To continue the procession of well intentioned, but often not so good advice as one of the regular posters lamented on another thread... before ripping out the cedar, ask your wife what she would like to see in that spot. There are evergreens in a variety of shapes and sizes; same for flowering shrubs. Is your main intent simply to have something at the corner of the garage or more to block the street view of the utilities? As for the back; builders certainly do leave a lot of butt ugly back sides of houses for the neighbors to look at. I'm not being unkind, it's a fact of suburban life. How much space do you have in the back yard, enough to consider some perimeter plantings to start the process of providing a modicum of privacy? Does your property back up to a common area or a pond or bike path? Even more reason for some evergreens or a mixed shrub border. Somewhere in the yard, a tree in the prunus or malus family would give you spring bloom and fruit into the winter. A patio is a nice thing to have; if you take it out, you'll wish you hadn't. But abutting the house, there's no ground to put a trellis with something vining on either side of the sliding door. Rather than simply ringing the patio with boxwood or whatever, would you consider plotting out a larger garden area with the patio as one of the elements? Do you like yard work or are you looking for minimal maintenance? I'd go with a slow growing upright conifer on the corners of the house - which is always the fallback solution when stumped with foundation planting. Once the "pillars" are in the empty spots can be layered in with a mix of shrubbery.

A photo of the larger area would be helpful, however in general, small beds rarely if ever look right. There is just not enough room for plants to thrive, as you have discovered. A small bed usually looks lost and too tentative in a wide lawn area. If you look at really successful gardens, the planting beds are huge relative to the lawn. It would look just fine and dandy if the bed was enlarged to about 3 times the size. Rose in the center, day lilys around the rose, then Geranium 'Rozanne' at the edge of the bed. Small beds just don't look right. One thing in my experience, choose day lilies that do not multiply too fast. It makes gardening life so much easier!! There are a gazillion different ones available, so it is easy to find one to meet exacting requirements. Fast spreaders and you are forever digging and dividing.

trtsmb, true, just have to wait for some funds to come before I can redo it. I guess maybe I'll just do our bathroom and when the time comes to sell, if buyers would want a tub, will give some allowance or have one put back - we plan on being here a long time - may die in it for all we know! jjazzy, hmmm, I never thought the option of having a floating vanity! Where would you end up putting the register though? Great idea w/the vanity though. Thanks! I wouldn't make the closet go in to the b/r - no need and would lose too much space. monicae, couldn't wait that long, esp in that purple bathroom as it is - maybe other changes in the house I can wait, but not in there. I'd wait in the 2nd bathroom though, that would be easier for sure. THANKS!!!!!

i think 2 years to recover.. in z4 is very optimistic ... and if it were me... i would take one from the end .. and do what you will to it ... and then observe it for a year or two.. before you decide whether it is worth doing to the rest .. in my experience.. in my relatively short z5 growing season.. it can take FOREVER for these types of CONIFERS ... trees... to recover ... these are not shrubs.. that take this kind of hard pruning and pop right back .. anyway.. if you ruin just one end bush.. then you can dig it out.. if it doesnt please you ... it would probably look better.. if it wasnt heavily sheared every year ... again ... trees do not respond to such the way shrubs would .. and that is part of the problem ... if allowed to grow more as a tree it would probably look more like you wish it to ... but it will take up more of the lawn ... its a whole other ball of wax in warmer zones.. or the PNW ... where this type of tree might grow near year round ... but one thing for sure.. z4 is neither of those ... ken ps: how about a pic or two of the whole unit ... rather than the couple bad spots ... pps:.. if you cut it to one foot as you suggest.. it might take 10 to 15 years to return to its current height .. are you willing to look at that stubby mess for that long???