The barren lawn is weird. Most nice houses with big lawns tend to have at least a couple of old oak trees artistically planted in the middle.

Growing up, one of my friends had a yard with three trees spaced out on a flat lawn, such that you could just drop a cone perpenticular to two of them and get yourself a pair of soccer goals. A dozen of us would be out there in the summer kicking the ball around. And in the winter, we'd fill the area with snowmen (and kill all the grass in the process, driving the parents up the wall).