Krysten, the best sugestion would be to touch base with the previous owner and duplicate whatever she tells you to do as best as you can. Lack of blooms can be caused by weather that kills the flower buds, pruning after the flower buds have formed (they develop starting in August-September) and lack of moisture. There is little one can do about the weather so make sure that, if you have to prune, do so before August; and try to maintain the soil moist, not wet, not dry, as best as you can. Maintain 3-4" of acidic mulch up to the drip line of the shrub to help with moisture and cold/hot weather. Trying to get a specific color or color hue out of your hydrangea is a totally different problem. The acidity or alkalinity in your soil will determine the color that you get. If your soil is naturally alkaline, the blooms will be a shade of pink. If you add aluminum sulphate, the soil pH will change and the blooms will develop a purplish color at first. If you continue increasing the acidity of the soil then the blooms will turn blue. Since they are already blue then it follows that you need to add lime so the soil will be less acidic and more alkaline. That eventually triggers a change from blue to purple and then then to pink. But be aware that this is very difficult with hydrangeas planted in the ground; potted hydrangeas are easier to deal with. About the color purple..... the type of purple that you get as the plant changes from pink-to-purple-to-blue or from blue-purple-pink also depends on how many red pigments the plant actually has. The more it has, the more of a deep purple you get. What that means is that the type/variety of mophead hydrangea that you have will make a difference when you try to get a deep purple. Your plant may produce a light purple when shifting colors. Varieties that make nice deep purples are Glowing Embers, Royal Purple (also called Mathilda Gutges I think), Merrit Supreme and others. The previous owner can tell you what types of purple she got and how easy/hard it was to achieve them. Luis

4 new clients this week Flo. I told DH I needed to hire an assistant. He told me to hire our daughter who just graduated and is on the hunt for her first career job. Not Interior Design however. Ive broken my own rule about number of clients I will take at once. I need to be stricter with myself and do the waiting list like you said. HA easier said that done!

Is the wall color as gold as it appears in the photos? I can't tell how much is actual color, how much is lighting, and how much is photography, but the whole room seems very yellow/gold. It looks like there is a covered porch or patio outside that limits the natural light, so I would be looking to increase the amount of artificial light, and probably increase the color temperature of the lamps as well (up to 4000 K). Does your sister just want a change or is she specifically looking at what's currently "in" and thinking, "I want that"? If the latter, I'd probably be looking at paint color (grays may or may not be going out, but I don't think golds a poised to come back in for a while. Maybe a greige, or white, or blue). Changing the light fixture would also be a relatively easy update. A new window shade could add some color and pattern. If she's not as concerned about trends, I might focus more on artwork and the arrangement of the plants. I like the plants, but evenly spacing the pots looks a bit uninspired. Decorators like grouping odd numbers of objects (so 3 or 5 rather than 2 or 4). She could change out some of the pots so that they look more cohesive (this would be a way to introduce a new color if she wants).

Hi Simplynatural, You brought up a good point that I didn't think of (thank you!). The side of the house has the original red brick (see photo below). The back and right sides of the house are white siding, matching the front of the house. I would rather not paint the brick but will if needed. Is there a paint colour that we could paint the siding that would work with both the bricks and the stones? I'm not sure. I really like your ideas of the black door, the symmetrical lights on either side, the long roof over the garage, and the symmetrical porch (without the extension towards to the garage). So if we kept the porch centered and extended the roof over the garage would it be strange to also have steps leading to the right, so towards the garage in addition the the ones centered to the front? I'm thinking that if we needed to go to the garage and it is raining it would be better. I attached a better image of the full view of the house. On the right side of the house is a path that we use to have access to the backyard and the third post in your plan (all white) would end up at the corner where the bins are currently placed; they can be easily moved. Thanks again for all your fantastic ideas! Please let me know if you have any other comments. I really appreciate your thoughts.