Not sure what input you got last year, but from the looks of your plan, you are preparing to making all the standard mistakes that the typical builder's landscape makes .... plants too close to house, visually and physically smother architectural details, pinch the access to and from house, ignore that the large house has no large plants (small tree) in front that make it seem integrated into the landscape and bed line that uninvites. And you're asking people of the landscape design forum to help you choose plants that do these things ...? Oh well!

we plan on opening up the walkway into the porch but have not found anyone wanting to handle such a small concrete job. we want to replace the railings also so this will be a future project. we don't want to put in any big plants that will block light into the house and we have a drainage pipe that sticks up in the middle of the yard. We were talking about using tall junipers, that way no windows would be blocked. not sure how to make this feel intergrated without blocking off the house. this picture shows the pipe sticking up.

Since you want a low maintenance garden I hope you will choose plants that grow slowly and stay around two feet tall. As I view your garden now I think it would have looked much better if the shrubs had been kept to a smaller (some much smaller) size. I love azaleas but I like to see them selectively pruned as apposed to sheared. I am not a fan of lampost or mail post beds, so I will go with no comment there. Gardens look nice with a mix of deciduous and evergreen plants, but that is between you and your hubby. As for choosing plants. Go to a nursery and just see what is available. You need to know that the size listed is only an approximation of how large the plant will get in four years. Most plants gain more height after year four. After you know what is available go home and research. It is not that people are unwilling to help you choose. It is that most of us do not know what is good in your area. I live in zone 9 California. Can you explain the peanut shape you have given to the beds you drew? It does not look good. Also know that I am not a professional. I am just a busy body and I like gardening.

suggestions on where to put what kind of plants. Notice that there are only 5 different plants including the trees and annuals to make this scheme.

Following waterbug's sentiments, it negates hiring someone to do a job for you, if you try to remove whatever profit they might make. Ask your husband if he would like to work for 80% of what he makes now and see if he gets excited about it.

@htrinh. You are getting sound advice from both waterbug and yardvaark. You should follow it. Yardvaark has been gracious enough to provide a screen shot of what will make your front garden more attractive.

The image shows a VERY low profile, a welcoming entry with two large monocultures of groundcover and a couple of trees. If you implement this idea you will have a long-term landscape that avoids the planned (or unplanned) obsolescence of a landscape that outgrows itself.

"Mass planting establishes consistency. Consistency develops theme and theme delivers impact." And that's what the screen shot shows: High volume of few selections.

Here is a low profile planting design I did back in 2003. It was photographed in 2013. While different than your home it illustrates why the screenshot provided by Yardvaark works. Good luck with your project.

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Nice looking landscape K&D. . . may I ask what the groundcover is?

Thank you @maidinmontana. The groundcover is Pachysandra terminalis (Japanese Spurge). Great for shady areas.

thanks for the feedback. This landscaper has good reviews on the web, not someone we found on craigslist. We aren't trying to undercut his profits at all. He didn't price out plants separately just one price for the job, which is still varying as we are trying to nail things down. He said he's fine with clients buying their own plants, it then means the clients, not him, are responsible for dealing with any warranty that comes with the plants if they die. We do want a low profile around the porch, by the time we bought the house those bushes were already that big. Maybe we can look into other options for that area vs dwarf boxwoods. At our last place we had pachysandra terminalis and it seemed to harbor a lot of mosquitoes.

Pachysandra doesn't have any special quality for harboring mosquitoes. They just like shade and plants, no matter what they are.