" Nothing should be planted within 6-9 feet of a house foundation." " The tree is too close to the house. It blocks the windows and may be damaging your foundation" I'm not sure where these notions come from - maybe it's just a regional viewpoint - but I think they can be taken with a large grain of salt !! There are no hard and fast rules for this.....just common sense. If your foundation is structurally sound - no cracking, crumbling or settling - then you can plant whatever you want next to it. Plant roots do not damage foundations.....they can only take advantage of those that are compromised already. Ideally, trees close to a structure should be sited so they are at least no closer than one half the distance of the mature canopy spread. And that is more for the tree's benefit than it is for the structure. Smaller shrubs can be planted as close as one likes, provided they too have a enough room to grow without obstruction and are accessible for maintenance to both them and the house. As to the 'tree' in question, it is too far away to be able to determine the type, but based on the maturity of the other plantings, we could assume that it has been there for a while so not overly fast growing. And the perspective of the photo is misleading....it may actually be sited further from the side of the house than it looks. People plant trees in front of windows all the time - they can be a visual privacy screen as well as offering some direct exterior shading - the window it is covering looks like it would bake in the high degree of sunlight showing in that photo. The point of my comments is that for the most part, these are very pesonal landscaping choices, not anything that is dictated by any hard and fast 'rules' either design-wise or horticuturally. To the OP: live in your new house for a few months, see how the landscape affects the interior and make your plans to remove or improve as YOU see fit.

It's common for homeowners to do DIY projects, but to sometimes cut corners to the point where it is obvious to everyone who sees the project. While the homeowners may still love it, and feel proud of their work, it does not necessarily add value to the property. If the work is not good enough, it detracts from the value of the property. If the home were to be sold, for example, a new owner might be buying it in spite of the DIY work, thinking that they will rip it out at first opportunity. It is so much better to do quality work in the first place, and then it adds value to the property, or at least, doesn't harm it. Your pictures do not tell me exactly what kind of construction the existing work is. If your proposed work is more than a temporary fix, it should be the same quality level as what exists now. I've tweaked the picture a little better to show how the existing bed could relate to a altered paving. I like the bed shape and size and think it fits the space. I wouldn't enlarge it as the preferred method of getting rid of grass. I would use a grass substitute, which I mentioned earlier, as the way to reduce the size of grass. Your lawn is small so it could be one of those solutions entirely ... with no grass at all. It could be groundcover, gravel, or artificial grass. The picture has been tweaked a little.

I forgot to mention that it is part sun. The house faces southeast I think (sun rises in front of the house but off to the left of center a bit...I am not great at figuring out directions but I that makes it southeast). It is in Montana. I know all these plants grow well here because they are all over my neighborhood in people's landscaping. I do not want evergreens and ground cover. I want something pretty. I don't mind doing some work to maintain it, I just don't want to have to spend hours each week maintaining it.

@Design Girl I'm so glad you posted a picture of your lot from a distance. I could be wrong, but your slope looks like it could use some help with not washing away in all the rainfall we get here in the Mid-Atlantic. I was recently visiting an historic home from Jefferson's time and was impressed by the way the old trees held the soil in place. Where a tree died and was not replaced, the soil washed away and was now threatening the foundation of this old home. So... I can't help but suggest looking for a plan that put a mix of big native trees off to your left as you face your home from the street, and anywhere else you have such a slope. Will that block your beautiful view? If so, an alternative is a lot of time-tested shrubs with good spreading root systems. With slopes like those, you do not want to be dealing with just herbaceous flowers or even just a lawn.  Also, I love redbud too. Just realize they are relatively short lived. But maybe this is one tree worth replanting. Plant one every couple of years and you will always have one or two in your yard. Basically, you are planning for them to die off.