First let me say I love your house. My dream is to someday own a little bungalow!! I almost bought one once but it needed more work that I was willing to do at the time. I know I am late to the party, and I am no landscape expert, but I'm going to chime in my .02 anyway. One of the biggest problems I think you have, in more ways than one, are those huge everygreen shrubs against the foundation. They will dwarf anything else you are doing and it will all look kind of washed out. It seems to me your vision is for a wonderful little perrenial flower garden in front of your house, and in the meantime you have behemouth shrubs to deal with. I would seriously consider taking them out and plant something more open, airy and smaller. There are excellent selections of small, open evergreens at high quality nurseries now days, many of them bred to grow small because your situation is pretty typical of what modern home owners are looking for. At the very least, I would take out the big shrub next to the steps. I had a similar shrub next to the porch stairs in a house I lived in once, and it was a major pain to maintain. An evergreen such as that will trap moisture (especially melting snow) up by the house and the railing and the stairs, all contributing to their faster decline--rust, corrosion and weathering of concrete. There is nothing ugly about your foundation that you need to particularly hide. Rip out that big shrub, and put in something light and airy and flowery. Or at the very least, extend the smaller shrub border all the way to the steps. But honestly, I'd bite the bullet and tear it all out, then you will have a clean slate to design YOUR garden the way YOU want it, not have to work around those ponderous shrubs that someone long gone planted because they just filled a spot. They have overgrown their welcome, IMHO.

I think it's Ground Ivy: Glechoma hederacea.

Ground Ivy. A bee magnet when in blossom (lousy when you're barefoot and step on one). http://www.msuturfweeds.net/details/_/ground_ivy_9/ http://www.plant.photos.net/images/2/29/Ground_ivy2.jpg Dan

1. is a variegated cultivar of Brunnera microphylla 2. is a Bluebell. It could possibly be the genuine English bluebell, Hyacinthus non-scriptus, but to me it looks more like a hybrid between that and the Spanish bluebell Hyacinthus hispanica, or even Spanish bluebell itself. If we could see the leaves it would help pin down the id.