Roof looks great with your brick! I'd follow suit with the windows and get windows with no grids that have bronze frames. (picture below just for frame color reference). For your door I think you could save your door if you're able to replace the ornamental glass insert with a simple one and paint it a bold color that compliments your brick. Otherwise a new mildly contemporary door with cutouts. Definitely remove the teal planters as their tone does not go with your brick. Some simple landscaping with perennials and shrubs underneath the windows would be very pretty. Where is the street in relation to the front of the house?

Firstly, thanks for your response. We were watering every other day for the first 5 weeks. Just with the hose on the sprinkler setting for about 5 mins per tree. We did not hydrate the root ball. We followed the planting instructions that came with the trees. We dug the hole 3x the width of the root ball, placed the root ball into the hole, just slightly higher than ground level to allow for run off, and then back filled with the soil, trying to remove air pockets as we went. I should also add that we fertilised with evergreen fertiliser sticks about 5 weeks after planting (in April). We put the sticks about 5 feet from the trunk. They have been planted for 10-11 weeks now and this has begun in the last 2 weeks.

Yes a runner would be safer on the stairs. That raised edge (if I am seeing right) is a terrible tripping situation. My good friend had that and it was really bad. Hope you can get that done.

Hey There: You are asking for advice, so here is my take on your shades. The mistake you made is putting huge shade in front of your windows. You should have gone with individual shade to each glass. This way to keep the beautiful design of the windows and you can install inside mount shades. You cannot fully use the shades because you have plants and things on your sill...an inside mount installation could have avoided this mishap. Last but not least: dim out bottom-up top-down shades give you the flexibility of managing light and privacy at once.