Move the driveway to the side of the house. Asphalt is ugly.

I would remove at least a portion of the driveway in order to allow some landscaping in front of the bedroom area. I cannot tell from the pic if the shutters are appropriate for all of the windows. Adding a portico over the front door would look lovely.

I agree, the best thing you can do, is to move the driveway over to the right of the house. Cars parked practically up to a window is not a great look and the car also blocks the sidewalk to the entrance to the house. This happens a lot when someone turns a garage into part of the house. The house itself looks fine, but, then, the driveway, needs to be moved, so there is lawn all the way to the end of the house, and a few feet beyond.

I also agree with others about the driveway. At least remove four feet along the house where the master bedroom now is and landscape. Add a new front walk.

Take the shutters off. only the two single windows are right for them.

Adding a covered porch to your stoop would add a lot of curb appeal. And, it would give you and guests a protected place to stand while waiting to enter. Make the stoop at least 5 x 5, and give it the same pitch as the main roof.

The bed around your mailbox is too small to be useful for plantings. Let 2-3 evergreen ground cover shrubs surround the mailbox. Check the label for the expected mature size; some can get really wide.

Add the biggest planters you can find and afford in front of the master bedroom windows. Large planters tend to get expensive, but they make the best impact.

I'm not making any specific plant recommendations, as I don't know where you live. Visit your local nursery as they will know what works best in your climate and soils. You can find plants with colorful summer foliage as well as flowers.

Kind of hard to tell from the pic how much of a roof is really there over the old garage... but maybe a covered porch the whole width of the house. Just a step up deck with the railing. Make it look like the remodel is supposed to be there in the first place.

Good morning and thanks everyone for the great ideas. Grapefruit1_ar, the portico is a welcoming addition. Mindshift, the visualizations are perfect!!! Should I extend the overhang to create a covered seating area too? One last question, should we paint the shutters black or remove them? We live in the northeast and the winters are tough. We had a heavy rain storm and one of the shutters blew into our neighbors yard… 😩😀

Great idea, beesneeds!!!

Thank you everyone 😊

Knowing the budget will help with making recommendations. If the budget is under $3K - do landscaping around the house, add a bed of plantings in the bottom right corner, toward the street, that will create other focal points than the direct line of the driveway.

If the budget is $3 - 8K, look at removing the portion of the driveway closest to the house, add some hardscaping to create a nice walkway, perhaps a low wall for planting. Again, to draw the eye away from a direct line. If the budget is over $10K, you have a lot more options but at today's prices, moving that driveway is at least that alone.

If you do something like this, no one will notice the driveway goes to the front of the house.

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I can't really tell what is going on with that larger second story window, but if you have the budget, I would change it out to match the style of all the other windows. Agree with ditching the too-small-to-be-attractive shutters, but I would beef up the trim around the windows in their place. Paint the downspouts to blend in with the siding.

I think a porch across at least the original living space side would be nice, if you don't mind having the windows shaded (I would miss sun coming in my front windows). Because of the poor quality photo, I can't tell what that is in between the overgrown shrub and the front door. In any case those shrubs need to be replaced with a mix of evergreens, perennials, flowering shrubs that won't grow above the windowsills (unless you can keep up with pruning) - probably you can get help with a plan at a local nursery.

Another great idea Tozmo1! It’s settled raee_gw zone 5ba-6a Ohio, the shutters are outta here and we are definitely replacing the shrubs. It’s probably been there since the 70’s….

Thank you everyone

Oh, the budget is over $10k…