Did anyone notice the "eye" peeking out the upper left hand window? LOL Cute house. This is probably going to sound beyond what you are asking, but here goes... I like the idea about painting the front door and making this your focal point. I am going to be repainting my garage this year, so I did some research because I've seen garage doors that are sometimes painted the same color as the trim, and other times the garage door is painted the color of the body of the house, so I wasn't sure which to do. What I came across was an article that suggested painting your garage door the same color of the body of your house, in effect making it blend rather than stand out, because who wants their garage door to be the focal point, right? I think by doing this, you will definitely bring more attention to your front door. I'd match the garage door to a color found in your bricks, but leave the trim white. In addition to painting the front door, and if this is practical, I'd also paint the adjoining window (transomes I think they're called?) - in other words, the entire frame around the door. A nice blue would work too, that would be a nice contrast to all the red in your bricks, but then that might be too much red white and blue...maybe a nice yellow? I love the symmetry of the planting bed in front of your overhang/porch area. Adding a bistro set behind that, or patio rocking chairs with a center table would look adorable and very quaint. On the side of your house, you could plant a row of hydrangeas. Small urns flanking the garage door would look nice. An urn or container plant to the right of the doorway. A bench on the empty wall to the left of the door would look cute too, and you could totally play this up for Halloween or other holidays with pumpkins, gourds, cornstalks, marigolds and kale around that bench. Adorable. The grassy area straight out from the front door - I'd probably plant something low growing in this corner 'nook', something evergreen maybe a small rhododendron, or an azalea if that area gets more sun than not. Or, maybe three rounded boxwood planted in a triangular pattern with a curved border from the driveway to the sidewalk, and mock the same pattern at the end of the driveway next to the sidewalk. On the west corner of the garage, I'd plant a shrub or a small tree for effect. Landscape lighting does wonders for curb appeal, but I wouldn't recommend solar lighting. Subtle lighting is best... uplight features you want to accentuate, like that small accent tree and your front door, and then use pathway lighting to lowlight from the end of the driweway to your front door. I would add a bordered planting bed underneath that small tree so it doesn't look like it's in limbo - you could underplant with hostas, pulmonaria, pachysandra, or any groundcover, but make the bed the same width as the breadth of the tree, minimum. I'd definitely use uplighting on that tree, it will look fantastic. The paint forum is a great place to start for color suggestions. Try this interactive tool for changing house colors: http://www.bhg.com/home-improvement/exteriors/siding/welcome-to-color-a-home/ Good luck! We'd love to see the finished product.

I'm very late to the party, but here goes. Well, I think your place has lots of potential. I did not read every response in detail, so I hope I don't duplicate what others have said. I'm not a professional designer. First where in PA are you? I'm in Lancaster county and there are lots of quality nurseries with good prices. A good book for beginners is "Garden Primer" by Barbara Damrosch. And it is good advice, but hard to do, maybe try living thru all four seasons before you make changes. You might get surprised by drainage patterns, etc. Is your house visible from the road? Maybe take a pic from there to help visualize the house and setting. Do you ever plan to subdivide the property or build another home, as the previous owners did? This would make a difference for large tree placement. My sense of your question is that you just want to make your house and its setting look better. It sounds like you are new to gardening and still developing a sense of style. The curving path is nice. I would suggest making an area in front of door that would serve as a "landing", say about a 4 ft x 4 ft square (could be bigger though, but not entire width of house) that would be a transition from path to front door. Use slate or more substantial stepping stones for this landing. Then move planters away from house to somewhere else. Make the beds deeper, with some curves. I read somewhere that if take your house and tipped it forward on its 'face', your beds should be that deep. I would use some cone shaped evergreens by corners of the house, do not exceed the height of house. Pant a grouping of shrubs to step down a bit from these tallest shrubs next to the corners. Maybe around the corner from the garage you could make a little landing pad for garbage can, and then they could be somewhat hidden from view by the evergreens. I'm thinking in hot summer you will want the cans outside and not in the garage. Maybe a trellis between window and driveway to soften exterior of house. Adding shutters will be nice, use the paneled type, not louvered. (you have enough "lines" with the siding.) Not sure about good choices for deer resistant plants, that seems to be very regional. Maybe the nursery down the road can help with that.. How much sun do you get, and what zone? If sunny then you could do a lot. Holly both evergreen and deciduous with some berries. You will need male and female plants with hollies. Also, arborvitae, or juniper, for evergreen shrubs. I would put some rounded, kind of fluffy evergreens, in front also. There are some arborvitaes like that, some have gold foilage. I think the foundation planting can't get too huge though, you don't want to overwhelm the house. Then some easy care perennials, coral bells, daylily, daisy, white and purple cone flowers, lambs ears, yarrow and some ornamental grasses. Other deciduous shrubs that could be nice in a a separate border are butterfly bush, they can get huge, though. Viburnums, some smell wonderful, but others not so much, so check them out when in bloom. Clethra is nice but takes forever to leaf out in spring so you may not want this in front of house. Other easy care deciduous shrubs are itea, fothergilla, they both get nice fall color, beauty berry, red twig dogwood, blue mist shrub. You could incorporate these with some huge spruces in a largish bed, some distance from house but visible from inside. Best of luck.

Congratulations on the new house! I know others will have great ideas for you, probably better than mine since I am not a pro, but I would start with a tree in the left of the front yard-maybe something flowering if that appeals to you. I would also be tempted to put a window box under your front window. They can be tricky to maintain, but you can put pots in them that are easily changed out if something dies. I don't know where you live, so maybe you could share your zone. It will make a huge difference in suggestions. For example, I am in zone 7 in Northern Virginia. I could recommend lots of things for my area, but that won't do you a lot of good if you are in California or Minnesota! Until then, maybe a few pots with flowers you like until you can start landscaping. Your house is cute, so I have no doubt you can enhance that.

When it comes to something like first impressions I think opinions vary due to geography and age of the viewer. I don't know where you are so my old lady from California ideas may not appeal to you. I think the path is quite charming and would not want it partially hidden by the front bed bordering it. I would plant grass there. I think the railing looks like a jail on such a small house. I would remove it. The shrubs in the stone planter look to me like what I consider foundation plants. I suspect they will grow too large there. I would remove them. Perhaps they can go on the side of the house that is not visible. I would plant low perennials and leave room for annuals in the planters. I like the suggestion of green trim above except it looks like you may have a blue roof. If that is so I would stay with white trim. I threw in some little plants with red foliage in front of the porch. I like them with the brick. Lighting around the path would be nice since one of you is handy.