The wedding cake steps look like they're awaiting the daily arrival of the masses, but the walk looks like it's barely expecting anyone! I would definitely upgrade/widen the walk. It's layout will likely form the front edge of the planting bed. The tree in the lawn is past due for limbing up. Much of its canopy is blocking the house. Some general ideas:

"Is there a website you suggest that offers tips in this area?" You are there now! I commend you on wanting to draw a plan. Every person who is going to do landscape installation/construction work, should have a plan to work from before the work begins. It can save a lot of grief. It is one thing to get ideas. People are getting them here every day, usually from a perspective view and sometimes just verbally. Getting the ideas is one of the first steps, but they need to be translated into plan form in order to know that things fit, look compatible with the space and in order to make quantity calculations. (The plan will be to a specific scale in order to accurately measure directly from it,) When you're ready to get help with ideas, start a new thread for that specific area of the yard. (Trying to do the whole yard at once is difficult and confusing.) Upload a photo spread that shows the complete area from end to end. Have the camera be in line with the center of the scene. (That is 99% of the time going to alight with the front door or center of house.) Take a full 180* of slightly overlapping pictures, starting at the far left and panning the camera to the far right. If you move the camera location while capturing the scene, it will no longer work as a scene. The camera must just pivot while you stay in one spot. Also, don't be too far away from the house or we won't see enough detail. You should be far enough away to capture the roof but not a lot of sky. And we should see about 20-30' of lawn area in front of the house, but not a lot more, or a lot of street. (That's a different picture.) At the first and last photo of the panoramic spread, we'll see the fronts of your flanking neighbors' houses. After you take those pictures, move across the street and take a single picture that shows your whole front yard at once. Also, you'll want to start working on a BASE PLAN ... a simple plan that shows your site with house footprint, drive, walks, fences, property line, existing tree trunks (don't draw in canopy) and any important features that will remain. Don't add any extra detail such as small plants, shading hatching, color, etc. If bed lines are subject to change, don't draw them in. Only things that are guaranteed to be in the finished plan, at ground level, should be in the base plan. If there's a question about it, it's easier to add to it later, than it is to do a bunch of erasing. Keeping it simple will make it easier to understand. (I've seen many landscape plans so complex, that they are difficult and time consuming to read.)

Martha, a focus only on economy is not always the best philosophy with landscaping, as is the case with most everything else related to home ownership:-) As is usually the case, the walkway is likely far too narrow.......and is tucked in far too close to the structure. That already makes the walk to the entry unwelcoming for visitors. When you flank plantings on both sides of a narrow walkway, the effect is to become even more intimidating and unwelcoming! Replacing a too skimpy and ill-placed walkway - a standard developer/builder stock in trade - is one of the first things I address with clients as a garden designer. It immediately recreates the setting and a welcoming entry sets off any adjoining plantings and the landscaping as a whole.. Depending on how it is handled, it does not have to be expensive and the expense is just another sound investment in the property and an increase the property value. In many cases this can be a DIY project requiring only moderate skills. I have found it is better to take a long term approach to correcting these issues rather than a quick and dirty, cheap one. It is almost always a far better outcome.

In evaluating crape myrtles, I have a personal dislike for the form that most of them end up being. They start as skinny 4-prong multi-trunk trees growing almost vertically. (They are staked this way by the commercial grower.) They are then beheaded somewhere around waist or chest height, purely for the convenience of the one maintaining, as no ladder is required. If later allowed to grow out some more, they end up looking like this: I think a much better shape is this: Sizewise, where the canopy clears a human head by a couple of feet. The good news is that it is possible to convert the the former into latter, but it requires a complete rejuvenation, i.e., cutting to the ground and regrowing, this time paying attention to the form, which is not in the least difficult. It only takes a year or two to establish the new trunk arrangement, and another 3 or 4 years for the canopy to become full. But in the in end it's totally worth it for having a much better looking tree from then on.