Wow!!! thank you so much for responding and for the ideas. Cyn222 I love your drawing of the area I think I might try that one in another spot , I wanted to have an area for a memorial seat, your drawing looks lovely and I think it’ll suit a spot just up the path. It’ll look down over the pond. I'm going to have to work out plan as I learnt that lesson once before. lol. I did wonder about a swing, the large tree sits on the top of a bank, it then goes down about 8 meters. It’s reeeeeally steep. I do like the idea of secret gardens and seats along the tracks. I was tossing up about a waterfall over in the far corner. Since the water flows down a stream and then though the overgrown swamp at the bottom. Gez I wish money grew on trees, lol. Actually I call them ponds but they are really dams on a natural water way. Decoenthusiaste, Thank you, you made a very good point about starting with the ponds and working out. I think you are right. It’ll probably take me awhile to tidy up the area. I’ll also have to check what kind of wild flowers are around as I'm sure there must be some. It would look nice with a bit of colour, I never thought of that. The ground down at the bottom is swampy like wet lands. I also wondered about board walks through it. We are building soon on the land, so this will be the back yard. There is also lot of native bush. Here’s a photo from the side of the pond. I’ll have to get it cleaned up somehow and figure out the best way to improve the water quality. If I start with that 1st, and then do the memorial garden I can then work from there. Lol I’m keen on getting the ashes out of the cupboard. Thanks, you both have given me direction, I appreciate it.

Bronan, if you are over 13 and under 21, then the possibilities are really fun with black wood furniture in a room that could be set up with a ballet barre, or used as a dance practice studio as well as a bedroom! Since the floors are dark, you will need to keep the walls light, Usually in a bedroom you start with the colors in your bedding. If you want a new look, perhaps you could start with a pretty floral like this, paint the wall where you will put the head of your bed a deep coral pink to match the bedding and all the other walls a pale pretty coral too. room a soft, soft pink, and hang soft pink drapery panels http://www.target.com/p/threshold-multi-floral-comforter-set/-/A-14982101#prodSlot=medium_1_13 The coral will pop with your black furniture better / a good one that makes your skin pretty in the light - this one for a headboard wall to test - http://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/color/find-and-explore-colors/paint-colors-by-family/SW6878-animated-coral/ this one for the other 3 walls . . a white with the same coral undertone - http://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/color/find-and-explore-colors/paint-colors-by-family/SW6609-touching-white/ If possible, you might hang drapery rods on the mirror wall, so you can hang (with this bedding) white drapery at both the window and on each end of the mirror - it will make it feel a lot softer in the room if you treat it like a window. You can follow watch for on sale drapery until you can get a lot that is the same. Put the rod at the same height over the mirror as it is over the window. You might paint an inspirational quote at the top of the mirror in the dark coral (using a stencil) so that you visually fill the space between the top of the mirror and the top of the window. You could get a sample size of pale green paint the color of the green in the bedding to paint an extra piece of furniture that you need that isn't quite right. A little desk or vanity, or even a round end table or a bench for the foot of your bed. Hope this looks like an interesting option to you. Later, you can go for graphic black and white bedding and put hot coral pillows on it with the same paint job and curtains and get a whole new look with just new bedding.

Try this. Hang the television to the right of the wood stove on the wall opposite the french doors. Use the wall with the high windows for a looong sofa and add two chairs across / angled slightly - low back so you can look over one to television. use console / sofa table on entry /bed door wall just past where entry door opens so you have a lay down surface. Forget glass, it isn't for this era and won't make it feel bigger. Paint ALL french doors inside and out and small windows and entry door same color and trim same color too. Try a charcoal rather than a black - something in the blue-green-gray shades like new providence navy. do all the walls in kitchen and living in a warm white - this tone has the wood as an undertone - http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/woodash then, for the cabinets . . do a bungalow thing and go deeper on the cabinets to a classic drabware tone - with the wood walls and floors / try bm bracken biscuit http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/brackenbiscuit these will all go together like gangbusters, keep it light and bright but interesting and work with a new blue green gray back door in a tone like bm beach glass http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/beachglass templeton gray as a counterpoint on some craigslist piece of furniture . . add warm undertone tan and oatmeal nubby tweed upholstery to start . . the teal navy gray will work with the black iron stove and accents without going black. start keeping the left door to the kitchen closed and get a door stop to hold the other one open permanently . . this will work because you need a little more wall to make the tv work well - in the kitchen, pull your table away from the wall just a tad - consider a padded bench on the wall to provide a kind of sitting space in there and put the chairs across - if you shift your television to the wall (high enough the heat is not an issue , you can still have big speakers work well - and remote the media equipment - run the wire and patch the holes. Hang it mid-height - eye level when you sit plus 15 degrees . . check out the amazing sconces you can put on the entry wall - shades of light petersik pendant with home-made trim wood brace to pump it out from the wall since the power is high? over the console? round wood table in middle - even a hd butcherblock round on a painted drum base in trim tone? With those tones - teal gray, biscuit, creamy off-white, muted blue-greens - paint your white chairs and a hand me down bench wythe blue and find a graphic sunbrella print with a little blue green, chocolate and orange for cushions and pad skirts with velcro at the table . . make a galvinized pipe leg / plank 1 x 12 / clear finish console for behind the door . . now you are cooking with gas . .

I agree with lefty. Really think you should cut back the area. Even if you don't pave in the degraded area just plant it will look larger. Two levels shrink the space one level feels more like a room. Also I can tell the fence is your neighbors because the rails are facing your side. I would face the fence so that it looks better in your side.