Hey, I think the idea of replacing the Japanese Maple with an Eastern Redbud is a good one. The fact that there are few of these in your area is always a good sign that they will do well in your home. With the tree being a flowering ornamental tree will also give your garden a lively dynamic through the seasons Here is a link that might be useful: front yard landscaping ideas

KY2011, a plan will not be useful to you in creating a landscape design unless it is accurately drawn--with the distances being measured--and your's is not. One 16' distance is shown at more than 3 times the length of an 8' distance and many other measurements are obviously not proportionately correct. You'll can print out a scale that will allow you to measure the distances. (Link below. Use the inch-decimal--sixth one down--to create a plan that is 1" = 10". That will probably work the best. Be sure to disable "shrink to fit" when you print.) The measured plan allows one to fit in objects that are also measured ... to make sure that there is room for everything and that one has placed enough objects (plants) in the plan. It allows one to see that the distances between objects are properly proportioned, for best use of the space being created. This brings up another point that plants shown in your plan are not well or realistically arranged. Some are too close to the house, but too far from one another in the rows. The "bump-out" portion of the building is not shown, so plants march across the front of the house as if it weren't there. This will not work in real life. The Japanese maple could not be placed as you have it. That's a space sized for a Hosta. (The 6' - 8' ht. you've marked is at one stage of its life, but is not its end height.) A nice landscape uses plants to solve problems and create a positive image. It's not just placing one's favorite decorations (plants) wherever they can be squeezed in around the yard. There's no reason a homeowner can't do their own landscape design, if they're willing to use the methods professionals use and also learn a lot about plants. I suggest that you draw an accurate plan and re-post (without plants shown.) Then you could probably get suggestions for better plant placement. You should also be thinking about what architectural shortcomings need enhancing by plants. The size of the house has been mentioned. You've also mentioned the "concrete at the porch," but it's far enough away that it doesn't look any different than the siding, and and I don't get the impression you're anxious to hide that. While its finish at close range might not be the greatest, couldn't some paint take care of it?. Why not start with that and see if you detest it as much? One person mentioned hiding the bottom of the stone facade. (A vine on a custom trellis or a clipped hedge could take care of it with the least bulk.) What about hiding the bottom of the "bump-out." With no architectural devices appearing to support it (same as stone facade) it looks like it defies the laws of nature and so would be better hidden. Street trees help frame the house (as well as provide a protective ceiling at the street) so why not pick ones that can be more readily limbed up in order to create the view below? If you don't do the things that need be done, you'll end up with the typical "builder's landscape" ... something to rip out just as soon as, or shortly after it becomes grown. Here is a link that might be useful: Decimal inch ruler

