Help!

Dirt patch in the back "yard"

Please take the poll to the left, because Bee's on his way out of town soon, which means I'm fired up to do another round of home improvement.  Here's what I'm thinking:



The photo above shows our back "yard", which is mostly just a dirt patch.  There are some bulbs planted on either side, against the house and fence, and all the current greenery by the fence is poppies (which Bee loves and I hate).

This is our front "yard":

Front "yard"; house on the left

The area with the gravel used to be grass.  Then, for awhile, Bee turned it into a vegetable patch.  Then, several years ago, he and I laid the gravel and stones.  Lately Bee's made noises about turning it back into grass.

So, what I'm wondering is: should I move all the gravel and stones from the front yard to the back, saving (for now) the back yard's strip of greenery by the house and the fence?  Perhaps I should even get creative and attempt to fashion some dirt berms back there.  Or something.  Keep in mind I have no idea what I'm doing.

Then should I sow grass seed in the front yard?  Should I remove the clump of struggling plants that are towards the back and plant grass there as well?

This is either a close-up of the group of struggling plants in the back or a shot of Bigfoot.

I can't decide if Bee would actually appreciate me doing this project, or if he'd rather have input on it.  I also can't decide if I'd just screw it up by myself.

I could always try something else.  Our house is oddly-positioned, with the side facing the street.  As such, people don't tend to know which gate to enter to reach our front door.  Years before I moved in, Bee built a fence that blocks the view of the front door from the street; maybe I should remove some of the slats and shorten it -- picket fence-style -- to make our front yard more accessible?

view from the front yard looking towards the street

Or there's our living room wall.  Behind it is the hallway people enter from our front door, and Bee feels the wall is useless.  He'd love to at least cut holes in it to make 'alcoves' and to let more light into the hallway.  I could do that (?).  Keep in mind that the shelves I'd make might not be very strong and, since I'd have to run them between studs, they'd all be about three feet long (too long?)

Living room wall with entrance hallway behind it (and Mr. C's kitchen in the corner!)

And then there's the ugly ceiling fan above our bed.  Although I doubt I could wire in a new one, I could at least repaint this one and look for a different light fixture.  Bee probably wouldn't care, though.

Butt-ugly ceiling fan

So those are my thoughts for the week.  Major landscape renewal that may or may not turn out well and that Bee may or may not like (but if he does like, he'd be really pleased and I'd feel very fulfilled) OR working on the fence OR destroying the living room wall OR doing a dinky project with the ceiling fan.

I'm too close to the projects now to view them neutrally.  Got ideas?