Will tell you what I like and would do differently, how's that? Nice house with good bones, i.e., natural trees, good contours, good setting. Nice rocks, but they do need sinking a bit to look more natural and would benefit from the addition of a few plants and a bench nearby to help set them off and make the ehouse look like it's been there a while and is loved and lived in. Love the big planter. Just fill in for now with some annual bedding plants for color until your existing shrubs and perennials get a little bigger. Then look at what would go nicely in there with them that you don't have to replant each year. Plant taller at the back and lower at the front near the walkway and consider letting a few things trail over the edge of the planter to soften its edges. Really don't like the mail box stuck out by itself and think you need to flank it with a couple or threesome of ornamental grasses, yucca, or a small tree and some good, low maintenance perennial round cover so it doesn't look like it dropped from the sky. Your marigolds look good, but you could also do Black Eyed Susans or perennial lantana that comes back each year and can take heat and neglect. Don't like the bitsy planter near the house at all. Not much you can do with it, really, and it just makes the front of the house look out of balance. Think about tearing it out or adding to it with another planter or a bed that matches the size and maybe the curve of your big planter and wraps from the outside corner of the house toward the walkway and the front of the house. Incorporate that neat rock and make that whole area in front of the house more welcoming with a bench and maybe a small table facing the planter and the walkway or angled to face the drive and the walkway. Go from low to tall, maybe set off the rock with a good ornamental grass. You could mulch most of the area with gravel and put in a few flat stones that match your rock or squares of matched brick that lead from the walkway to the bench. Stay with curves to offset the hard edges of your house. You need somewhere to sit and enjoy the yard and the view. Something a little more welcoming than just your lovely rock. Otherwise, the big planter and the bitsy one are so out of balance that they make the front of your house look out of balance. Would take a look at the soil structure, PH, shade and sun, and drainage of the entire yard, walk through the nearby forest. Try to match what you see with natives, near natives, and good non natives that are easy care. I don't like lawn so would get rid of some of that for sure. Plant some native or near native understory shrubs, more small trees (like red bud and others), and maybe a few ornamental grasses, daylilies and daffodils, summer bulbs like crocosmia, and so on to contrast with the decidious oaks and give you some color spots. Stay away from things that are realy invasive unless you like them enough to let them ramble about. In the entryway, stay low so you don't dwarf that little fountain. If it gets lots of shade, plant hostas and ferns, and maybe some evergreen ivy around it. You can get evergreen ferns as well as hostas with fragrant flowers. Think about planting something near the entry that smells good in the morning and/or evening but doesn't get to carried away with its growth. A word about mixing materials. If you can, try to work in threes so you don't get too many different textures and colors of hardscape going on at once and confusing the eye and senses. Accent with one type of metal, say, copper or wrought iron. Too much of too much can be way too much, IMO. Hope all this helps! I would love to landscape this place with you. It has great potential for sure!

Wood for both countertops and floors would be the period-appropriate choice, if you are trying for that. Marble would also be period appropriate for counters, but I wouldn't recommend it for a kitchen that sees regular use, unless it's just in one area as an accent or baking table.

There is no way in hell I would even consider painting walls in a house I had never lived in.....and even without my furniture in place. The sun in the morning and the sun in the evening....what reflects off a garage a fence or a neighbor's house how your beloved hutch looks all affect the colors and tones of the paint and finishes I would consider. Colors look very different at night then they do on a sunny day and walls look different in an empty room than in the same room with furniture. Tell your friend to move in before he begins to select paints and finishes. I know it's a pain to move out of a room to refinish it....but I believe he will be happier in the long run. I have seen too many people who had to choose the colors and finishings in a new house, repainting in 3 months because the color was too dark or looked like white in the day time or because with the tile the walls look wrong and it's easier to paint than re-tile. It's fun to plan new finishes....but don't do more than fix a leaky faucet until you have been in the house for a while. Our first house was brand new plaster on lathe and we were told not to paint for at least 6 months to allow the plaster to fully cure. By the time the 6 months was over, I was so sick of all the white walls, I painted the living/dining area something like harvest wheat.....which was like dark mustard when all the walls were that color! I could hardly wait until the paint was dry to re do it!...But I was over reacting to 6 months without color!

So without any dimensions just going off what I can see in the photo here is a conceptual layout. I'm visualizing SW Passive as the dominant color with Seawashed Glass as the accent. I hope this helps!