Michael, without us also seeing what exists at the right side of the house, we might be offering you an incomplete assessment of what the front yard should be. I see a part of a porch-like structure over there, but not enough of it to know what could/should be done with, or around it. It's too bad the spruce isn't far enough away from the house that you could keep it for all time. While it's good for a while longer, I think it's clear that its days are numbered before you are forced into taking some kind of action. Though you've been counseled against limbing it up into the tree form, I think doing exactly that (only when the time came) would be one way for you to gain a few more years use of it. Maybe you could find a local example of a spruce with its canopy raised to the tree form to see if it would work for you... though I wouldn't at all be opposed to your then replacing it with something more workable. It's difficult to see the existing garden in the front yard, but I can see enough of its border to tell that it's working against your overall efforts to enhance the appearance of the house. The stone is so small as to look like bits of gravel (cheap looking) in comparison with the block-like stone of which the foundation is built. It would be better to edge the garden with a mowing strip embedded flush with the grade, or a right-sized stone curb if the grade was raised a few inches (I'm not making this suggestion) or plain and simple, 'Victorian edging,' which is nothing more than ending the sod with a clean cut and slightly recessed garden soil grade. Also, the geometry of the garden layout seems to me to be somewhat of the reverse it should be. I'd change it to funnel vision toward the door, not away from it. It seems to me that building an improved set of steps could make a great difference in connecting the side entrance to the front of the house. It would be better if they were widened (all the way to the foundation) and lengthened (to come forward) and a railing were added. Making those changes would make the steps easier to use and more visible. I'm all for creating the appearance of a carpet runner that sweeps from the steps to the street. You may not be able to tell from my picture, but I'm notching the walk around the corner of the house (allowing for some landscape space) in order to widen it and enhance the effect of it funneling vision toward the entrance. Stamped, colored concrete seems like it would be a practical way to construct such a feature. (Plain--un-stamped--colored concrete with a scored border is a favorite inexpensive, decorative solution.) If it were possible to further cut the curb and widen the flare on the drive, you might consider taking advantage of that opportunity, too. If not, then (though I'm not showing it in the drawing) I'd even consider building a vine covered arbor (at the parkway) over the non-public walk. It could play on your architecture and add a lot of interest that would, in turn, lead to the main house entrance. I think you could attract people toward the house entrance by surrounding the path to it with a floral display. Beginning with a couple of window boxes, you could also have a couple of patches of annuals in the ground and a flowering vine growing at the porch. It should radiate some "energy". I'm sure you could find colors that work with your new paint scheme. A floral display could be accomplished with no more than 20 square feet of annuals (and maybe some perennials) so it would a relatively easy display to maintain, especially if put on a timed drip irrigation system. I noticed when I finished drawing the small tree in the front yard that it doesn't appear to be centered between the windows, so just imagine that's where it's supposed to be... planted enough feet off of the house to have clearance from the wall... even forward enough, if necessary, so as to be centered in the yard. Around it, there is a dome-shaped outline. If you could find a small "tree" who's ultimate size would be between these two configurations, it would work to incorporate some taller greenery into the front yard. What plant? Well, we still don't know where you are so I couldn't say. For myself, I'm attracted to a small tree that has some weeping/pendulous quality about it. If there was such a thing as a dwarf sourwood, a "look" along those lines seems about right. Surely, given the height limit, you'd need to make such a tree from a plant that would normally be considered a large shrub. Old fashioned favorites that get too big for their britches might be a place to look: lilac, some Viburnums, Hydrangea paniculata and things along those lines. See what kinds of large woody shrubs grow in your neighborhood and appeal to you. I'm showing the rest of the lawn divided between grass and groundcover. But it wouldn't be hard to imagine something pretty below the tree--like a bed of hosta--as part of the front yard solution.

Thanks for the feedback. The large green “meatballs” in front of the house are, as I’ve been told, Japanese holly bushes and are original from 1961. ALL of those are going, so we’re starting with a blank slate. The sidewalk does slant downwards - I had it looked at and it was apparently done on purpose (purportedly to direct water away from the house) as there were no other signs of settling. I would love to rip that out and do a path out directly in front of the front door so I can bring shrubs up to the foundation, but I think the cost of doing that outweighs the benefit (I would’ve loved a front porch with a low pitched roof also as well as a steeper pitched roofline, but again - costs outweigh benefits, so hardscape stays as is). I’m big on symmetry, proportion, and balance - which is what pains me about a split level to begin with. If the house had a more traditional fenestration, or even just a less awkward facade, I think I’d have a better picture of how to lay out various heights, sizes, etc. for different shrubs across the front. On the two-story side, I’m thinking I could do large boxwoods on either side and in-between the two windows with endless summer hydrangeas in between those/in front of the windows. In front of that row, I would do a row of smaller boxwoods and in front of that some smaller bushes/plantings to add additional color. I’m stumped as to how to tie the two-story side into the other side to have one cohesive bed all the way across. Also unsure of what to do in front of the front door. As far as the bed along the right side of the yard - I’m pretty much sold on that. My front yard’s grass:planting bed ratio is pretty high, and in my opinion, lacks dimension. I think a row of snowball bushes along the property line with boxwoods and other smaller shrubs dispersed in front of them might look good. Potentially an ornamental tree in there as well if not too busy.