landscaping!

I would go with slate/gray/charcoal roof.

Are you planning on restoring the front (enclosed) porch to its original open appearance? That would certainly add to your home’s appearance.

One of the first things that I would do is convert the front porch back to a porch. Right now it looks like a commercial space.

Too much concrete and black top. Can you eliminate the drive on the right and the drive in front of the house?

Congrats on the new home. Nice yard. Great potential.

Definitely lose the sad eyed awnings. https://old.reddit.com/r/Pareidolia/

Is the siding stucco? Have you considered white with black trim for your exterior colors and medium mixed shades of gray shingles?

Entirely fill that back left corner in the empty right left corner (shown in your last pic) with treated board stained (or CWF protected) deck. You might well be able to add an upper deck (w/ fire escape ladder) down to the larger lower deck. If you dig down to level the ground beneath that (future) back deck, you could even add an outdoor tool/toy storage shed beneath it and stalls for your trash cans out of sight or make the flat roof of such a storage building and your deck the same thing.

Agree you should restore the front porch -- and enhance it..

Before you replace the roofing, budget permitting, of course, create a deep front porch and wrap it around the single story left side with an interesting feature on the left front corner. In addition to your front steps on the lower right front side, you could have steps on the left side aimed toward the back yard and a side/back yard patio hidden from the road by a "green wall" of shrubs that keep their leaves year round. (Would aucuba bushes grow in your planting zone?)

When I saw your pic of your new home, I thought of this wrap around front porch:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/56787645275019404/

Is the siding stucco? Have you considered white with black trim for your exterior colors and medium mixed shades of gray shingles?

As to landscaping, get your lawn as healthy as possible for now and then get the exterior changes you want to the house done before starting on the landscaping.

You could entirely fill that empty back left corner shown in your last pic with treated board stained (or CWF protected) deck. You might well be able to add an upper deck (usable as a fire escape) down to the larger lower deck. Alternately,

If you dig down to level the ground (beneath that (future) back deck) in that back left corner, you could add a flat roofed storage building there, making the flat roof of such a storage building your back deck. That will help you be able to store your yard tools needed for landscaping and outdoor toys and even keep your trash can out of sight until collection day.

Do you have a driveway on one side of your home and a sidewalk on the other? If you don't have much side yard, you'll want to focus on the back for indoor/outdoor living and make it easily accessible.

Measure your yard and house and paved areas and draw what you have, to scale, on graph paper and post that when you're ready to begin landscaping.

Also make it known if you're going to restore/enhance the front porch. That will affect landscaping, too.

What direction does the front of your home face -- north or south or east or west?

In the last pic of the back of the house, is that right back side a two story part of the home or just a single story with the siding also covering over the foundation?

What rooms are where -- do those steep wood back steps lead to a kitchen or dining or den?

Sorry to say, first thing I'd do is attempt to restore the front of the house to it's original appearance.

What is the width of your yard at the road and will local code permit you to have an arc shaped front drive with two access points at the road? If so, you might could keep part of the driveway beside the house as a parking space but put a fence with gate over the rest of the driveway more toward the back yard and upgrade it to a patio space. If you do that ...

Is the property boundary in the middle of the strip of grass to the right of the driveway?

Do you know your neighbors? Would they object to your planting a green fence alongside the new patio part of your driveway?

Great idea there is a side walk in front of the home which merges with my front parking

Is the downstairs in the back left a garage? Difficult to tell on the pic from my screen.

Is the driveway on the right not your driveway?.

We have two drive ways. One leads to a newly built drive in double car garage and the other side of the home has room for 2-3 cars. Front is a drive through area or parking

It was once a business

The house is unfortunately at a train crossing so it’s not pleasant to sit outside in the front of the house. They are Loud.

I absolutely love the front side yard. Large tree that’s blooming pink right now. After the serious repairs I’d love to install a privacy fence (stucco or brick with black iron and automatic opener) the side yard rocks!

Rather not restore the porch as it’s too noisy! That train conductor blows every time as it’s a crossing point with enough traffic. No fun for me to sit out front. I’m putting a deck off the back of the house and a side entry on the right side with a 6x12 sitting area.

Would you be able to do something similar to this for the front of your driveway and keep enough pavement to make it one lane wide as well as keeping just enough of that part of the driveway beside the "porch" to use it as a turn around/parking space -- fencing off the rest behind the fence for your patio.

https://www.sarasotagolftogulf.com/listing/A4426282/8380-catamaran-circle-lakewood-ranch-fl-34202/

You could take a concrete saw to the excess concrete in your front yard so you could actually have a front yard. Pay attention to the width you'd need, including in the curve and to get to the parking/turn around spot by the porch. Take some measurements and chalk off what you'd want to cut away and what you'd want keep. Then you'll know what front yard you'll have for landscaping for curb appeal.

I like the white/creme colors and dark gutters

Like the white for your exterior siding, too. If decide on a color closer to true white than cream, consider trimming it in a really deep dark blue and then consider a cobalt blue front door.

Even if you don't like the idea of sitting out on the porch and are reluctant to restore the porch for that reason, restoring the porch -- or at least part of it -- would definitely improve curb appeal and provide shelter for entry/exit -- especially for guests or when you're carrying groceries. You might consider restoring just the right half of it and moving your entry door back to the original wall.

