MPG, yes, cut the large arborvitae down around the front doorway, and keep the ones in the backyard. You might also think of removing a few more of the large ones near the garage. I think you can get away with removing half or 2/3 of them, leaving just few for your accent points. I'd take out the large green 'meatballs', and I think you would be fine not to replace them with anything. It looks like they were planted to screen the driveway and it's cars so people outside the yard couldn't see into the yard from the street. If you still feel the need to screen your driveway then think about placing shrubs and trees in the lawn area well off to the sides of the driveway. You have a formal French-Italian villa look to your home, I'd play that up with the choices you make for any additional plants you choose. Since you are in a dry climate, lavender, rosemary, herbs, and a few shrub-trees that look like the olive trees in the Mediterranean area. But do check out books that cover your drier climate. Every place has a palatte of plants that look the best for it's area. And think about painting the white trim on the house, and the trim around the garage a shade darker than the existing color the house is currently painted. If you don't like the house color then, when you remove the large arborvitae, it that would be a great time to repaint. Whatever color you decide on, you would do the same thing, you would paint the details in a slightly darker shade of the main color so they stand out just a bit, almost like a shadow. And when you do remove the plant material, you will have to slice through and loosen them from the foundation before you have them pulled. They have sent roots under your foundation if you are on a slab. You will have to grub out the old plants' roots, and add more soil to those areas where you have taken the plants out since they have used up all the organic matter and all the nutrients. Cruise through magazines and garden books, focus on homes that look similar to your's to see how that style is enhanced with plants. It's not always very formal, the rustic Italian farmhouse and the extremely formal French city villa are miles apart. And check things out through interlibrary loans from your local library if garden books are few in number. Go ahead and remove the extra plant materials, and amend the places well ahead of anything going back in, and take your time living with the blank canvas so you can visualize any new ideas better. I think you have a fantastic project ahead of you, have fun!

To answer the question about tax write-offs... Last year, I gave away a lot of stuff. It felt great to declutter my home. And whenever possible, I collected the receipts from any charity that gave them out. They were too busy to actually write the receipt for me. They gave me the blank form, and let me figure out the value, on the honor system. I had the receipts all saved up for the tax accountant. Then my husband convinced me that we couldn't claim them for our taxes. So I shredded them, along with all the other paper clutter I have been shredding. Then the tax accountant said that if we had any receipts from donations to charity, he needed them for our tax return. I had several hundred dollars of donations, by my reckoning. He said we needed to try to reconstruct them,. He sent us a list of prices used by the Salvation Army to estimate the value of donations. I told my husband that there was no way I could remember everything I had given away. I refused to even try. I wanted it to be a lesson to him that if the wife lady puts a donation receipt into the tax folder, he is not to try to convince her to take it back out. Now, it has backfired. I want him to get rid of some of his own stuff ... for example, his old trumpet that he hasn't played since high school. But he refuses to just Freecycle it, even though there was a request for a trumpet just last week, on the local Freecycle list. My hubby wants somebody to tell him exactly how much his trumpet is worth, so he can be sure to get the proper, full value of it as a donation from a place that will actually give him a receipt. So now, there is a huge obstacle to getting it out of the house! Well, we are no worse off than before. The trumpet is still in the basement. And I'm still trying to get him to realize what he needs to receive in order to be willing to get it out of the house. I have yet to make him realize that he has to be willing to do the work to get it out of the house via the method he envisions. Baby steps! LOL

Thank you everyone! I am still pondering and will probably continue to do so for months... I have a puzzle on my hands fitting in the roses I moved with me to the new house (is that a Danish saying? Now I am suddenly wondering). And maybe I should see the red roses suggested to me in person before buying any. Will let you know what I end up with!

You have established perennials with deep roots. I would remove the rr ties and then assess. I doubt that you will need them. Instead, I would place interesting large rocks here and there internally to shore up areas that might be steeper than others. I have a deep slope on one side of my property. I have planted perennials there and the root systems have taken solid hold of the soil. I do have clusters of rocks strategically located on the slope, protecting the area from erosion. Yes, I have deer. I spray repellent on the vulnerable plants. No, they don’t eat the plants that I have planted. And NO, the rock clusters have not attracted ants.