With that extensive a project in mind, why don't you hire a design professional? Not only will they be able to easily tackle any hardscaping issues (landing, path and stairs) but they can bring to life what is essentially a very boring blank slate at this point in time. If you admittedly know nothing about plants and gardening, why go into this project with the potential of a lot of costly trail and error mistakes? In many cases, a designer will prepare a full design for you to follow DIY at your convenience OR you can opt to hire all (or part) of the work out. You can be as hands-on - or off - as you wish :-) I've linked you to the NY chapter of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers. This is one of the best referral services for landscape design professionals. Here is a link that might be useful: APLD - NY

Where are you in the world? Can you take photos that show the whole width of the front and the back from a greater distance? It is clear from shadows that you have trees, but difficult to see how they and other surrounding pieces of the landscape fit in. Both type and distance may influence what you can do for foundation plantings. Are there chunks of rock in the front bed between the garage and front door? If so, are they moveable?

i would get rid of the tall thin tree at the corner of the house.. before it falls on the house.. or gets so tall.. it just looks out of place .... and i would get rid of the tall tree which i suspect is a pear [pic 2] ... in front of the front door ... its just gotten too big also.. and all out of proportion to every thing else ... i bet it was planted by the builder ... and then remove those you hate.. lifes to short ... and ... THEN .. once they are gone.. i would put together a plan to make a cohesive whole ... with the two huge plants.. everything else just looks squat ... and yuck .. those are technical terms.. if you dont know .... one of your design issues will be the height of the house.. versus the narrowness of the beds to work in ... and anything that gets tall enough to deal with that.. will put you back where you are now.. inside ten years ... around the neighborhood.. if you see other houses which you like the design.. snap a pic.. and we can interpret it for you ... so you can set some long term goals to accomplish .... this would be a good exercise.. even if you end up hiring out the job .... we need big city name to help you with ideas ... for your area ken

I have a very similar lot in MI too. We have a deck and are along a river. Bear in mind, that the big trees are a wonderful asset but their roots are far reaching and suck a lot of nutrients out of the soil. Compost your lawn debris on site and amend the soil with compost to help the understory plantings survive. Daisies and sedums need sun, and you don't have that in a big supply. But there are plants that might grow in the shade that have similar qualities to daisies and sedums that you might be able to substitute. If you love happy white flowers, you can grow spring flowering wildflowers like wood anemone or sweet woodruff or lily of the valley or goat's beard (much prettier than the name would imply) or a white flowering astilbe. There are also white cultivars of bleeding heart and another white wildflower called "Squirrel corn" and also "Dutchman's Breeches." And later, wood asters can also take shade. There are even fragrant while flowering hosta like "Guacamole" for example. Smells like jasmine. Find a good perennial nursery, particularly one specializing in wildflowers. Also, you can really punch up the garden with white flowering annuals like impatiens and begonias. I have some spectacular ones in my yard right now. As for red, if that's what you like about sedums, I have some very dramatic coleus (an annual) and also many types of begonias come in a whole host of red and pink and coral shades. Columbine and astilbe are other examples of red flowering perennials. Some heuchera has red bells for flowers, but also many varieties with red decorative foliage. I have those growing in my garden. They can also take some sun. If you crave sun loving perennials, find the sunniest spot in your yard and put in a big raised bed planter or just big planter. I've even heard of people putting the planter on wheels so they can move it around to catch the most sun during the day. I grew tomatoes in pots in a little red wagon that way one year. I was outside all the time so easily moved them around during the day to follow maximum sun . . . If I forgot one day was not the end of the world, although you do need to be consistent. Mine was in front of one side of my garage, so I only needed to move it if I needed to get something out of that side of the garage . . .