I will try to get those pictures tomorrow! Here are several more of the front from different angles I already had...

here are a few more

I'll start with one idea. The dwarf Alberta Spruce can be transplanted. They could make a nice frame for the gravel firepit out back.

Though the look is certainly helped when your lawn is in its green season, I think some easy fixes would be to bring in some complementary color to the house itself. Everything is a variation of brown, which looks bland and depressing. Beautiful property, though, with lots of potential. Enjoy the process!

#1 - remove the CLF. It is industrial fencing and should not be used residentially unless you have pets or livestock that need to be enclosed. You can probably reuse some of the CLF to build the dogs a kennel behind the house or the outbuilding. CLF is the #1 item that lowers property values. If you can't afford to replace it with wooden privacy fencing, I would pull it out and build a budget to replace it in the future. Also, you'll want to disguise the utility installations at your curb and the monster propane tank. Perhaps those spruce trees could be transplanted (and expanded with more) to make a "windbreak" that the utilities are behind. Those are all detracting from the curb appeal. I suggest a power wash for the brick mail box, house, driveway and the brick pad by the faucet. Your roof looks a bit splotchy; does it need cleaning or replacing?

IMO the gold is all wrong for the house and the shutters are too chocolate syrup brown.

Not a pro. Just some thoughts.

First step would be to know some things. Know where any/all buried utility items are so you don't dig up or damage anything. Also know any "set back" rules that govern what you can and cannot create. Know any and all right of way paths so you don't create your patio and/or planting area beneath them only to have that money wasted when the utility company removes what you build.

Second step is to get any major grading done.

Third step is to outline the spaces where you do NOT want grass.

... Initially, at least, you could use stakes and string for your driveway and any parking and turn around spaces -- identifying these spaces will protect your lawn.

... Then, with stones or bricks or pavers or treated landscaping posts, mostly bury the outline material so the top of the outline material is ground level to enable you to easily mow around it, outline any and all places you don't want to plant grass.

Plant a thick turf of grass over all the rest of the yard. Getting the lawn in place will drastically help the appearance of your yard.

Fourth step is to plant an nurture a thick turf of grass. Fall or spring are the best times to plant grass since the heat of summer is favored by weeds.

For "fencing", once any major grading and/or sloping and/or terracing of your lot is complete, begin with a dozen or so 4"x4"x8' treated posts (perhaps with solar lights atop them) that create the beginning of a "dotted line" of posts around your yard -- identifying the perimeters of and any corners of your yard.

At the road, keep your posts behind any road right of way and/or utility right of way or set back requirements.

Include four specific posts in your preliminary fencing: From each of the four corners of your home, put a post at the closest place you can to put it on the property line. These four posts will help if/when later you want to add a solid fence, then you will have a visual that can help you choose if you want to add a fence between a corner of your home and your property line to add privacy from the road to your back and/or side yard. If you need to define your yard for where your children should remain (or attempt to train pets where they should remain) , you could attach eye hooks to the posts and run plastic covered pet cable between the posts.

If you have pets and leashes are required, setting up a pair of posts on each side of where you want the pets to stay and running a plastic covered pet cable between the tops of the two posts (maybe 20' or more apart) will give you something to which you can attach a leash with a pulley -- just make sure the area has both shade and sun and has a good water bowl. Adding a clamp near the posts can stop the pulley so the pet cannot wrap its leash around the posts and get choked.

Until actually fencing in the yard the way you want it to be is within your budget, you could add brackets for hanging baskets and/or bird feeders and/or bird houses and/or wind chimes and/or solar lights and/or windsocks ... to the posts around your yard.

If the chain link fence is not yours or if it is on your property boundary or if you need to keep it for the safety/security of pets until you can build the kind of fence you actually want, you might consider adding a "green" fence alongside it.to hide it.

While it's still winter, you could move the dwarf Alberta Spruce (rather than kill them) -- they probably shouldn't be that close to the house. Consider using them to begin creating a green privacy screen for your side and/or back yard -- to block visibility from the road.

Don't forget to create a sidewalk from your front door to your driveway (approximately where you/guests will park/exit their vehicles to enter via the front door) and do so in a way that will define a planting area between the sidewalk and house .

There are several Houzz landscaping pros with really great photoshop skills. If you copy/past their names from another landscaping discussion thread (where they've commented and you like their work) onto this one, they'll get a notice you mentioned them and may come to your rescue.

Will see if I can find a post from a few and come back and edit/add their names to this thread for that purpose -- or you might seek out posts from groveraxle and DigDoug and Yardvaark) names

Dig Doug's Designs

groveraxle

Yardvaark (already posted a comment)

Looking through all your pictures, it seems the fenced lot next door to the house is actually the other half of your front yard and that the outbuilding/shed with the garage door and the propane tank are yours.

"We are looking for dramatically different and also some simple easy changes to start get our imaginations running with the landscape. "The lake house" is the theme......"

The propane tank needs to go away. Access for filling is an obvious consideration of placement, but its current location looks to be blocking access to the shed. Either move it to a new location or bury it or both. Yes you can bury your propane tank.

Lake house, dogs and the surrounding deciduous forest speak of a simple country style landscape to me. I will offer a theme for you to work with, Open Woodland. That means planting trees and reforesting the lot in a open manner which allows the dogs plenty room to run and easy mowing between the trees. A mix of small flowering and larger shade trees will help nestle the house into the land. The word Open is a key to this concept.

Don't fuss over a lawn. Just mow what comes up. It will be better for all life forms involved.

