You could lay a nice curved shape garden by the corner of fence and plant layers starting with 2-3 mtr trees at back down to 50-70 cm high plants at front. This will soften the fence line and give you something to look at while on the slab. Something for the kids also like a small structure to play in, on and around would complete a nice family back yard. If you are handy you can make you own small play ground copying parts of a local ground or there are kit sets available. Good luck,

I have not heard anything bad about having doors that open from any direction of the house and as you have not confirmed which country you live in I can not even predict where the worst of the winds would come from. I live in NZ and my front door faces North West. Where I live that is the worst / strongest winds that we have so the only negative for me is on a story day I might be blown down the steps or the rain might soak me as I try to unlock the door. I have simply eliminated what I can by adding a glass roof above my front deck. My back door faces south east and again the weather was and is the only problem so I enclosed this area with a porch which allows me to have the door open most days, almost all year round. NZ's bad weather comes from the south and the sun is in the North. If you are also in a similar location / southern hemisphere then your plan shows me your house is perfectly positioned for the best of the sun. I think you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Don't listen to negative comments make the most of what you have and if you need to make small adjustments for wind, rain or too much sun. ENJOY YOURSELF AND YOUR NEW HOME.

Hi Helen. I thought I might share photos of my kitchen- which happens to be on a farm- as the layout is very similar to yours. We planned to do white subway tiles (and still might as we are just doing the bathrooms with the tiles and will see what we have left...) but used clear coated cement board as a temporary measure and find it quite serviceable as we haven't finished the kitchen. We did the open shelves first and then added bits and pieces of shelving afterwards. These are white washed Douglas Fir. The shelves just below the temporary ply bench top (going to do polished concrete benchtops later) are lined with galvanised tin. The lazy Susan in the corner cupboards are really handy! Hope these photos might be of interest. It's a very serviceable kitchen work in progress!

I was thinking maybe a pergola so that you can still enjoy the sun when necessary but have a small area where you can just relax with your family. What were you thinking?