I don't know about your climate but my parents have a cape cod style house with no front porch and a wood door with sidelights and it is going strong after many years. If you want a saltbox style house, a porch wouldn't fit very well I wouldn't think. I was also thinking you could recess the door a bit and panel the sides of the recess (you see this a lot with Georgians) but I was thinking you wanted a georgian style house not a Saltbox style one . . . Are you doing brick or siding? If you are doing brick, you could recess the door a bit into your anteroom (this could leave an area for closets on either side which you could make attractive - I'll try to find a picture), but you would lose some of the focus of the spiderweb look. I think this other look is equally attractive and can be really beautiful but it may not be what you are looking for. It would protect the door more though!

Being on the south side you want something that can tolerate heat. I have flower beds in full sun like yours so I'll try to tell you what I have success with. You can't go wrong with Magellan Zinnias or any zinnias really but I just love the Magellan series. They have huge 4 inch flowers on a 12 inch plant. Marigolds would do well there. They can take the heat and keep on blooming. Janie is only 8 inches high and has a profusion of blooms. I like Janie Yellow but there are many dwarf varieties in varying colors. Zonal Geraniums may be a bit taller but can take the heat and don't mind drying out. Portulaca(often called moss rose for it's rose like flowers) is a low growing annual that loves the heat. As a bonus it will drop seeds and come back another year or you can collect seeds from it. It comes in many colors and makes a terrific edging. I wouldn't plant petunias there

Really nice house. Yard already has the beginnings of curb appeal with the bricked path. If you don't use a front yard patio, don't keep one. Consider adding a row of plants on both sides of your bricked path to outline it -- perhaps liriope https://www.pinterest.com/pin/88101736443381440/ -- or another plant to line your bricked path that is suitable to your planting zone. https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Plants+to+Line+a+Walkway&FORM=RESTAB and then focus on finding a good shade friendly grass or other ground cover easily maintained by mowing -- perhaps clover or something else that is suitable for your planting zone -- for the rest of the yard. While having a door open toward the side of the house doesn't seem ideal, the reasons this was done are obvious: -- the door is facing the driveway on that side of the house and, more importantly, -- it enables the house to have (not just the one) two large forward facing window groupings. Unless you're willing to give up all the natural light the second window grouping brings into the home, the door would need to stay where it is. If you're considering changing the front windows on the left side of the house anyway, you could enclose what is now the porch to create a new, one with the door forward facing in the new front exterior wall. You could then add a new porch by extending the roof of the forward facing gable another 8' or so.

Be sure to pick plants that will stay within scale of the planting area (primary issue with the current plantings). Many bigleaf hydrangeas like Nikko or ES get huge here in the PNW (6-8' tall and wide) and a need to prune them to keep size in check will limit the flowering. Also afternoon sun exposure in that location is likely to be far too strong and result in daily wilting. You might want to look into some of the more compact or dwarf forms of Hydrangea paniculata, which can take full sun and can be pruned to size (if necessary) without affecting any flowering potential. Even if only viewed from indoors during our rainy season, I would still want to see something evergreen in that bed....otherwise you will just have bare dirt for a good 4-6 months and that means weeds :-) We are not limited in the variety of smaller evergreen plants available in this area so I would visit a local nursery to see what's on offer that you might like - euphorbias, candytuft, hebes, dwarf abelia or pieris. Even a groundcover or a carex or two.