Planting the front of the house is much too important to do in a few hours so you can take advantage of a plant sale. Take a picture of the house straight on from further back, and design shapes. Then find plants that have theright shapes. Beds should be deep; Ken is correct that shrubs should be at lest 3-5 feet from the house. A small tree on the left might be nice too. Perhaps curve the bed out deeply, put in a small tree and shrubs to anchor to the house. BTW, if deer are a problem, hydrangeas are not what you want.

Check out Robinsonella cordata, with gorgeous blue hibiscus-like flowers. I just picked one up at the UC Berkeley Botanic Garden fall sale, and am anticipating the first time I get to see it bloom. I am also enjoying the fall blooms on my Cunnonia capensis tree in my front garden, but this is another rarer tree species that takes some searching to find. The Chinese Fringe tree is also quite nice or how about Cornus capitata?.

I will disagree with some of the above advice. Try to cut off as few roots as you can. Mark the pots so the buyer knows they were just dug up. Do not cut the tops, even if you trim the roots. This is no longer the best advice for transplanting trees or shrubs. You should not use 'container soil'. Use the soil the plants are now growing in. These plants will be going back into the garden at their new home. Having a bunch of unnatural soil around the roots only makes the transplanting harder on the plants.

its a bit early and a bit of a haul for you, but AMBER Tree in the Stow area always has a good sale in October on their stock. (it used to be an auction around Columbus Day). They would try to get rid of their plant stock so they didn't have to carry it over the winter. Mid October is a fine time to plant, especially along the lake-- plenty of time to settle them in before winter really hits. but you are in prime area to find nurseries in lake and ashtabula county-- have you checked in the local newspaper classified for plants for sale? diggerb