Here are a few ideas-- 1.Widen the walkway with bricks on either side that match the house and take out the grass from between the walk and house and make it part of the bed. 2.Have all plants in front of the windows be lower that the windows. Go to a nursery and look at what is available that you like. Ground cover in front of the shrubs and annuals or something very short in front of the stoop. Matching planters on the stoop on either side of the door. 3.Black shutters on the windows on the brick end of the house would help unify both 'parts' of the house.

The details are difficult to see in the low resolution photo but if there is crown molding under the overhang it would be further evidence of the contractor’s ignorance. A crown molding belongs at the top of the cornice. What you need is a scaled section drawing so we can offer real solutions. That’s what should have been in the drawings in the first place and it’s the only way you will be able to fix this problem. If that’s too difficult take a better photo and note the dimensions on it. It shouldn’t be difficult to make this thing look better.

Flo, I like your sketch very much (although without knowing the basic sun/wind info I mentioned above, it may or may not be what she needs.) However, the suggestion of polished black Japanese river stones for a first time home owner in Oklahoma is probably not helpful.b You will drain her budget and she will find herself looking at dusty, not shiny, stones. If she likes your concept of creating a dry bed/ river effect (as I do), you or someone else might teach her how to do this with grasses native to her area. Ones that can be easily propagated by division, require no water or weeding, and will blow in her prairie breezes while attracting birds and wildlife. Can, I urge you to google images of landscapes by Oehme, Van Sweden. They are known for using sweeps of native plants, especially grasses. My suggestion to you is to play around with flexible hoses or ropes in dividing your wide open space to see what shapes please you. Then imagine the spaces filled with different color blocks of various heights. Which ones do you want moving, which ones static? Designing a three dimension landscape from scratch like yours can be overwhelming. Break it down into digestible parts. 1) Gather all information about your conditions. 2) Get out the hoses and ropes and draw on the ground like a canvas.

In your introductory statement, you say that you're interested in changing "... the front deck into a more pleasant entry way." Let's compare the existing deck to two concepts. Presently, it seems sized such that it could accommodate 3 or 4 people entering. In my concept I haven't the size of the deck much. I've widened it just a little, mainly to allow for building wider steps ... maybe twice as wide as the current steps. It might accommodate an additional person or two. In your concept drawing, you've changed the deck from merely an entrance, to one sized for family gatherings -- lounging, dining, BBQs, etc. Is that how you intend to use the deck? If it is merely an entrance, it does not make sense to overwhelm the space with a lounging and entertaining deck sized for a family ... unless you are receiving visitors in groups numbering into the teens. First, figure out its purpose and base its size on that. Then work out its configuration. Whether its a wood deck or masonry porch structure doesn't matter to its function, as either can do the job. The materials will have more to do with durability, maintenance and the visual, artistic impression that you are trying to make. In general, I think people value masonry porches as the superior ones, b ut it isn't necessarily always that way.