Matsuda Compacta Escallonia. Blooms nearly year-round. Excellent foundation shrub. Profuse rose-red flowers. Sun to shade. Average 30" tall. Water regularly as needed. Cold hardiness to 20 degrees F.
Escallonia is an evergreen shrub. I found this compact variety at Home Depot, which, at this time of year, stocks some interesting new selections. They always have good prices. Hopefully these little ones will reach good size in reasonable time. The glossy green leaves are attractive. The flowers will just be a bonus.
The location on this side of the garage had ancient succulents without irrigation. It probably fed off ground water from the lawn. It didn't look good. I had to add a new irrigation circuit to allow greater flexibility. While installing that, I also realigned the edging, reorganized the other pipes and permanent hoses as well as upgraded the timer wiring. The gravel walk had to be leveled. The hose hanger (visible at distant right) is also new. It's anchored in a tiny concrete foundation. Finally, there's a single Hydrangea at the other end that will hopefully make good use of the ground moisture that always build up near a garden hose.
Lots of little black bugs the size of fleas are infesting the tender growing tips of this Tenuifolium. They don't move. They seem to just hunker down to suck the juices of the new growth. Ants walk all over them like they're ground tiles. Scraping squishes them easily. Pesticide spraying gets them off for a day or two, but they quickly return. Tree seems okay, so I'll just leave it. Tree has grown a few inches since 
Although it wasn't a load-bearing wall, corner studs are still necessary for wallboard nailing at the edges of this closet wall. But the framers never had future removal in mind. They lapped them into the perpendicular studs with lots of face nails. I had to do some fancy cutting with a reciprocating saw and use a portable planer. This also left narrower than usual bays between studs for electrical boxes on either side of the wall.
Bedroom #3 had an awkward closet location. Apparently the original designers did not take bed placement into consideration. The narrow dimension, from closet door to the opposite wall, was a mere 8'-9", which would leave only about 22 inches at the foot of a queen-size bed. A floor air register by the window was the other limiting factor.
Luckily, the rafters, ceiling joists and floor joists are all parallel to the demo walls, making this project one without structural impact — another reason to take out the walls.