Great. Regarding the picture of your neighbor's house, if you bring a walk across the front from the driveway, or anywhere else, it would help tremendously to swing it away from the house as much as would be functional so people don't walk close to the windows and to allow room for handsome plantings. I agree completely with Ideabean that the front landscape should be designed in conjunction with the addition. I do disagree somewhat with the notion that foundation plantings should be avoided en bloc. For instance, if people approaching the front door also approach the windows, leaving room for a narrowish shrub of the necessary height on the corner would block the view sideways into the windows entirely. You don't say what direction the front of the house faces, but if some shade would be nice and the walk could come up well away from the kitchen extension, a small, light foliaged tree between walk and kitchen might be very nice. (A big reason birches are so popular in the northeast is that the small, dainty foliage casts a pretty, dappled shade without heaviness.) With a 30' setback, any good landscape design for plantings away from the house is not going to move them very far away in any case.

To add height, you could always build a "raised bed" under window with cement pavers or blocks. The downside: cost and labor, but there is a a couple benefits. 1: it would give you a little more height to be closer to the 3' with shorter plants. 2: you can fill it with soil more suitable for growing plants than the hard clay we typically see on the front range (particularly in a residential neighborhood and right up against the house no less) 3. Since your yard is more "xeric," which also often means they prefer a lot more sun as well, the different soil type and a different watering regimen would allow you to create what is known in "xeriscaping" as an oasis zone of plants that prefer richer, wetter soil, which many of the shade tolerant/shade preferring plants do. Of course 2 and 3 can also be accomplished without building a raised bed, but from a landscaping perspective the hardscape of a decorative wall would give a definitive transition between the xeric yard and the mesic bed. Just some thoughts :).

I’d put my dining room in that space and turn your old dining room into an office and add some glass doors to your new office (old dining room). That way you can set up a dedicated space for your homeschooling. You don’t need two living rooms back to back. Put your piano against the stair wall where the guitars currently are. Put your dining room hutch on the 13’4” wall and hang the guitars on the other wall space (opposite the front windows). Hang your guitars so they are like artwork....big one in the middle and smaller ones on either side. Paint the chair rail white and all the wall space below the same white as well. This will help to blend your heaters. Paint above the chair rail a warm grey colour. Benjamin Moore Collingwood is one example and a google search will come up with other popular colors. One last suggestion is to get some full length curtains to frame those windows. Black and white check curtains will give that room a farmhouse feel. Black and White Curtains

Sweet doggy. :) A few suggestions ... not necessarily these exact ones, as I don’t know budget and sizes needed, but just to show as ideas for you to search: Live edge tables — https://www.wayfair.com/furniture/pdp/union-rustic-mazelina-coffee-table-w001115136.html https://www.wayfair.com/furniture/pdp/foundry-select-nauvoo-coffee-table-w000897820.html https://www.wayfair.com/furniture/pdp/union-rustic-tindle-coffee-table-unrt1302.html . Woven styles — https://www.jossandmain.com/furniture/pdp/venetta-coffee-table-j000338554.html?piid=195560686 . A bit of an MCM feel, this comes in three color choices — https://www.wayfair.com/furniture/pdp/masaya-co-manzanillo-coffee-table-ndac1009.html?piid= . This might feel too clunky, but love it with boho: https://www.westelm.com/products/carved-wood-coffee-table-g414/?pkey=ccoffee-tables&isx=0.0.6529 . Tiered: https://www.worldmarket.com/product/wood+and+metal+multi+level+coffee+table.do?sortby=ourPicks&from=fn . One more: https://www.wayfair.com/furniture/pdp/mercer41-enzo-frame-coffee-table-w001418525.html?piid=