Sad but also excited; removing my Grevillea rivularis

Damage from our quick week of winter is showing up around the garden. One of the first "oh no!" moments came early, when the foliage of my Grevillea rivularis turned brown, seemingly overnight.It's a little hard to see, since it's kind of "ferny"—I outlined the plant in orange here...
It was about 95% brown when I went out to cut it all down.
I could have waited, to see if the damage was really fatal, but frankly I was worn down after years of listening to Andrew complain about this plant. His feelings weren't unjustified. Those spikes are sharp and unfriendly (as you would expect, after all = danger garden) and I'd planted it in a bad spot, right next to where he parks. In my defense I wasn't even sure if the plant would live, let alone grow from a tiny 4" baby to a sprawling mammoth beast 6ft tall and 4 or so feet wide. 
Brown against a blue sky...
As I said, there was still a bit of green in there...
Page up a couple of images and you'll see an opuntia leaning out, trying to escape from under the grevillea monster. I decided it had to go too. I cut and pulled and was thrilled to see this chunky root. It went on for quite a long distance but I decided ro chop it off rather than see how much I could extract.
Into the yard waste bin...
And other bits saved to replant elsewhere.
After the removal was complete.
So much empty space to plant!
Before...
After! Yep, those Agave parryi and the Aloe striatula (Aloiampelos striatula) were hanging out underneath for years.
Unfortunately now you can see the a/c unit, which is not a thing of beauty.
The shrub between the a/c unit and the driveway is one of my pineapple guava (Acca sellowiana) the poor thing has had to deal with the grevillea, and then being severely pruned when the front of the house was painted, hopefully now it will get a chance to recover.
So what to plant in the newly empty space? Well since those agaves and the aloe/aloiampelos did so well before I'll be adding a few more. Plus there's the random seedling that popped up under the Grevillea rivularis a couple of years ago. It's not in the best place currently, that's it circled in orange below...
But I think I'll get brave and move it up to the empty space. Will that be a repeat of a plant too big for it's space? I have no way of knowing. Right now this guy looks more like a Grevillea x gaudichaudii, than a G. rivularis.
One other bonus is that it's fun to see the  Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Nanjing Gold' blooms that had always been hidden by the now departed grevillea.
Here's one last poorly lighted before...
And an after...new plants ahead!