I'd do a bit of a mix. A couple of taller, narrow selections (Buxus 'Graham Blandy', Ilex crenata 'Sky Pencil' or Euonymus 'Green Spire') would add some height, and are both shade and drought tolerant. Fill in with something lower - sweet box or Sarcococca humilis is a great choice. A low evergreen, slowly spreading groundcover that offers intensely fragrant tiny white flowers in winter and thrives in dry shade (an eastern or northern exposure). An excellent and very welcoming plant to have by a front door. Add seasonal color splashes with pansies or impatiens. Remember drought tolerant doesn't mean no water, specially right after planting :-) These are plants that once established are able to survive with minimal rainfall.

One of two more issues come to mind with this location is the fact that it is north facing and you're in zone 9. That means whatever goes here will have to contend with those north winds without even getting the benefit of the wall soaking up heat from the sun. Crotons would give you a splash of color and you could trim them to keep them tight while letting them get tall. But they will probably die to the ground every winter if not die off completely in this location. The other issue is that while this area might not get natural rainfall and you plan to water yourself, the north side tends to hold moisture longer since it doesn't have the sun to dry it up. Even sandy soil like mine tends to become damp after a while, especially in the cool winter months. An idea I had was to find a cypress log, probably from a shop that sells such things, lean it into the corner and attach terracotta pots to it with wire. If you use the nesting technique, you can 'nest' the pots of a flowering plants into the mounted ones and enjoy the color. As the flowers fade or finish up, you move these plants to the back yard to a semi-shade location where they can get a bit of sun to induce more flowering. You would have a second or even a third set of pots already waiting to be moved into the mounted pots. This way you can cycle the pots from back to front and front to back and constantly change what colors you have and where they are. Beware though, if you move plants from this shady location and put them in a spot with too much sun, you can burn them pretty badly. You might even put in a few permanent pots of ferns or some other green-shade loving foliage. Coleus would be good foliage plants for juggling, though they are annual and will need to be replaced each year. They need a little sun to induce the best colors, but tolerate shade very well. You could do this with bromeliads as well and just move them to a protected spot on the south side for the winter months. Orchids and begonias might be options too. But if this is the front of the house, you might be inviting a theft or two as some people unfortunately have sticky fingers when it comes to orchids. It's not as permanent as a shrub or tree, but it allows for greater color that you will be hard pressed to find for this location and you won't have to constantly prune them to keep them from interfering with the door.

Here's a rendering our architect had done for us early in the redesign phase. However, the patio on the upstairs was missing and the supporting columns etc. Aside from those differences and obviously the stair case, the overall look is quite close. With the stairway relocated, the windows on the ground floor to the bottom right in the garage are now visible. The area directly above that is the master bath and so on. Per my previous post, the double front doors were changed out after I'd posted this up. On the ground floor, the two windows in the center are history. And although it's hard to visualize it in the conceptual, the ceilings are 10' from the ground floor on up. It's a tall house. In the end we made the final revisions and submitted those for drawings based upon the conceptual we had done as it fit our need with a few tweaks mostly on the interior. What my bride didn't care for was that we'd walk up the stairs facing a wall, then turn to the left to walk 20' give or take to the front door. Based on this rendering and maintaining the same general design from day one from the same architect, we moved forward and ended up where we are. We just didn't "toss this together" so to speak. Our architect put a fair amount of thought into the process the end results in our opinion we are pleased with. We differed somewhat on the interior layout of a couple of rooms but that's all good. The vast majority of the interior of the house replicates what was done from day one which was perfect and we love it. Thus the reason we kept it just like it was. He did an amazing job! When the day is done, we're writing the check to the mortgage company so we'll build accordingly. Like I said back at the start of the thread, everyone has their own opinions and I respect that. Some folks may think what they've designed and are building is the absolute best design in the world and I'm happy for them. On the flip side, I wouldn't give them a dime for it. Again, my opinion and while it doesn't suit me we all have varied tastes. Thank goodness or we'd be in a real mess!

@Anna & @NHBabs- I was trying to say add an above window pergola...not add a window =) We definitely don't have the room for that inside. I think with Dougs design a pergola would be too much though. We can definitely do a smaller, more affordable version of that gorgeous front deck. We are experienced DIYers and can do much or all of the work ourselves and with a few changes its completely affordable. I actually have more of the pavers from our walkway that can be added to the front area to widen that landing out some, though we won't go as wide on the left side as is shown because our yard gets narrower there against the neighbors yard. We can do stone that matches our existing stone out back on the steps and instead of stone columns we can do thick wood posts with black metal caps, and the affordable black aluminum railings that we had planned anyway, which would match our new back deck perfectly. We have considered stone in the chimney at some point in the future, though it won't be next year. It won't be quite as grand as Dougs design but gives a very similar look for alot less $$. I think to the left of the door we can add a long, covered, decorative bench box for wood storage in that space. That way we have wood for a week in the winter without trudging to the fire wood shelters out back every day or so. (We have 2 wood stoves that get used alot in the winters here.) We never use our entrance unless we are going out the front door for mail, and all our friends use the back entrance as there is ample parking out there. I can see us sitting out there on the deck with a glass of wine in the shade though. Since the only visitors we get out front are deliveries and people selling stuff, we probably don't need to add anything for sheltering them lol. Still struggling with house color. Currently its a pale yellowish color my husband hates (ditto for me) and it clashes with our new stone. We were thinking maybe something more earthy in a brown/gray...meaning not just brown or gray, something with a mix of both. Or maybe a darker beige. We'd like to darken it up a bit. The shingles are a dark gray but do have a little brown/tan in them along with the black and gray. Its called Canadian Driftwood.