Id have Raised planter boxes put in around the outside of our yard so my mother in-law doesn't have to spend hours on the ground with a bad back to do the gardening!..

Miranda You appear to be making all the right choices in life. I will be a little bit presumptuous by offering some advice on helping you to raise your child in touch with nature in this age full of all the electronic lures that keep the kids indoors. or, when outdoors, glued to a small screen, rather than the glory that surrounds them. I am writing a book about landscape architecture and have a section regarding the importance of embracing nature in the preschool years. - which I would like to forward that section to you. However, my computer skills are limited to email and US Mail. I don't even know how to attach a picture to the text. If you would like to receive this draft from my future book, send me your email or postal address, and I'll get it right off to you. My email is cascio.offsite@gmail.com Good luck with your new challenges and opportunities. Joe Cascio

I found these couple of pics on houzz. I like both, in the second one (if you just look at the roof line to the right of the path) It shows how you could build the front entrance out just to give the house some shape. and there are endless choices for beautiful front doors. The roof line above the door is the same as yours, and the pic shows how you could add the additional office to the right of the door. I will also add, I am a huge fan of laser cut steel maybe you could build a sort of privacy decorative shaped wall to add balance on the driveway side of your yard, ( something substantial that really stands out) and add feature plants or pots

I've been playing around with a pantry location. Originally, I was going to move the pantry into the laundry with some custom shelving and cut the laundry space in half. Now, Im thinking of cutting into the study area and building a wall there, and converting the new space into a long and narrow walk in pantry. Either that or build half a wall and put built in shelving in the study. Building the extra wall will reduce the need to cover in the door way that is currently in place and instead utilising it. Thoughts? p.s. this isnt too scale.