With two forward facing doors, adding a small, forward facing gable over the front door you want to be the primary entrance would better identify that as your entry.

By "bottom left" as the location for the second door, do you mean downstairs/basement entry? (or is the second door you mention on the same front porch level?)

I don 't see an obvious path to that dark downstairs ?entry? that is dark enough in the pic to resemble a garage door. Is there a path from the downstairs to the road/sidewalk? If so, could you post a closer clearer picture of it?

If you want any downstairs door to visually disappear better than it does, paint the entire wall the same dark color so as to not draw attention to any part of it.

What is in the downstairs?

IF the downstairs is "living" area, such as a den, you might consider removing the tree that is in front of it and digging out (maybe twelve feet ) in order to level an area in front of that left wing of the house for a future front yard downstairs patio.

To create a downstairs front yard patio, you could recreate that the retaining above that downstairs section using concrete blocks. Have it begin at the house at the left side of the front porch and build it straight toward (but not all the way to) the road. Then plant a privacy hedge around the newly leveled area, including between that patio area and the road. You could re use the stones moved by recreating the retaining wall and set them in the ground in the planting area between the patio and road to further minimize any chance of erosion.

So the bottom left of the photo is actually the second entrance that leads to a basement apartment. There is a sidewalk leading to the road from the second entrance... I will attach more photos to clarify. Your suggestion for a downstairs front yard patio was super helpful. We actually cleared a ton of overgrown plants from an area near the basement entrance. We had not even considered a private patio there, but it sounds so unique.

Excuse the mess - the entire house is currently being renovated. In the top photo there is a flat space that used to be a garden bed filled with cast iron plants and cat poop. HA! We weren't sure what to do with the space but I'm thinking your idea for an outdoor patio will work perfectly with minimal effort or money. Thanks again!

Widen the walkway to the main entry. If there is the time and energy or cash, move the wall back about a foot or two since it currently makes the walk feel narrower. Regardless, redo the main walkway so it is 4’ wide. Make the steps the same width and and move the pillar by the opening onto the porch to accommodate the needed opening width. The porch, pillars, and bright colored forward facing door make the main entry visible as such.

If you do a patio for the apartment, fence it along with the lower entry with a gate so it is clearly not the main entry. Whoever lives in the apartment can tell guests how to get there.

If there is space, can you add a low fence with a remove able front opening to hide the ?gas meter?

No suggestions on landscaping other than blocks of ground cover with a few feature plants to keep the “modern” look you want. Wait a year to see what is already there and whether you like it. I would not remove the large tree, regardless as it provides shade and therefore lower AC bills as well as giving nice character to the property.

For more specific suggestions, tell us your USDA growing zone and nearest large city.

check out our site on house under New Era Siding Inc we lots of pictures of different sidings and styles hop one of the pictures can help

Wow, that looks amazing. I'm not sure how feasible it is to move the entire retaining wall over though. Unfortunately, we have 4 on our property and if we updated one, then we'd have to do the others as well. But I definitely agree that the rocks need to be cleaned up and moved from some locations. The use of ground cover is an intriguing thought. i had not considered that.

If you're young and strong, moving the wall is feasible.

BTW, I'd remove the skinny leaning tree. It's not adding something positive and is unneeded on account of the bigger tree nearby.

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Just a thought... IIRC this house is in a Houzz blog article, presented with 3 different color schemes.

This wouldn't be an enhancement involving a gable over the front door.

I'm guessing the rocks and retaining wall are about erosion. First find out if there are any buried utilities in your front yard and, yes, live with it a while before doing anything major. When the leaves are on all the trees, pay attention to which trees area actually providing shade without risk to your foundation or falling on the house. Let that information help you decide which, if any, trees to cut.

Your new pic shows that the tree that appeared to have been growing beside your downstairs apartment entry ((possibly formerly a garage?) is, instead, farther away but leaning over it and shading it. A decision on removing it could certainly wait. That shade over a patio might well be welcome.

You might want to widen your patio and build a new retaining wall beside/above it and add privacy for it from the rest of your front yard. After paying attention to the direction of the sunlight, it might be that a wall of shrubs beside/above a new retaining wall might well be sufficient shade for your downstairs patio without the risk of a leaning tree falling on it during a storm.

Hope the interior remodel is going well. Let us know how that turns out for you.

Unless/until moving your entire retaining wall is not feasible, you might consider just widening the beginning front corner of the walkway on both sides of it.

If you want to get rid of the scattered rocks (likely put there for erosion, you might consider raking the area clear and then adding material intended for that purpose and then adding back a thin layer of dirt and enough rocks to hold everything in place until you can get moss growing there

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/152981718572893809/

or some ground cover growing there

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/377246906277428025/?lp=true

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/545076361128241212/

-- removing rocks as they are no longer needed.

The first thing I would do is change out the round columns to something more fitting with your house style. There are large areas of blank wall that you could do some different type siding to create interest.

If you're interested in seeing some virtual makeovers check out my website, Creative Visual Concepts. Here is some work that I did for a client with a MCM house

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