I see roses. Lots of roses. If it was for me I would widen the sidewalk; plant cottage style flowerbeds up near the house and leave the lawn for down by the sidewalk. Things like Garden Phlox, Shasta Daisies, Crocosmia, Hydrangea... I also like a 'Hollywood' Juniper or two at the corners up near the house but they do better out on the coast. I'm not sure how well they would do in W-S. I like Crape-myrtle's but I would only do one if it is a large one. To me the purple ones bloom for the shortest period the pink ones bloom longer and there is one white one that will bloom very late around here. New ones get developed every year so cultivar names are unimportant. Another cool look for that house color would be one of the purple leaved Mimosa's (I know, a mimosa! shame on me but I like them). Since I garden in the deep shade when I see full sun exposure I want to fill it with perennials and annuals that bloom all summer, others may want a shade tree.

Get serious..When you post "Moving to NC,but where???" are we to presume you are retired,independently wealthy,empty-nesters with pristine credit(mtgs are stricter now) and are Baptists who have a wild taste for any kinds of foods. Most people have to find a job. Have kids and care about their schooling. They want to make the transition in moving as smooth as possible. Site yourself here in a little burg and prepare yourself to find none of the foods and brands you are accustomed to. The bigger cities have had nearly 30 years of people transferring in so that their stores stock other than Southern brands. Of course, anyone coming from NYC/Long Island will be accustomed to higher taxes than what NC/SC charge. Comparatively, the highest tax areas in NC are still way below what people pay in the North. Up north, those higher taxes are paying for older infrastructure,denser population/more crime, schools that pay a higher wage to teachers etc. If you situate yourself in an area close to where there are the most jobs for your skill sets then you will be happier. Even the biggest cities have outer ring towns and counties that are more affordable. Beach/mountain should be your last consideration if you need to find a job here and get your kids into a halfway decent school (don't get me started on that). If you really like gardening and like the ease of planting in the sandy loam of Long Island you're going to face a chore of amending most soils you get here unless you've bought the house of a gardener. It's a lot more complex a process when you seek to move to an entirely different region of the country. Granted, this is a great region. I'd sooner go from there to here than here to there but where you locate depends on a lot more than its proximity to the beach/mountains.

There are many different forms of Arctostaphylos uva-ursi. Most are native to the Pacific coast. There are at least a couple native to the Rockies and some more east of there. They are all adapted to their native environments (e.g., the A. uva-ursi native to Anchorage is hardier than the A. uva-ursi native to Point Reyes, California). Thus, it is important that you grow a selection that can tolerate summer rainfall humidity, and this is why I suggested 'Massachusetts' and 'Great Lakes'. If you attempted to grow Arctostaphylos uva-ursi 'San Bruno' (from the Central CA coast) in NC, it would contract root rot and die. And not just because of your climate, but also because it is adapted to utilizing mychorrizal fungi that are not present in your soil. (The forms of A. uva-ursi that grow in the eastern half of the country do not form strong associations with these symbiotic fungi.) I am not sure why A. uva-ursi does not naturally grow south of Virginia, but that doesn't mean that it won't grow in North Carolina. (I grow eight different types of manzanita in my yard in Oregon, and seven of them are from 500 miles south or further in California.) The climates of VA and NC are similar. Unless there's a significant difference in the soil, my guess is that you could grow it. Heat would not likely be a problem, as manzanitas tend to thrive in it. Humidity and soil moisture would be your limiting factors. If you use a selection from the eastern half of the country and can give it hot afternoon sun and no irrigation, I think it'd be worth a try.

Thank you for doing your homework and knowing what we'd ask for. Shade is a huge problem on that lot. How attached are you to your beautiful, mature, trees...(that have no character)? Is your tree guy an experienced, certified arborist who can see the statue of Venus de Milo in the chunk of rock or is he someone who has a couple saws and a magnetic sign on his truck? I couldn't tell you which limbs need to go, but in that first picture at least 20 of them need to go from that cluster of limbs in the middle. That tree was never planned from the git-go. In the back yard it could be you should only have one of those mature trees. I mean it's nice to have mature trees but not if they are waaaaaay overgrown for their location. I'm sure everything was beautiful 20 years ago, but not anymore. They are out of scale or grown out of proportion to the lot size. Do this: Google willow oak and look at the Images tab. Does your willow oak look like the pictures or is it cramped up in itself or being pushed around by adjacent trees? Do the same for the rest of your trees. I just bought a house with some mature mesquite trees, mature crape myrtles, an immature (but overgrown) live oak, and a Texas mountain laurel. Oh and some dead stumps. The mesquite trees were ugly, in the power lines, and over growing a crape myrtle. So I had the stumps taken down to the ground, mesquite trees removed, and the live oak partially thinned out. I'm starting over with an almost completely blank slate, but it already has better curb appeal and, hence, higher value.