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.

What a great space and big opportunity. Firstly, it looks as though your soil is fairly sandy and possibly hydrophobic soil - before you decide on actual plans start working at improving your soil so that you're setting yourself up for success (think about a good dose of organic matter, worm compost tea, organic aids like Natramin (a personal favourite of mine) that will help get your soil working with biodiversity, structure and creating a nutritional environment for plans and micro-organisms) and then think about going with natives as they're a bit hardier than cottage/tropical garden plants. Depending on your budget, you could pull out the fence all together or paint it a lighter colour. You could add a fence opening for pedestrian access further towards the middle and wind your path with steppers and gain a bit of privacy with arbours covered in climbing vines,. Don't hold back in putting in low growing plants in front of your fence either if you like (afterall your council ensure that you're responsible for it's maintenance). You could also soften the edge of the driveway using curving edging - taking away the harshness of the straight lines. I'd also look at doing something tall along the fence to balance the pencil pines on the driveway edge. Good luck!

Hi, What a great house, love the agaves, you could plant a smaller variety with them to give a more stylish look, or try a mixture of grasses, lomandra, a structural plant in the garden bed , search for a dragon tree or something similar to compliment the agaves, it looks quite a hot spot as the Xanadu looks a little sunburned, maybe relocate it to a more morning sun spot, add a watering system and a stone mulch .. doesn’t need much to give a dramatic look to your gorgeous house.

Sasha, so you have an image of the building envelope you can use? How big is it? As it's a rural block, so you have a bit of leeway trying to orientate your home correctly? I'm assuming that by 'west facing', you mean the living areas must face west? That is the long sides of the home will have west & east? If this is the case I'd recommend the bedrooms face east (& south). As you really don't want western facing bedrooms, as they can get extremely hot on summer evenings, just before you go to bed. In this case it's better to have the living areas to the west (better than bedrooms anyway), & north if possible. As northern living areas will be lighter, & warmer in winter. I would definitely consider a western verandah to shade western living areas. Possibly with western deciduous climbers to offer shade in summer, allowing light in winter. Planting larger trees to shade the home from the west of possible. If, by 'west facing', if you mean a western frontage, this can be ideal for passive solar design. With the long sides of the home facing north (living areas) & south (bedrooms). But this is a more urban setup for a western frontage. I guess in a rural setting the home usually faces the frontage, ie. you already a wide home, not a narrow home. If this is the reason the home will face west - ie. not because of a limited building envelope, but so it faces the driveway - I would certainly reconsider this approach, orientating the home (& living areas to the north). oklouise has tried to link an extremely useful website, but for the link wrong I think. It's the Your Home website. A government website about building sustainable energy efficient homes, https://www.yourhome.gov.au/ I'd recommend reading it all. But start with passive design & orientation, to get your head around orientating your home correctly if it's possible. Then read up on design for climate, to see what's appropriate in your climate (if you're inland you probably want to have higher levels of internal thermal mass). Then continue to read the rest. There's extremely useful information in there.