Perhaps if you look at your outdoor spaces as outdoor rooms, it may help you personalize and organize the areas. What I see in the photo is a small front yard divided in half, and a tree placed exactly in the center of the other half, within a little square of bed. I expect you would not do that with an interior room. A visitor will be compelled to race down the hallway to the front door, and probably not even notice the tree, since it is not part of a composition, a furniture grouping. You enter your living room to a welcoming composition of a furniture grouping, lamps, pictures on the wall, drapes (I hope) on the windows. You get the idea. Would you put a post lamp in the middle of an empty room? It would tend to diminish the size of the space and it's usefulness as a space. Would you put a carpet down the center of a room? -- only if you were creating two separate scenarios of equal size. You need some on-site advisers, whether they be landscape architects or interior designers, someone or more than one who will offer their experienced suggestions for you to consider, but not immediately act upon. You need to live with your new spaces and walk through their ideas for weeks, or months, before making a decision on how to proceed. Perhaps it would help you to read the thoughts of some international designers like Bunny Williams, with her book, On Garden Style, where you will get the feeling that the views of the outside rooms from within the house are as important as the views from the street. You will want to move the maple out of its central location, remove the central path, - and the conifers scare me. You really have a very small space up front here. Take a look in the park at the size of a mature conifer. They will occupy your yard and that of your neighbor, as they develop as nature intended. They are very beautiful, a work of art, but space-consuming. You may have room in the back yard, but be careful when blocking the magnificent views from within the house. Perhaps you will provide an entrance to your outdoor room over to the right, near your property line, with the tree, the lamp post, a small chair or bench, a bed of small plants that have beauty and fragrance throughout the seasons - a space you would like to sit in yourself, perhaps have coffee with the neighbor, or the kids hang out with a pal. Then have the walk work its way over toward the entrance area - not the door, but the welcoming area before the door, slow them down to enjoy the sequence, while providing a most pleasant view of this area from within. Make the plantings permanent, with no soil or mulch to show, after two years, as the groundcover plants mature and cover the beds. Keep all the annual plants in containers, to be stored away if empty, so the views of your spaces are not distracted by an open area in the bed where the annuals have departed, or an empty pot. Consider excluding your auto from your outdoor room, your welcoming area. You don't have room for a real screen, so just a suggestion, as a small hedge or plant bed to stop the eye before it gets to the drive. Perhaps the view beyond the drive is attractive, so all you need to filter from the view is the driveway pavement itself, as the car belongs in the garage, yes? Sometimes a little perimeter fence with a gate says welcome to my special space. In your case perhaps a darker color, not the typical white, which would be a high contrast to the house and not appropriate here, grabbing all the attention. What I have offered may be of no use to you, however, the intent of my words is to provoke you to analyze first, then plan. Consider alternatives from all viewpoints before deciding how to proceed, as these spaces and plants will be a part of your life for many years. Good luck to you. Continue the process at the tortoise pace, not the hare.

well done to your husband for such a detailed plan... i suggest that you focus on the clothesline level by removing or demolishing the pond or simply filling with rubble and soil to make a raised garden or seat, long term plan to level the area shown as "stones" to make a fenced lawn with access from the deck but any change in level of more than 1m needs a fence so you should fence off the garden with gates across the steps on both sides...a treated pine log fence with chicken wire mesh to prevent any footholds for climbing would probably be the cheapest and consider enclosing a space under the deck over the raised floor to create a storage area for the ladder, gas bottles, mower etc...the walls could come out as far as the round steel post (if it can't be removed safely) and broken bricks could fill in the pond, try moving the clothesline over to the pond lawn to make a more open lawned area on the other side and paint everything except the house brick walls with a very dark paint to tone with the bricks.. consult the local nursery for suitable shrubs to screen the neighbours and unless you're a keen gardener convert all the small gardens beds into lawn or paving

Hi Jonjon, My comment was a bit 'tongue in cheek' really but also highlighting that the layout I suggested provided more separation and privacy for two separate groups to be able to 'hang out' independantly of each other. This is acheived by having the den and courtyard screened from the main living area with the back wall of the kitchen. Your original plan and the second one still has the courtyard and the den with a visual connection to the living area, though a little less so in the second plan. With my layout, your boy and friends could happily hang out in his room, the den and courtyard without interupting what is going on in the north of the house. Also, having the office/yoga room on the other side of the hallway from the den gives separation for that activity and clients. If you needed extra separation, you could add a door in the hallway in line with the kitchen and laundry. This could be a cavity slider going into the bedroom/laundry wall or a simple hinged door, but I think it would function fine without a door. Whatever plan you end up with, I would prioritise what you want to acheive with your design and list them in order of importance. The comments I initially made on my first post, based on your comments, would be what I would prioritise. That being north views from as many spaces as possible, which also prioritises light, which is important. I'd orientate your bed facing the view, I'd eliminate the less important spaces from the view and try to reduce wasted space in corridors and circulation where feasible. Think about how you use, or plan to use your kitchen in relation to the dining and living and outdoor space. Kitchens have evolved from being a separate room to the open plan arrangement common now and onto needing a scullery or pantry room because the open plan arrangement does not allow for the mess to be hidden away. A scullery is effectively a pantry combined with the messy stuff. Not a space that really deserves the view. That should, IMO be reserved for the 'front' kitchen in the open plan area. You need to strike the balance between open and closed without sacrificing the functionality of the whole kitchen. Personally, in the scullery I would put the dishwasher and a big sink and the majority of the dry food storage and maybe the jug and toaster and other portable appliances with some usable bench space. In the front kitchen I would have a small sink, the oven and cooktop, fridge and freezer within easy access at the edge of the kitchen and all your crockery and cutlery storage and a nice island bench. Good luck with everything. C.

This townhouse is almost the worst possible orientation you could achieve and as others have said, I wouldn't rush to buy it. If the price is too good to believe, that is the reason and it will reflect in your sale price down the track so don't have high expections when the time comes to sell. Light is the most important quality in a home to provide an enjoyable and healthy living environment and so should never be undervalued. Having said that, if you are determined to buy it, as well as what others have suggested, I would look at the following. It appears that the first floor lines up with the outside kitchen wall and the garage is single storey and that is why you do get north windows into the top two bedrooms. The large west facing window in bedroom 3 will need shading all year round to prevent overheating in the small room. South light is still good even though it doesn't have much sun, especially in warmer climates so I would look at putting a window in the kitchen so you can see that back yard, possibly between the oven and the outside corner. The main thing I would do however, is to put a big skylight over the stairs and keep the balustrading open to allow light to come down to the living space. You should get reflected light off the walls in the morning and direct sunlight in the afternoon. You will have to check the fire rating issues in relation to the joint wall with the neighbour as this part of the roof appears to be where the roof valley is but you might be able to get one in on the north facing triangular portion of the roof. To increase the amount of light, you could change the stairs to have an open riser to let more light penetrate. You could also replace some of the garage roof adjacent the living area with clearlite roofing and put a high level window in the garage/living room wall to let that light come through. Good luck. C.