Deer are also eating my monarda this year. I know deer eat different plants in different regions, but I can list what has worked well for me here. What they have not eaten or browsed only lightly: bachelor's buttons, nigella, larkspur, campanula, cosmos, zinnia, marigolds, petunia, cleome, sweet william, campanula, foxglvoe, monkshood, butterfly weed, verbena bonariensis, agastache, yarrow, peonies, siberian iris, bearded iris, clematis, sweet peas (tehy did eat my edible pea plants though), salvia, veronica, rudbeckia, hardy geraniums, echinacea, liatris, astilbe, coralbells, foam flower, pachysandra, vinca (annual and vine), joe pye weed, obedience plant, brunnera, ajuga, sweet woodruff, ligularia, japanese painted fern, christmas fern, ostrich fern, helleborus, trilliums (nibbled), virginia bluebells, thalictrium, anemonella, canadian ginger, aruncus, spireas, wigeleas, boxwood, fothergillia, lilac, caryopteris, butterfly bush, some hydrangeas and some viburnums. Daffodils, alliums and gladiolias and dutch iris were not touched. Lilies seem to be a favorite though.

Based on your last picture, I would begin removing lower branches from the tree in an attempt to regain a view of the house and so that lawn can be maintained easily below the tree. To not remove lower limbs encourages the upright oriented limbs to become future trunks and compete with the main trunk. Not that that is bad in and of itself, if that's what one wants. But it often results in a trunk formation that is less attractive when trunks branch below the canopy. (Unless it's a multi-trunk tree and then it looks best if it "branches" at the ground.) It's already happened and when allowed to go too far, is too difficult to correct without maiming the tree's appearance. Also, the one low branch on what looks to be a weeping cherry at left corner of house seems odd and out of place. I would get rid of the white gravel mulch and replace it with wood-based mulch. Plan so that plants eventually cover everything and there is no longer need for mulch. In my drawing I'm showing an idea for creating a landing off of the stoop. It's not a finished plan, but you could create a workable plan that improves the approach to the entrance. I'm surmising that the slab continues behind the hedge, in which case, I'd get rid of the hedge and all plants in front of it and bring only grass to slab ... the purpose being to make a welcoming entrance instead of a secret, purposeless hideaway. It is not necessarily the case that ADDING plants is the key to improving your property. The large shrub left of walk seems too close to the walk. If you can't relocate it to in-line with the window (about 4' from the wall,) I'd scrap it and get another shrub for that location. I'm showing only groundcover around the weeping cherry. It looks a bit junky to have those other plants coming up under it.

The lawn is the easy part. Post this picture in the Lawn Care forum to get a head start. It is likely too late to do a great renovation, but you could drop a mix of fescue, rye, and Kentucky bluegrass as a start. But lets start with the soil. You probably hate it. If you think you need more topsoil, you don't. If anything I might be inclined to remove some of the crown in the yard to improve drainage toward the street. With a basement the last thing you want to do is create a dam that backs up rain and melting snow into the house. If you look at the bricks on the house, there should be a bottom brick. The bottom of that brick is the sill of the house. Measure down 4 inches and that is where the top of the soil should be. If you have soil higher than 4 inches below the sill, then consider removing some. I see houses every day where the owners have brought in topsoil to "improve" the soil. That doesn't work. New soil is not better soil. Regardless of whether you remove soil or leave it all, it can be improved. This soil looks desiccated which is very hard on the microbes in the soil. It is the microbes that develop a healthy soil. Get 2 hoses, 2 turbo-type oscillator sprinklers, and a Y type splitter for your hose faucet. Also get a hose end sprayer that has a bottle for applying liquids. Put about 4-5 ounces of shampoo into the sprayer bottle and fill it with water. Spray the shampoo over the yard evenly until the bottle is empty. Then it is time to water that shampoo in. Arrange the hoses and sprinklers to cover the lawn on full sweep. Then put out tuna cans to catch the water around the yard. Time how long it takes to fill all the tuna cans. For my oscillator it takes 8 full hours, so you're in this for awhile. If you see runoff at any point, immediately stop watering and let the moisture soak into the soil for 15 to 30 minutes. Then restart the watering and the timer. Stop as often as needed to prevent runoff. When the cans are full stop the timer. The time on the timer is the time you will be watering in the future unless or until you install underground sprinklers. The shampoo followed by the deep watering is all you need to do to reawaken the soil microbes. If you want to make them really happy, apply an organic fertilizer. Organic fertilizers feed the microbes and keep your soil healthy. This will give your yard a huge boost for whatever grass or planting you do in the future. Once you have an inch of water in the soil, that might be the last time you need to water this year. You should see the existing grass respond as well as old and new weeds. That is all good. If you do not seed grass this fall, like immediately, you should know that spring is a poor time to seed new grass. Why? Because spring is when the summer annual weeds are sprouting. Crabgrass is the main culprit, but there are others. Fall is better simply to avoid those weeds. But if you do seed in the spring, just know that everything can be fixed next August when you seed again. Lawn care is as easy as watering (properly), mowing, and fertilizing. Watering is easy enough with the oscillators, so don't get excited about spending thousands on an in-ground system. You won't need to mow until you have grass. For now a string trimmer would work wonders. I've "mowed" my entire lawn with a string trimmer, so it can be done. As for fertilizing, apply any organic fertilizer at 15-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. That helps the soil which help the plants. Read some posts on the Lawn Care forum and see if you want to get involved with that.

"Ideas," without goals, objectives and direction, will not mean much. You need to say what benefits you expect to obtain by making by landscape changes.