approval? Sometimes that can take a while to get.

Ask your family what they would like to see, not designwise, but plant materialwise - color, texture, fragrance. Even ask your mother-in-law. You have provided some architect's dream, with the bold geometric forms, the bold palms and cycads. How about something warm and fuzzy. Something to rub your hands on as you head to the door. Some color and fragrance beyond the white and palm trunks. How about vines to soften the hard edges of the planters, fill them with ground cover plants so you won't see the mulch in a couple years, add bulbs of all seasons to bring cheer, glossy leaves to brighten your day. Bring nature to your entrance area to warm up the arrival of your mother-in-law. How about saving room for a couple chairs and small table, to sit out and prove that people actually live in this piece of marvelous sculpture, and add the warmth of an outdoor room. Spend some time at the library with books about the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. He is the one who introduced the architectural design idea of the outdoor room. Come to think of it, I don't remember ever seeing a garage door in any of the photos. Guess I'll have to take another look.

We had a similar experience about 30 years ago. Along with that same pine tree we had a huge full blue spruce right next to it in front of our house. Both trees were full with branches right to the ground, healthy & beautiful. It made our house disappear & look like a matchbox house & prevented light to come in. Both were 75' tall & growing nonstop. It started to affect our pipes. I don't like cutting down healthy trees. I began calling some large landscape companies asking them if they'd take them. One company had a customer who wanted live trees as a fence & barrier in an expensive suburb near Boston. They gave me a price & thought it was fair. We were really happy they wouldn't be destroyed. What a day it was when they came to remove those trees! Neighbors came over & cars driving by pulled over to watch. It was fascinating how a huge machine fit around the tree & lifted it up, roots impact & no damage at all. It took two days & the landscaper handed us a check which paid for filling those very large & deep holes. IMO I'd leave the tree for the new owners to decide whether to remove it or not. It's not that uncommon as you'd think.