Karin, it's interesting and enlightening to read what others think of our house and landscape, even if we may not agree or take up some suggestions. We live in an area where we don't have a large number of options for landscape/garden design, unfortunately! So no worries about me being offended by criticism/suggestions, etc. We appreciate the help and we will work to think about each decision in terms of its purpose. We originally had purposes in mind for each bed in our backyard, though it may not look like it now - with the exception of the hydrangeas along the back fence. They were originally planted behind our garage (where the pool equipment enclosure is now). When we put in the pool, we moved them to the side bed (which didn't exist before the pool) along the fence, but the neighbor's black walnut tree hampered their growth. So rather than throw them away, we made a new bed along the back, sort of a temporary spot until we figure out what to do with the rest of the beds. I won't bore you or anyone else by enumerating the purposes of the other beds in the back, but just want to add that we also did have more visual interest and contrast in flower, foliage, and form - but many of those plants didn't survive. We've been in a sort of holding pattern back there for a couple years - and I'm looking forward to improving that landscape. But back to the front yard/landscape. One of our goals for changes remains to revise the long bed along the drive for the dual purposes of easier maintenance and including more variety in its plants to provide more interest in months other than July. Another goal is to revise the small bed near the side steps to make it better looking (instead of a hodgepodge of plants, as it is now) and as a memorial garden for our daughter, with beautiful plantings. We also still want to improve the visual impact/visibility of the front door. To me, that is a separate goal from emphasizing the front entrance, if by entrance one means the wide front steps (which aren't truly the entrance to the house, but visually they do give that impression). We understand the goals of Laag's ideas about beds in front of the steps and a wide path from the driveway to the steps/porch. But in terms of practicality, we don't want people to stop midway up our driveway and walk up the path, because then they block the entire driveway. Also, the steps are covered with snow for the entire winter (it's too expensive to pay to have them cleared each time it snows), and a walkway would also be covered in snow, so the practical function of a walkway beginning partway up the driveway wouldn't apply during those months. I've been bothered for a while by the sense of imbalance between the long driveway bed and the expanse of grass on the other side of the drive, so another purpose of making changes is to see if we can balance that. Laag's suggestion about a grassed area in the long bed was so helpful - I just don't know whether that is enough to achieve balance, or if we will need a bed under the birches. A new purpose resulted from a number of comments here, and that is to soften the impact of the veranda wall. I think we are just so used to how our house looks that we don't see it for how it really appears. You all have opened our eyes to this issue! I haven't been in the back yards of the houses above us (in the back) to see what they can see of our back yard. It "feels" private in our back yard most of the time, probably due to the fence, but I still don't do any skinny-dipping. ;-) The front feels very public to me (it's a busy street and in the spring/summer/fall, a very busy golf course), with the exception of the veranda. On the rare occasions when we are seated there (it's usually too hot/buggy/raining/cold), we have at least the illusion of privacy behind that fortress wall - though with close neighbors, we have to watch how loudly we talk. My sister mused aloud a few years ago about the idea of putting a hedge across the front of the yard (on the lawn on the house side of the sidewalk, if you're facing away from the house) to screen the street and provide more of a sense of privacy. A neighbor a couple of houses down has a partial bridal wreath hedge in the yard and she was noting that at the time. I'll update as we get further along in this process; meanwhile, if anyone has more comments/suggestions, we're very happy to have them.

I actually just replaced a similar window last fall for a 94 year old woman after a deer jumped thru it ,ran around the front room and into the kitchen going oiut the back door after making quite a mess. We replaced it with an Anderson window like #2.

Nice looking townhouse! I would make a proper sidewalk up to your steps. That would mean cutting back your driveway and putting the sidewalk right next to it and in stamped concrete or pavers or something other than black top. I would also build a porch across the front of the house (you would lose the basement window) and extend it out into the front yard so you have more space on the porch on the side of the bay window. Put a bench on the porch with big pots of flowers. Looks like you might have a sidewalk around to the back of the house so I would incorporate that in front of the porch. Because your front lawn is tiny, I wouldn't add any flower beds. Just big pots of flowers on the porch. Add big pots of flowers to your balcony as well. Perhaps consider replacing your basic 6 panel door with something with 2/3 glass or full glass.

Vegetable gardens are not something I'd recommend for a front yard, street side planting. They seldom have much aesthetic appeal, often look quite messy and typically require protection from insect pests and animal marauders. And they often do not exist at all for 4-6 months of the year, perhaps longer. Curb appeal factor is a negative, not a plus :-) The simplest approach is to use a groundcover, preferably evergreen, for the sloped portion and remove the grass and replace with gravel or crushed rock at the street to accommodate parking. Or some combination of low growing shrubby material and some flowering perennials. Make sure the pathway from street to entry is generously sized - at least 4-5' wide.