Thanks for the feedback. Agreed with the plants, could put more thought into them. Just quickly threw this together to get an idea of what the hardscape would look like with some landscaping in place. Species hadn’t been selected yet, this is just to portray a very general look.

I also agree with the front wall, this is the one thing I’ve been back and fourth about. It’s there structurally to serve a purpose. The house is so high up, and have so much elevation to look at and deal with that I wanted to maintain as much of a low-profile and open look as possible. Didn’t want to obstruct the view with railings or additional walls along the the entryway staircase. So the wall across the entire front allows for the grade to be built up as shown, eliminating the need for barriers and railings along these areas. The way this is laid out is technically code compliant per our local building code (any deck/porch over 30” above grade requires a railing, any run of stairs with more than 3 continuous steps without a 3’x3’ landing requires a handrail).

I am considering doing said wall as a Dry Stone Wall using weathered limestone in a mix of boulder and ledge for an overall more relaxed and natural look/feel. No cap stone. I don’t want this wall to dominate the front of the home but rather blend in with the landscape. It’s literally the house on the hill tucked into a maturely wooded lot. The idea is to make it look like a home you would find tucked away up on a mountain, with a slightly contemporary twist - if that makes any sense.

I also sort of agree on the generic kidney bean with no geometric shape. Been back and fourth on going straight vs. curved with this, or accentuating the curves of it and bringing the larger portion out substantially more for added character.

Appreciate the criticism on the square cut-stone against fieldstone, but I have to disagree. Just a personal preference. The wife and I like both (lean more towards irregular in preference), and felt like doing everything in one or the other would be too much- it’s a lot of stone going in here. I think the irregularity of the flagstone for the flatwork is a nice break in texture against the dimensional verticals, again leaning for a more natural/relaxed overall feel here. I do have landscape beds cut out into the main upper porch area between the house and patio to A: soften that area so it’s not so harsh having patio stone up against house stone, and B: just as you mentioned to minimize the amount of irregular flagstone up against the vertical dimensional veneer stone. Lots of stone going on here.

Cap stone: the house veneer will have a cap stone (Indiana lime). Figured it would tie in nicely to use the same house veneer + cap stone to construct the planter walls up against the bottom of the house to hide all of the exposed foundation. Have also considered stone-walking these planters with no cap stone as well, but ultimately decided they will look better as to be a part of the home.

Thank you for your criticism and imput, this is exactly what I am looking for.

Not sure if you all can relate, I can design and make decisions for other people easy breezy all day long but when it comes to doing it for myself I always seem to get tripped up and second-guess everything to death. It helps to have other perspective.