Way to go! Nice house! Everybody will have their own opinions about what looks aesthetically pleasing... For me, I'd enjoy a row of spruces, the nearer the curb the better. Why not have your soil tested and have the utility companies come out spray paint your grass for stuff you'll need to avoid. How long do you intend to live there? If you plant larger trees they give you privacy quicker but cost a lot more. Additionally, plant some 1/2 barrels and put flowers on that patio. Update your front door to something nicer? Just my opinion, your mileage may vary. Gus

I think your choice 1 is probably the best for the ranch style house. While I love the more carriage style of choice 2 and 3, the vertical lines might compete with the horizontal lines of your brick. Plus, I don't see any other arched areas like there were in choice 3 so I'm not sure it fits the style of your house. One thing I noted is that your current garage doors have windows. Are you going to put windows in the new? We used to have NO windows but now we DO and it's a night and day difference. They let in so much light. If you go windowless, you might really miss them.

We are now ready for landscape design help. We have removed all of the shrubbery on the left side of the house. And all of the pavers have been moved to the backyard for future use. ( unless someone has an idea of how they could be used up front. Although I understand that a curved sidewalk would be an improvement over what we have, there is no budget for that right now. The plan is to resod in the spring. This is north facing, so very shady. I have so many design dilemmas! To the right of the front porch: If you look at the second and third pictures in my original post, you’ll see that the area to the right of the sidewalk is huge. I purchased a green Japanese maple ( smallish weeping Viridis) to put in there somewhere. Should I leave room for more grass on the right side of the side walk or just plant the whole thing? Also on the right side of the porch, there is only about 39” between the ground and the bottom of the windows. Need suggestions for what to plant there that wouldn’t need constant pruning ( don’t like gardenias because the brown flowers stay on the plant). If I plant low shrubs under the windows does everything else planted in there need to be as lower lower or can I punctuate with some taller shrubs as I get further out. Any suggestions for a mix of shrubs, or even forms, would be appreciated. To the left of the porch. If you refer to the first picture in this string, You’ll see that a very large bed of shrubbery was in front of the house. Once we cleared that out, there is now an extremely have extremely large area (about 28 feet from left to right and 36 feet from front to back.) . Because the house is small, I’m thinking of that bed somewhat narrower so that it isn’t so much in front of the house, but more to the side.I already purchased a Japanese stewartia to plant there ( sale at the nursery).Etsy sale I purchased 234 limelight hydrangeas. Also, to the left of the porch, there about 5 ft between the bottom of the window and the ground. Looking for suggestions on what to plant there. If I plant something different here than on the right side, would I want to somehow use some of the plants from the right side on this side as well to create balance? Any ideas for plantings in this area would be appreciated as well. I I did see some soft touch mahonia that I loved and wondered whether they would look good under the windows on the left, with maybe whatever we plant on the right side in front of those. Additionally, I would really appreciate suggestions for what to plant in that left corner. Thanks for your ideas!

Remove the too small shutters since shutters should look like they could cover the windows. They add nothing and actually detract. Paint the garage door the same color as the house so it fades away and is not the first thing you see. Pavers instead of concrete. Better landscaping, including some flowers.