Identify how you want to use the yard. Some examples for a front yard include: somewhere to put stuff you are loading/unloading from car, a meet-and-greet, a place for the kids to bounce balls while you can see them/are washing the car. A place to watch your plants growing. I'd caution you against rebelling against grass for the sake of rebelling against grass. Think of it as negative, open space that happens to be green, and you can always change it in your head to decking or paving/flagstone. The beauty of being a homeowner/DIYer is that you don't always need to have the master plan finished in your head in order to get started. You sound sure of a number of things. Do those. Or at least draw them out. Sometimes step two is more clear from after step one. Experienced people have implemented enough plans to be able to see step 7 from before step 1, but DIYers may need to take it one step at a time. One way to design is to mock up in person. Say, you want to do a low barrier and a courtyard. OK. Put a row or garbage cans where you think the hedge could be, and drag some chairs into the area and sit there. How does it feel? What's missing? Should the hedge move? Do you need shade? Etc. You might have analysis paralysis too. Taking the first step, even if you just go out and plant a tree where you want some shade, can help get you past that too. You can always move it for a year or two if you got the placement wrong. KarinL

Great! If the roof is brown, you have a world of colors to choose from. In that case, I would chose a color for the trim and then paint the garage door that same color. The house door can then be another color to bring attention and help it stand out. Do you want to paint your trim every several years, or are you wanting to cover the trim with vinyl and aluminum? That is the first question you have to decide. The second choice greatly narrows your color choices. If you decide on paint, Chose a color family (like dark taupes or bronzes or ivory or hunter greens or turquoise...) and get paint samples at the local paint stores and paint some poster boards. You just live with them next to the house and roof on non-rainy days and see what you like. I once painted stripes of color on the wood of a house we were going to side. Neighbors walking by were asked to vote! Are you gardeners? Are you interested in taking care of annual flowers (water once or twice a day, fertilize occasionally, keep weed-free), or learning about perennials or bulbs? If you want to learn, you can actually make a garden bed that always has either a bulb or perennial in bloom. Or, you could go low-maintenance with shrubs and mulch. Again, your zone and your house's orientation (NSEW) is needed for anyone to give you advice on plants. I am with those who think that your bushes are way too old and overgrown. Maybe you can keep one or two that are green all the way to the bottom and don't look all shaved down. Use those as a backdrop and go from there. Are you interested in putting in any hardscape? If the window next to the door does not come down too low, it might look nice to have a bench there. Is there a concrete slab area behind the bushes there? if yes, you can use containers to add colorful annuals. If you want to garden, you can make garden beds in front of the front door area. Little fences or a raised bed made with landscaping stone are all options. Over where the room comes out further than the porch, there is a nice bush near the corner that may be in good enough shape to keep. Not the one by the downspout, the one in the front. (I would remove all of the bushes to the left of that one.) If there is a matching bush in good condition on the other side of that room, I might leave them both, but remove the ones in the middle, so the other two have room. You might be able to put a trellis under the window and train a flowering vine to spread side-to-side and fill some of that space on the wall. A few low plants around the tall bushes and in front of the vine, and you are done in that area. With a taupe roof and creamy brick, you have a pallatte limited only by your wallet, skills, and imagination!

Molly, landscaping is on the agenda - and yes, absolutely COLOR! Thank you! Pool is next, then kitchen. I'm working in the plants between projects. We've recently taken quite a few giant Sagos out since they've grown too big. I want something for between the windows that will be special. Focal point for sure. It needs to be big enough - but slow growing so it doesn't grow above the roofline. I want it's foilage to fill the space between the windows. Will prob hire a landscape architect.

I have lighter brick (pink) with red siding and some areas of red decorative vertical metal siding with cream trim. One of my many projects (renovating stem to stern) is painting the red metal to match the siding and along with power washing everything, repainting trim and treating everything with once and done (keeps mildew from growing). Already painted the garage door, but don't have a current picture.