Not Exactly Unexpected, But Biggish

So I may or may not have complained about the front yard on here in the past, there were two sad trees and a lot of lawn with no sprinklers. That we were failing to keep up with on the hand-watering during the summertime. And one hedge that I dug up and replanted with some agaves and random succulents. Still happy about that.:

Right now the trees in front of this are gone and we are waiting for a quote from a landscaping guy to come and rip the lawn out. He is also hopefully going to put in hardscaping and till in a big pile of soil amendments. We are hoping to add more paths since there isn't a giant tree dead center in the yard and that means you can walk through the middle of the yard now. And then we are hopefully going to add more trees. Not big trees, not sick trees, and not in stupid places, but yes more trees.

And welcome to California, I swear one of them is going to be an orange tree. Yes, succulents, agaves and an orange tree. There is a plan...but unfortunately all I have is a pdf scan of it now, so hopefully you can click to embiggen. The upper right corner is house and the lower right side is driveway, of course I forgot to label that. The existing paths are light grey and we want to add the dark grey bits. The stripes will be brick, also added to the old ones to make them semi-match. There will also be machines that rip out the existing lawn and till in a bunch of new soil. This is all the theoretical work that will get done if the quote is not unreasonable, and for which I most devoutly hope. Partly because bare-root fruit trees are on sale and it looks SO empty right now.

I am not trying to do anything exciting or artistic here, this is not my place and I just want something that will be solid and low-maintenance with lots of bees and butterflies. The landlord is prepared for a reasonable investment that will be an increase in the home's value in the long run. He's also seen me work and knows it will be cheaper if I do the planting and somebody else does the heavy stuff (realistic, that). I hope to include some sturdy plants like Mexican sage, California lilac and fuchsia and plenty more of those wacky succulents that I love so much. Along with some of the usual suspects like rosemary and lavender. I keep going back to this for inspiration and wishing succulents weren't so expensive. And debating with myself whether I could work in a few kangaroo paws... they did it here and I love it. I am wondering why all of my inspiration links are from Southern California gardens but I do have a full sunny western exposure here so I am going to go with it.