You need to convey the setting as well as the house. Please take additional overlapping pictures from the (EXACT) same place as camera was above, aiming left and then right so we can see a much wider view. (Please do not substitute a single panorama.) Also, back up and take another picture that shows from a greater distance, including curb and trees..

I'll save Yard the trouble by saying, limb up the tree!

If the tree is important for summer shade a 2nd tree would minimize the solitary stark look.

If someone loves to garden an 8-12 foot deep bed across the front at the street, full of perrenials (daylilies, shastas, sage, carpet roses, etc.). looks great. A low retaining wall if desired.

How do neighboring houses deal with it? Laying out a garden hose for bed outlines beats any other method. Curved beds soften. Shrubs are usually planted in uneven groups (3, 5, 7, etc.). Always check maximum height. Pruning becomes an unwelcome chore after a few years.

As things leaf out take your camera and shoot what you admire. See what you can copy. Haunt the local nursery to familiarize yourself with what you like/dislike. Do you need low maintenance? Do you want a fruit or nut tree? Flowering shrubs? They may ID plants from your shots. Check out some oversized books with plenty of pictures. You can make your place a showpiece!

I guess no one is going to be surprised that the tree screams out to me for limbing up. But now it's a predicament. The branching structure is such that limbing it up like it ought to be would disfigure it all the way to the top, because the major upper limbs begin very low on the trunk. (This should be a general reminder to people to pay attention to the branching structure while the tree is young and as it grows, and not think all the trimming work can be successfully done at the end. It can't.) Hard to tell exactly how close the tree is to the house, but its position (as well as its structure) is not flattering to the house. I'd consider removing it on account of that. If removal is not an option, then remove 4-6 lower limbs and improve it somewhat.

Actually, trees off of the corners of the house would be much more useful and flattering. For the time being, I'll ignore the existing tree and go with a scheme more like this.

Nobody has mentioned that the steep slope must be difficult as well as dangerous to mow. Whatever you do with the rest of the design, the steep slope should be planted to an evergreen groundcover of some kind appropriate to your zone and location. The grass must be killed off first and the planting weeded until the new groundcover fills in.

Huh? There are some suggesting that this front and center tree pictured which provides welcome shade during Alabama's hot summers should be limbed-up or removed? They must be Yankee's! Let's ask our OP first a very basic question. That is...in what direction does the house face and please describe how the tree shades the house during spring, summer and fall. Should we be suggesting plants for shade only, partial shade....etc. During summer heat is the house wall so sunny that it reflects damaging heat which may injure some plantings?

Keep in mind that slopes affect drainage to a significant degree. The top of the slope will be the driest, the bottom will be the most moist. Thirstier plants at the bottom of the slope, not at the top.

Nandina, I'm not saying to rip the tree out now or at some inconvenient time, but that it has issues that would want to make me go in another direction. I would get other trees started and plan for the eventual demise of this one.