hey liz.. royal oak eh?? [from your members page] .. grew up in livonia... and bought my first house there ... first.. refer to the link .... for a suggestion as how to proceed ... linds ... did it right.. by catching us.. when we were bored out of our minds.. prior to the weather breaking ... note the pix we requested.. as well as having her define what her goals were ... and they did not end up being what she started with ... and its your use of common terms.. that is confusing you .. and us.. as to where to go with this ... e.g... evergreens... well.. that covers a wide range of things ... i THINK you are talking about conifers ... if you are.. that is where linds started .... and that is usually the backbones of the front of ones house ... but there are many other plants that are .. in essence.. evergreen ... so you need to define what you are talking about ... and technically.. conifers are NOT shrubs.. though i also called them such for decades .... but it is not helpful in defining where we want to go .... BTW .. your link doesnt work.. and that pic is not going to be helpful to anyone defining a plan ... and take a walk some evening.. and snap a pic or two.. of what other peeps have done with the front of their houses.. to help you define what you like.. and give us some guidance as to where you want to go ... you are spot on with the foundation ... when i had my first house in livonia.. i learned that 3 feet AT THE FOUNDATION .. should be left blank ... so i could get a ladder in there.. to do gutters.. paint.. xmas lights.. window washing.. etc ... and if you agree with that.. then you should 'see' that your bed is horribly out of configuration .... lol .. i just glanced up.. and i see the neighbor still has the ugly old improperly planted conifer .... and the root of your problem might be this forum.. but you never know ...... the conifer forum is much more active.. than the shrub forum.. and not every one of the peeps there.. come thru here ... so if this post dwindles.. try over there ... my best suggestion ... is to define and build some great beds.. for planting in fall .. the next proper season for planting conifers .. and trees.. as i doubt you can properly build those beds in time ... you simply should not plant such.. in the heat of summer ... but .... once you define the beds.. and add some of your annuals.. and perennials.. then we can get the backbones in place in fall ... of my 600 conifers.. about half came in the mail ... and that is how you get truly unique things.. rather than JUST what the bigboxstore offers ... well.. that and a budget.. lol .. of course .. as compared to me in adrian mi ... you have some great large upscale nurseries in the area including bordines .. english gardens.. etc ... so.. get us some better pix.. that perhaps we can photoshop ... and lets try to find some words that explain where you want to go .. oh.. i would expand that bed to about 10 feet from the house.. which would make it only 7 feet deep to work with .. it would NOT be straight across.. and we would have to figure out how to deal with what i will guess is an arcing walkway .... [any chance you want to replace that with brick as a part of the process] ... and i would insure.. that some part of the plants introduce a vertical element.. as compared to your 1950's metro detroit ranch ... good luck ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

Thank you. We lived there just over 20 years before building/moving to our new home 7 years ago, which happens to be in a horse community. Ours uses the 4 board Kentucky fence in a dark stain. I'm not sure what you mean by "new surface under the windows" unless you are talking about the different material used on the addition. The house was antique brick, so it couldn't be matched. The shutters are all original to the house (1956) and were not changed. But we did add shutters to both ends and the back. Do you have any fencing with posts or columns at the street/driveway? What zone do you live in? Do you have a well to water? Would you like to get rid of some of the front grass and have islands of trees? Depending on your zone.

This brings back memories as I lived in the North Dallas area in the 60s. Your trees are wonderful. I would focus on making significant changes to the landscaping to update the exterior of your home. I do think getting a more MCM front door and painting it an accent color—teal or a bright green would be interesting and draw attention to it. Get rid of the wrought iron gate and put in one with cleaner lines. Get a new porch light in a rectangular shape. If you search this site for MCM exterior I’m sure you will find examples that appeal to your taste. Definitely get rid of the shutters! If the pole light in the yard isn’t functional and you don’t need it, I would remove it. Get rid of the ground cover under the large tree on the right side of the house. All of the landscaping is so mature it would be best to start over with a fresh design plan. You can work with one of the local nurseries to design and install new plantings. I think re-landscaping like some of the pictures Beth H shared would make a huge statement — just decide if you like the more structured looks or curving beds since either one would look fine with the house.

The strong lines on your house are fascinating to me, including the solar panels. First thing I would do is get rid of all the plants at the foundation. What I would really want to do is replace all the windows with solid panes, replace the garage to something modern (dark, with a big X on it?, and framed in steel-looking?), and take away the porch posts and replace then with solid strong lines, and remove the railings entirely. Grass is actually low maintenence, so if you are not ripping out the concrete just improving it could work. I’m not sure I’d plant much of anything. I don’t know what color I would paint the house. Might depend on the neighborhood.