I read several threads and realized that a wider view/multiple views could help with any feedback. So here we go:

As a side note, I plan to paint the fence whenever I can settle on a color. Any advice on that would be appreciated as well.

Your mature tree has a set branch scaffold, but you can still cut off the lowest small limbs to give room to walk beneath. I agree with Yardvaark's suggestion for groundcover below the tree. Don't try to plant close to the trunk though. There will be too many large roots.

Not a pro, just years of experience. Not sure what direction your home faces, but with the large tree, you probably get mostly shade. Don't fight it! Go with plants that will thrive in that environment. Your walkway to the front of house is quite narrow, so consider about five feet out then up to your steps some kind of landing pad or area - you could go as simple as large concrete landscape steppers from a big box to using some kind of flagstone material to bring out the width of the space at that entry point. Don't crowd the walkway and entrance steps with plants, it will make your house seem dwarfed. Stick with low lying soft plantings around that entry, or if you do extend the space as I've suggested, you can using planters on either side and change them out each season including winter. Lastly, give those beds near the foundation plenty of depth. Going narrow means you will fight with shrubs and other materials that want to grow big. Deeper beds allow you to plant shrubs that can be dwarf-sized meaning you won't have to do much trimming and they will keep their natural look and size - and make for healthier, happier plants and add some upfront accent annuals or perennials. Generally, avoid overcrowding and note the mature size of plants you are considering - going with the dwarfs will keep your house from being overpowered and lessen your work over time. Good luck and enjoy your project!

If you want your fence to fade into the background and not be high maintenance (if you paint it, you'll have to keep repainting it as needed), consider leaving it unpainted and it will eventually weather into a nice shade of silvery gray.

Surround the flagpole with a mulch bed full of flowers.

Put one small ornamental tree in front of the right side of the house. Maybe a Mountain Ash (Sorbus decora), Winter King Hawthorn) (Crataegus viridis) or a cluster of river birch (Betula nigra.

Put in some foundation plantings...maybe rhododendron, azalea or Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) along the house, near the corners to the right and left of the house.

Maple should be removed in preference to being skinned up like that.

PLEASE, please don't remove the maple. Your yard would be awfully sterile and dead without it. It would take years for a tree to grow to that size and give you that presence.

What does "skinned up like that" mean ...?? Lower limbs removed ...? If so, I'm all for it.

OP has never returned to react and discuss since the initial posts. Hope he has not suffered a heart attack and moved on to another "world".

Another vote for DO NOT CUT ON THE TREE! Yes, I am "yelling". I just hate it when someone wants to destroy the tree because it doesn't fit their idea of a perfect tree. Every tree in the world does not have to be exactly the same as every other tree. That is a beautiful old tree that give out a lot of shade in the summer.

I recently cut one branch of the tree--basically to allow more light to the left side of the front of the house. Other than that, I plan to leave it alone. It really is a great tree once all the leaves come in :)

I like the idea of letting the fence age into a silvery-gray...I just don't like the idea of waiting for that to happen haha. Any guesses on how long that might take?

As far as shrubs and everything--I'm really wanting to do something with peonies, bearded iris, and then I'm not sure what else. edlincoln, the shrubs you mentioned have definitely caught my interest as well.

Having a tree in the front yard, in front of the house seems like a good plan...but then I wouldn't know what to do with the right side of the house (the corner where the fence meets the house). What do you all think?

-1 tree off to the right to occupy that awkward corner where the fence meets the house?

-1 tree in the front-right part of the yard and some kind of shrub/flower bed combination wrapping around the corner of the house to the fence?

-2 trees?

Thank you all for the feedback--I tend to overthink/second-guess myself a lot so having help from others is greatly appreciated.

"Every tree in the world does not have to be exactly the same as every other tree." No. It doesn't. But if it's going to be your friend instead of your enemy, it needs to conform to certain standards of good behavior relative to the function and position it's serving. Just like a car needs to have 4 wheels, not 3 or 5. And even though it has to have 4, they can be pretty and unique while still complying with certain engineering standards.

The fence aging process is about 6 months, give or take. While some call it a pretty silver grey (what happens to REAL redwood, which almost no one has) to me it looks like the color of old painted barn. Later, it will be that plus algae color. I'd much rather see painted wood.

Tim, at the right side, you don't need to squeeze another tree around the corner. Have one and then wrap the groundcover bed around the house corner to meet the fence corner.

I'd look into an outdoor stain rather than paint for the fence; less maintenance.

MYy point is that the tree is just fine as it is, where it is. It does conform to good behavior. It looks good where it is and it provides a service (shade). It is not going to hit the house. It does not block the sidewalk or driveway. Is it a "10" as far as shape, no, but it is a solid 7 or 8. Ten being the ideal single leader, perfect branching tree that you see in all the drawings. Drawings, that are not probably not true to real life, just an idealized concept.

By the way, for the fence, check into a "bleaching stain". It will gray the fence out a little quicker or you can just wait about a year and nature will do it naturally.

Well, Sherry, we'll disagree on how nice those lower branches on the tree are. When the leaves come out, they're going to obscure a fair amount of the first floor of the house, so visually -- artistically -- it's crowding the house. Knowing that every year branches and limbs grow lower as they extend and weigh more, there's going to be quite a few of them in danger of touching or hanging on the house. To me, it sounds like the love for the tree-as-it-is is in spite of house.

Some people periodically voice the sentiment that they crave and miss discussions of landscape design academia. This would be a perfect subject for just such a thread.

Yardvaark, no.

I'd rather see a thread on the virtues of barricade gardening, then tackle the zig zag sidewalk, then the tree.

@Emmarene, there is always room for all those threads.

@Sherry, I thought you would finally say "no" to those low hanging branches.

NO, NO, NO, FOREVER NO to cutting them, no to your idea. I like shade. I like a bit of mystery in a yard. I do not like cut it down. We will almost never see anything the same. You seem to like forever wide open, I do not. We will both put forth our ideas and the OP can choose.

OK Sherry ... I believe you.

It is interesting that Yarkvaark chooses to compare a tree to the engineering in an automobile.

I agree with Sherry.

Junco, that's how analogies work.

• I realize that Yardvaark, but I am still struck by the choice you made to pair with the tree. It says a lot about you and how you think.