This was built in early 1900's not exactly sure what style this is considered, the house is very close to the street so the dilemma is what to do in front. The back needs some clean up with landscaping being so close to the house. Lastly that fence by the water, I am not sure whether to paint it or take it down and try something else. All ideas are welcome!

What is the pink flowering plant?

Your too close to the house landscaping is not visible in your pictures.

Do you like gardening/maintaining landscapes.... or is it a chore? If the former, and if it was my place Id leave the lower grassy portion near water as is for now EXCEPT take down the fence (what purpose is it serving) and I would want to come up with a jazzier /more colorful design for that blah border planting in front of the stone wall (to left of stairs in pic #2 (what are the shrubs that are in there now?). I would put in some sort of grouping of 3 of something taller / more vertical at the very left of this border (tall enough to balance out the weight of that hydrangea). If its to the side it wont block out that much view and besides you could go quite tall maybe even up to 15 ft without blocking any of the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd floor windows. (I assume the bottom level is a walk out basement?) I would bump out that border to be wider, with taller flowering shrubs in back and perennials in front);

Front - is that literally the road in the pic or is it your driveway? The grass area is too small to read as a lawn or anything useful and tends to turn into a weed patch - id put in a bunch of low growing, easy to grow shrubs like spirea which can be use dmore as a ground cover (instead of the usual row or border.)

I was going to say replacegrass with stone work or pavers with some sort of stone sculptural piece and/or windowboxes/planters as Nancy suggests but if that's the road and not your driveway I don't want to confuse the drivers by having paving right up to your house - there would need to be some sort of clear border between the paving of the road and your house!!! (for obvious reasons - all you need is one tired driver to wreak havoc)

Thank you for the ideas, no I do not like to garden. Ha. Low maintenance is for me! The fence is for safety reasons, if anyone were to fall they would land on a concrete walkway approx' 4' wide before rolling into the water. I was thinking of just cleaning it up and repainting it red like the front doors but then someone else had an idea to take the wood down and just have black pipe as the fence?? Not decided on that idea just yet. Yes, the front is literally the road, driveway is on the side. Love the idea of the low shrubs. The clothesline has got to go for sure. Yes, the back lower section is a basement walk out.

Hi - not what you want to hear but if you really want your house to look good you must open up the porch. The architecture of the house is distorted by this alteration. Understand that other work you do will only look like a pretty band aid. Remove your shutters for the upset the balance. To better understand how shutters should shown, see this link. http://www.oldhouseguy.com/shutters

Your house really has a lot of potential but you need to be serious about curb appeal. as for landscaping, yes that will help and is needed but this should not be a priority. best of luck!