A good thing for you to do is draw a simple bubble type diagram of the house and lot placing the firepit, vegetable garden, shed, dog run and any other items on the wish list which certainly includes the circular drive. A circular drive would be very handy for the shed which very well could be the boat house. This will give you an idea of the traffic patterns around the grounds and help you decide about the placement of the fence and where you can plant trees NOW.

I can live with chain link in this setting. The part of it that is like fingernails on a chalkboard for me is its attachment to the left side of the house coming out perpendicular and cutting the front yard in half. I'm not sure how to fix that yet cause the dogs and I don't know how big the lakeside part of the lot is. A bubble diagram and designated dog run will help determine the best solution for that.

So three simple things to start, conceptually anyway, some muscle will be needed.

1. Transplant the dwarf Alberta Spruce. I can see them in a half circle uphill behind the firepit with the lakeside view open.

2. Move or bury the propane tank.

3. Plant trees.

Yardvaark

Yardvaark

Pretty sure you did not understand the picture-taking directions. For all pictures of any single scene, the camera must stay at one spot and merely pivot to capture the slightly overlapping pictures. That spot will be in line with the center of the scene ... in your case of both near and distant scenes, it will line up with the center of the house, not be off to the far right looking back toward the left side.

For the foundation planting, the camera will be located at where your third picture from top was taken ... in line with the front door (center of the house) ... about halfway between the house and road. All the new pictures are from too far away to see the house foundation area.

For the distant set of pictures, the camera would be lined up with the front door and be out in the street, turning far enough left and right to capture the front corners of the yard.

Also, take the pictures when the lighting is good.

I am going to make a comment about the shutters , that style of shutter in no way works with those pillars BTW. As for landscaping you need to remove those trees at the front of the house and use them somewhere else. Foundation plantings are where I would start you have a huge yard so make sure those beds are deep with layered plantings.A simpler mailbox post with some lighting would be nice too.I think some nice plantings along the driveway would really help give the home some attention too . It could be just some trees planted near the entry or a whole row of trees along it.This is just one idea

What is the big gravel area between your driveway pad and the street? Is that for you or the neighbors? I think extending your drive out to the road would make sense, and I'd eliminate the gravel area.

If it were me:

Circular drive, stand of medium-tall floral trees in center of drive. Yellow flowers maybe to go all in on the exterior palette?

Around outer edge of driveway, a horseshoe dog run for foster pups to get out the zoomies. Gate ends so they don’t zoom into road. Frame gate ends with native grass.

High wire fencing for dog run or trellis to visually divide into sections every 22 degrees or so with a fragranced vine that climbs the wall — or maybe loofah if you can bc it’s fun to grow your own exfoliating sponges!

A huge patch of pollinator wildflowers to soften the sides. Milkweed might look pretty with your current earth tone exterior?

Can you grow delphinium, salvia or Mexican petunia? You might like some blue or purple close to the house!

this has more to do w/house design. all of these are almost identical houses to yours. some have had the porch area redone, others have been painted (are you in love w/that brick? If not, try a natural limewash-Romabio)

both of these white brick homes have nice black windows and no shutters

metal roof, whit brick, wood posts

Someone mentioned DigDoug. This is his drawing of another house like yours.

I think you'd find a lot of benefit from a one-hour consultation with an interior designer who can give you ideas about the exterior of the house itself.

I've found rolled fencing to be a quick and easy fix for chain link fence. You zip tie it to the fence. It comes in bamboo, reed, and willow.

I doubt those Alberta spruce will transplant well. It's considered to be more of a shrub than a tree so I doubt it will hurt the house. If you are doing it yourself then you may think you have nothing to lose and you can try transplanting. Generally the larger and older the plant the less likely it is to survive. Watering is the key to transplant survival and the first 10 days are critical unless you try it in the winter. Winter watering is different. I would take them all out or leave one or two. If you left two I would keep one on each end.

Now, for the design style. I strongly believe this should be a reflection of you. You may like to use mostly natives given what you've stated. You can add a pollinator garden or a conservation garden. You can make raised beds and create veggie beds that are pretty and functional. If budget is a concern, creating a pea gravel circle, with metal edging and placing the firepit in the middle with Adirondack chairs around. This will be cost-effective, DIY, create a distinction from the rest of the yard and be fireproof is any embers or such escape.

Here are some different kinds of ideas. Using objects that mean something to you. These pots were no longer usable, but they were important to the client so we used them in a different way. I love using boulders in the landscape. You could incorporate old oars, canoes, driftwood, etc into your lake house landscape.

Can't wait to hear what you decide.

Raised veggie beds with a conservation garden in the background.

Were it mine, I'd take those shrub/tree things first. I know a lot of people like them, I don't care for them and they seem fussy. But--we prefer to plant everything we can for pollinators, we like color, and we like to see how things evolve at our place.

Something else I would suggest-take a drive and look at other people's landscaping. The whole outside, really. Decks/patios, walkways, all of it. Stop and knock on someone's door and ask about theirs. We have people stop *all* *the* *time* to ask about ours and see the back yard, and we enjoy that. People can tell you what they've had luck w/as far as planting-just b/c it's your zone doesn't guarantee it's going to like your specific area, and maybe something you like is more work than you want, or you find out something you thought was a pain to take care of really isn't.

Do be aware that anything involving extensive planting of herbaceous (non woody) plants is liable to include an amount or type of upkeep that is not required with most trees and shrubs (that are not being formally sheared). Even a supposedly carefree and casual meadow planting will have to be managed in such a way that grasses do not outcompete and gradually eliminate most or all of the flowers. This is true in any location where site conditions do not favor the persistence of the flowers, have an adequately restraining effect on grasses.