I'm liking that gable pediment...opens it right up!

Whether a shed roof (likely less expensive) or a gable end, I would extend the porch outward to make it functional and to add interest to the facade. Notice also that the pillars are made more substantial for architectural interest.

In Yardvaark’s sketch the trees diagonally off the corners of the house frame it and help ground it. They are included in bump outs of the front beds which are deep enough front to back to actually be visible from the street, and the beds have a dense evergreen groundcover. Shrubs are sized to stay below the level of the front windows without excessive pruning, and you want to have at least some evergreens and some flowering shrubs (or shrubs with different colored foliage) or large perennials. (Some plants like Rhododendrons or Kalmia/mountain lauel could serve both functions.) Notice also that Yardvaark’s sketch has some plants that repeat in more than one place, though because the house isn’t symmetrical, the plantings won’t be mirror images.

You would also include spots framing the porch for large pots of annuals, but they need to be big enough to read well from the street.

Current front plantings are too small, have nothing of interest at this time of year, and the beds are so shallow front to back as to be virtually invisible from all but close in.

In redoing the front porch, be sure to install a new walkway that is wide enough for two people to walk side by side, and is set far enough from the house to have beds a minimum of 6’ deep. Have a generous landing at the base of the steps where it meets the walkway.

For specific plant suggestions if you end up buying the house, you can consult with a local designer or nursery, or you can visit a forum here that deals with shrubs, trees, or your local region such as the New England gardening forum or that for the Great Lakes region. You will need to give the forum info on your USDA growing zone and nearest large city to get the most useful suggestions.

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/shrub[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/shrubs-forum-dsbr0-bd~t_30010)

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/trees-forum-dsbr0-bd~t_30032[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/trees-forum-dsbr0-bd~t_30032-forum-dsbr0-bd~t_30032)

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/explore-topics#All-Topics

Needs much, much bigger windows.

So we did end up buying this house and moved in late last year. Spring is on its way so I'll be thinking about landscaping soon.

Since moving in, however, a new challenge/issue has arisen: We don't have good guest parking at the front of the house. Here's a satellite view of the 2-acre lot:

The driveway is 15' wide, so no one can park along it, so they drive to the back and then the logical place to enter the house is the mudroom (that thin connector piece of roof you see above). I want them to have somewhere to park towards the front of the house so they'll come to the front door.

Where should I put this parking? Just widen the drive? Put some perpendicular parking right off the driveway? Have a road going in towards the house and then parking off that? Is is "proper" design to put parking in the current grassy area in front of the house (either straight in with a turnaround or circle)? I've been googling for photos that might show how this is properly done, but am coming up empty.

I would appreciate any ideas.

A semi circular driveway with the front door at the top of the middle radius would add many guest parking spaces and would direct guests to front door. The new driveway could connect to your current driveway or be separate.

There's probably a number of different approaches you could take, which might vary wildly in how much material they would require to construct and therefore, vary wildly in cost. Here's one possibility that is probably not crazy in cost. (This is a scheme, not a plan.) A second thing I like about it is that it does away with your current front walk, which is much too close to the house, and allows for a much better one with which to replace it.

Keep in mind that many municipalities can get crazy about what you do with drives and parking when it comes to the front yard. So check the restrictions before you plan something that may require jumping through hoops.

I hadn't thought about putting the parking spots so close to the house, but that's where I need to be pulled outside of my thinking box.

There are 2 medium sized trees that are 35' apart, on either side of the sidewalk. I would ideally like 4 spots, to accommodate larger groups of visitors. Could yardvark's concept be widened to squeeze in 3 spots there? Or would we need to remove one of the trees?

I'm not sure about a circle drive. That seems like more drive than parking, and cost is a consideration here.

We're in a small town/bordering on rural area, so no issues with front yard parking. Though it feels kind of redneck to call it that. :-)

We're at a disadvantage by not having good perspective views that center on the potential area(s) of work.

You could not fit 4 spots between the two trees but you might be able to fit 3. Another possibility is 2 spaces at one side of the tree and two on the other side. Or 3 + 1. There's all kinds of possibilities. A person would need to evaluate the trees, too. There might be a reason to want one of them gone. (One that I can see the best is awfully low-branched considering its position in the landscape. Someone ought to be working on correcting that.)

Neither of the trees are great looking right now. We are planning a spring pruning in the near future. Here is a driveway view of the space.

I should mention that our driveway is curbed with gravel, and we would likely continue this with the guest parking.

It looks like you could squeeze 3 spaces between the trunks without much trouble. But the low branches on the near tree are going to be an impediment. It takes a fair while to get a tree going in the right direction if it's been let go in the formative years, which this one has. If it were me, I'd sacrifice whatever of the trees needed being sacrificed in order to make the hardscape how I wanted it to be. I don't consider trees to be that slow or difficult to grow. I'd either get them in the shape I wanted, or replace them, which offers the added benefit of getting to pick the species.

Well, we've finally managed Phase I of the curb appeal project, and got the hardscape in.

Phase 2 will be decluttering the landscape beds (everything needs to be thinned) and adding some more in this expanded space.

Phase I looks seriously improved in comparison to the "before" picture! It looks like cars could actually use that.

Slowly but surely, we plow ahead....we got the right side re-planted this past spring.

We put 5 hydrangeas around the corner along that north wall. I want to plant a crape myrtle in that empty space in the near corner, but I couldn't find any, or I looked at the wrong time or something. So that will come next year hopefully. Bonus was that the azaleas to the right of the porch bloomed a second time in August, quite unexpectedly.

Can you tell I'm obsessed with color? :-)

Last weekend we dug up the bed on the left side and have a blank canvas to work with. We'll plant it next spring.

My next question: should I put mostly the same type of plants on this side of the house so it's connected visually? Or does it matter? I've got some gorgeous dark purple irises that I want to use, but other than that am open to anything.

Any ideas/help?

And yes, at some point I still want to do the gable over the porch. It's on the list....