Dn, why don't you explain that driveway idea? It goes to a part of the house that is not a garage ... and there is no cover (carport) for the cars? It's for guest parking? It will be used how often? Notice that you don't see any segmented drives and very, very few walks. The practical reason for this is that it is difficult to grow the typical turf in the narrow spaces between slabs, and that all of it must be edged, probably tripling or quadrupling the total edging. (Notice how thick/tall St. Augustine becomes after a few years.) It would need to be drip irrigated. What a pain if you are already set up with spray and rotor heads. But if you do all that edging and never drive on the driveway, it will look pretty good.

I think that solving the main problems is going to boil down to two things: the walk; and the making the entrance visible. The walk should definitely be wider - 5' could be a goal, maybe wider near the stoop - and then it should make a better connection with the drive. I don't think this means to necessarily cut across the lawn with it. Given that the yard is small, you could widen the drive a bit with whatever the walk material is, continue on by widening the city sidewalk with the same material, and then turn the corner with the walk, heading to the entrance ... in effect bordering the yard with a "U"-shape "invitation" that extends from the drive to the entrance. (The portions adjacent drive and city walk would not be the same width as the main walk to the entrance. They would be like decorative borders.) When it comes to the portion of walk that heads toward the entrance, I think it would be beneficial to pull it away from the neighbor's drive and incorporate and "S"-curve into it. That way, room for a SMALL tree could be created between the walk and neighbor's drive. It would also have the benefit of making it look like it belongs to your property without any question. Note how entrances are typically clearly marked by some type of enlarged, often raised, paved area, and a roofed covering that offers shelter from the elements. I think you need to create such a structure over the walk, in the front yard, near to the house. It would be the obvious first "entrance" that people reach when approaching the house. But after they've reached it there would be no question about where they would continue to in order to reach the actual house entrance. The structure could be a very nice arbor, or it could be more architectural in nature (such as with brick columns and an actual roof.) BTW, I don't think there's the first thing wrong with your yellow brick. Maybe you're bored of it and that is the driving force behind staining it. But I think it would be a mistake, or highly inefficient at the least, to attempt to change it to another color. If the brick was flat out ugly I'd be all for it. But it's not. You might end up creating, after spending a lot of money and effort, something that is not near as nice. If you could replace the top panel of the garage door with one that has windows all the way across, that would resolve the boring quality of the existing door. There seem to be two main approaches to planting: smother the house with hedges; and smother the house with a variety of all kinds of plants strewn in a randomish fashion. You might consider "matching" shrubs to windows (like steps would be "matched" to a door) as the main shrubs of the landscape scheme. Perennials and annuals can be fit around them in some artistic scheme, keeping it simple preferably. I would plan on keeping shrubs below the window sill height. I would hunt for a spot for another small tree at the right side of the house. (We can't see that area.)

Ugh, the addition dominates the house. No, worse, it's completely unrelated to the house. It looks like a tornado picked it up a few miles away and dropped it into the front yard. It strikes me as tasteless, and I'm not even close to being a decorator. You never get your money back when you tack an addition onto your house. In this case, not only will the owners not get back what they spent on it, IMO they've actually managed to diminish the value of the house. Maybe you could strip the brick facing on the addition, and replace it with siding that would match the rest of the house. You could replace that ludicrous window with 2 or 3 smaller, subtler ones. Then you might add a nice bright brick sidewalk that leads to the front door. And even after spending all that money, you'd still have a monstrosity, if a mitigated one. I'm with Ci. I'd walk away, and leave this mess for someone else who's less discriminating. And I'm not even that fussy.

Comparing the two main entrances (not including the middle one, as it is barely visible) the first (left) is enclosed and appears more private. The second (right) is open, visible and appears more public, since there is a paved, protected area (roofed) where people could collect. Getting guests to use the first entrance will require making it more attractive with landscaping & better walk. Even then, as the building appears more private, it might require a simple, tasteful sign that says "Guests," with an arrow pointing to where. For landscaping of that building, I'd start a new thread and take the pictures square on to the building, showing the wide view from not too far away.