Good luck with your contact on this one. The American Foursquare is called a variety of things - box house, a cube, a double cube or, simply, a square type American house. It came on the scene around 1890 and was popular into the 1930s. The foursquare is typically a two-and-a-half-story house on a full basement, with a monitor dormer in the attic. A variation here though in that the typical foursquare has a pyramidal hip roof. Front porches run the full width of the house, with two, three or four simple columns supporting the porch roof. At some point in its history, bet in the 50's or 60's, this porch was enclosed. The foursquare is a nearly square house with square shaped rooms. The first floor typically has four rooms, including an entry foyer or reception hall, living room, dining room and kitchen. Upstairs, three bedrooms and a bath all in their own corners. Most of the landscaping I see for the fronts of these houses is knife edge sharp sheared yews. You definitely wouldn't want anything growing up beyond the porch windows. Grasses - or a grass - would be nice as an accent, but it could get lost against the backdrop as could any shrub flowering white. Rhododendrons can sprawl.

Can't resist: it is really easy to do an ugly foundation bed :-) My first question about foundation beds is always: must you? If you can plant anywhere else to get a pleasing effect on the wall from whatever perspective is your priority, the plants always grow better and you have way more options for bed shape, plant type and plant size/shape. It is hard NOT to be boring in a rectangle. Maybe consider grassing the existing bed over, leaving just the three roses, and putting a nicely shaped bed nearby but not adjacent to the house? Sounds like you have TONS of space, why cram plants up against the house? Karin L

A variety of evergreens and deciduous flowering shrubs would most complement a cottage style garden. Boring straight lines of the same plant used as a hedge is icky. Be creative. Use groups of odd numbers. Play light foliaged or variagated plants off of bugundy foliaged or dark green foliage. Many china roses will be virtually evergreen in your climate and will bloom from April through November. Look at Cramoisi Superieur, Old Blush, Ducher, Louis Philippe, and Hermosa. These are well foliated shrubs with blooms, not leafless thornsticks with candy apples on the ends.

I think some kind of trellis or screening structure near the HVAC equipment or at the front edge of the roof as others suggested, could obscure the view. This is required in my area for commercial buildings with rooftop equipment. . In the "improve curb appeal" area, I think a lot can be done with your front yard. The side photo showing a glimpse of the neighbor's iron fence shows a walkway, a green shrub, and some grass. Your front yard could use some attractive landscaping. Or, if time or money is limited, put in some hard scaping - cover the dead lawn with a rock or gravel pattern and have an interesting center piece or two in the middle. Just something to make it look not-abandoned. Also, I think what looks like a chain-link gate to the left of the garage could be spruced up. Compare how it looks to the neighbor's redwood (?) or redwood colored wood fence on the other side of the yard. The wood fence looks attractive, the chain link gate looks scruffy. Good luck.