I think we need to start with a very wide, panoramic view taken from the street, while you hold the camera in the vertical format so we can get the trees effect. Stand at the curb, in line with front door (like first pic.) Take a full 180* pan from left to right, where a piece of the street shows in the first and last picture. Take all pictures from the exact same spot while you pivot the camera. (If you move locations, they cannot be put back together.)

thanks! I thought about removing the shutters but wouldn't it look too plain? What would I do instead? I added a panoramic view of the house, which includes the trees in front.

One paint scheme that results in a ho-hum, drab appearance is when body color and trim are the same. Many government managed wood buildings -- like Army barracks would be painted like this because they buy the paint in million-gallon cans. Here, it is all white -- with the only contrasting feature being the shutters. (Yes, it will look even plainer if you remove the shutters! There is a growing group of shutter purists that advocate for only authentic style shutters that look literally functional. I reject this notion and accept that shutters, even if too narrow to be actually functional, still serve as trim, which adds some interest. You can pick if you want to be a purist, or if you think that some visual interest detail is better than no visual interest detail.) If you were to paint the house a medium tone and keep the trim white, you would automatically have a more interesting looking house.(Search Google images for "houses with white trim" and you'll see how the contrasting trim sharpens the appearance. Inadvertently, you'll see all manner of medium body tones, some of which may appeal to you.)

Regarding the front yard (the panoramic helps) it looks like you'd be best off to create large islands in which the trees are grouped and in which groundcover is grown. Reserve grass only for the areas which get sufficient light that grass can be grown well.

It would be good to add your location & zone on your profile page, so people would have an idea of things that would work for your location. (The pan is taken from way off center. If you want visual feedback, you'd need to provide one taken from where the camera is centered with the view.)

The foundation planting would require a complete different set of photographic information -- a pan where the camera is about 25' - 30' from straight out the front door.

I liked the house better before you started working on it. I liked the red door and the two black garage doors seem sinister.

What do you want from a garden? How much time do you have to spend caring for it?

I like the grove of trees in front. I can see the house adequately.

I see you have a bed running along the walk to the door. I would replace that with lawn.

I agree the white garage and bold red door were lovely!

I also quite like all the trees

Thanks all for your input! I understand why some liked the red door and white garage better. However, the garage was rusted over and I had to cover that and thought the black would add a nice contrast and I personally didn't want a red door. Any ideas of a color other than red for the door? As far as painting the house another color with white trim, that would look beautiful but unfortunately is not in the budget right now. I would love any other ideas that are budget friendly! As far as landscaping, I would prefer something low maintenance, such as bushes and perrenials. I've started with the boxwoods and am trying to figure out the rest. I like the idea of creating large islands in lieu of grass, since the trees are not conducive to grass. A fountain is a great idea too!

A fountain would be great.

For low maintenance, maybe rock/stone. Pots, also.

I still think a dark wood for garage door would be nice. This was done with a gel stain.

And another option, in lieu of shutters, darker trim.

Contrast attracts the eye. So now the first thing I notice is the garage (black on white). White on white does not attract the eye, so in the before picture viewers notice the house first