If you build a deck (any size) on that back left corner, it could have steps/boardwalk leading to the side patio and gate to the parking slot by the front "porch".

As another plus, restoring the right half or so of the front porch would end the sad -- really sad -- face look of the front by moving/removing the eye and nose and that furrowed brow over the nose/door..

(https://old.reddit.com/r/Pareidolia/).

For curb appeal, you need to restore the porch. Consult an architect, maybe you could put large windows across the front. Do the trains pass all day? If it's only occasionally, I'd still open the porch and have lots of hanging plants.

You have trees on both sides. When you're landscaping around a tree to create a flat patio area, be careful NOT to put dirt against the trunk of the tree to raise the ground beside it -- doing so will eventually kill the tree. It may take a half dozen years or so but it will rot the side eventually. Been there done that at least twice before I knew.

If you restore the porch, the house is going to look so much better. You can add arborvitae out in the yard a bit to help buffer the sound.

If you do decide to restore the right side of your front porch, let the change point in the roof of the structure behind the enclosed porch be your guide as to where the porch you restore begins

Do alter the roof of the right side of the porch as you restore it. You can leave the current framing intact but remove the gutter from the two roofs (from between the porch and the structure behind it). Remove the roofing from the right part of the porch. Then add framing -- rafters -- over the existing porch roof to connect it to and as an uninterrupted part of the roof behind the restored porch.

Making your house and porch roof on the right side one uninterrupted roof line will make the right side of the roof a bit higher than the left side; however,

If you remove the roofing over the room on the left side of the house, then add additional framing -- rafters) to the left side of the (enclosed) "porch" at the same slope as you did for the right side of the (restored) porch, your roof for the room on the left side of the house will fit just beneath the roof behind it so you'd not need gutter between the two roofs. Instead, your roof over that front left room would end literally beneath the vertical fascia of the roof behind it. Do remove and replace that fascia as you remove the gutter before redoing the roof over the left front room of the house.

If you restore the right side of the front porch, you can leave in place and add to the concrete steps you have even if part of them are left of where you begin the restore of the right side of the porch.

Since there are no crawlspace vents between the steps and the right side of the house, you can expand your concrete steps all across the right front side of the house and even wrap the step(s) around the right side of the porch -- but you need less steps on the right side than the left so there is a better way.

Put a porch railing across most of the front of the porch and create steps near the right front corner of the building. If your (restored) right porch is six feet deep, and if you need a single step on that right side of the porch, you could wrap the step (s) around the right front corner all the way along the right side where your parking space will be and at least that far across the right side of the front of the ( restored) right side front porch.

https://www.finehomebuilding.com/project-guides/decks/building-box-style-stairs

https://www.southernliving.com/home/before-after/corner-lot-yard-design

If you add new steps to your (restored) right front porch, you could leave the existing concrete steps in place -- at least temporarily -- as a plant stand for rectangle flower containers ... at least until you decide if you want to enhance and keep them as a display area or remove them.

When you remove the hand rails from the concrete steps, keep and reuse them for a trellis for your patio.

You might consider planting Hosta or Liriope all along the left side of the concrete steps in the green space by the foundation.

If you decide to plant shrubs to form a hedge, you could let those bushes that are planted lower on the slope grow taller than those planted higher on the slope and keep the tops trimmed level.

Would plant Hosta or Liriope or some other low growing plant left of the concrete steps in the front -- something that would cover much of the foundation and provide some blooms.

On the left side, you could hide the foundation by planting bushes to create a hedge that you could eventually trim so their tops are all level rather than trim them to the same height. You could have as your objective trimming them just above foundation level.

I would agree with restoring the front porch and removing all the concrete in front. I lived on a very busy 4 lane road for 26 years and replaced my double pane windows with triple pane. It made all the difference in the world as far as keeping out road noise.

I would use a gray roof-not black but leaning towards charcoal with white paint and dark trim. This house has the potential to be stunning again.

Signed off on the roof now choosing a front door.

The lovely side yard. Wish it wasn’t in front of the train tracks💕

This is an addition which is a bonus room off the back connecting with the laundry room off the kitchen

Here are in interior photos before renovation. The home is renovated on the first floor.

1. enclosed area on the front is a receiving room. It has a boxer Steinway from the 1800’s
2. front room has two sets of doors- one french on the left side and the original door on the right.

https://www.redfin.com/GA/Douglasville/6905-W-Strickland-St-30134/home/24388755

This is the link for all pictures for the home.

I would not put an ornate Victorian style door on your house. Considering your closeness to the train I think a solid door with no glass might be best.

Yes we replace damaged fascia & softfit and install new gutters all around.

Regarding removing roof and building deck are we speaking of front or back? Is there a picture that you can Share of a similar design.

I agree with staying away from the Victorian and modern doors. Instead of the more common 6 panel, what do you think of a simple two panel?

Very nice

While it will shrink your side yard, you might consider planting a couple of rows of cedar trees or other evergreen trees or shrubs )that keep their leaves year round) to create a "green fence" between the railroad track and your home. Not sure it would help with the sound but it certainly wouldn't hurt. After you plant the first row, plant the second row with those trees/shrubs blocking the view of any space between that first row.

If you're trying to block sound, you don't want much glass in or around your front entry door, unless it is for a storm door or unless, perhaps, you're creating a second inner door.