My first thought on reading your question was that you'd precluded the one thing I immediately thought of, which was to remove the camellia near the door. It unfortunately does not appear to be the dying plant you have your eye on. So I had to think about this one a bit. This forum is a little different from Home Dec, and some of the differences cause us to move a little slower! Obviously the front of your house had the same effect on me as on Rhodium. I've included a link to a question recently posted here with similar problems although the house style is very different. You may be able to appreciate the effect of a blocking plant and a dark door if you see something similar on someone else's house. You may still decide not to change it, of course! The palm by the driveway gives a little character in what seems to be a cookie cutter neighbourhood, so more power to you for keeping it. Given that you don't have much time, the prime part of the look you're after - manicured - may be best achievable just by pruning those boxwoods. But for the colour objective, you either have the wrong plants in, or not enough plants. To add plants you pretty much have to add beds, which means adding work. You see again how your parameters have somewhat precluded helping you get what you want :-) So I'm going to go around your parameters to make suggestions, and let you sort out which ones you do want to flex on if any. I would take out the camellia and put your decorative pot under your house number, not in the doorway. I would also paint the front door a brighter colour. Then I'd use the area next to the front door for your colour bed; it's small, but I think you'd enjoy it coming and going. Prune the boxwoods as well as the bushes to the left which are getting a bit shapeless, and maybe replace those grassy things in front of them with annuals or perennials that you like. Light coloured hostas would work in my zone and provide longer term interest than plants that have only flower interest. If you really want more planting beds, I would add them out further in the yard, something like an island bed out toward the left corner. KarinL Here is a link that might be useful: wanting a welcoming entry

..what roarah says. but will be more than that. I'm 99% sure your house contains asbestos..so take cost of professional abatement into account everytime you're thinking of disturbing these walls. check first of course, maybe it doesn't, maybe it doesn't have it everywhere(like ours did..walls, floors, HVAC, you name it) but I'd be very very surprised invite a GC (several, really) when you close..let them walk the place, give you quotes on different scenarios for different scopes of your project. Decide what you can afford to do (and know that it will still most likely turn out to be more expensive because you'll find additional things, something will come as unexpected, etcetera. Most likely will also take longer. Than you think) Then enlist somebody that can design. Or you don't have to-we didn't-but just know it's easier that way. The more pros you have by you(the ones you can trust) the better. During such major reno it ll be very hard or maybe impossible to live in the house. I trust you have somewhere to live meanwhile? It'd be studs. As for it being small, ours wasn't also very big(under 1700..we did added a bit so now it's underv 1900 sq f) ..still took us 27 months(I think..) since purchase to moving in. We didn't count the money we sank into it as not to oversadden ourselves..:) and we still have the backyard to take care of (since as we added, they had to dig foundation and all), hardscaping etc. But it wasn't 100 K. It wasn't 200 K either. Maybe cheaper in Florida, I don't know. (we're in CA). Not sure as you have your own requirements, hurricane windows, and other stuff I don't know about. But everything you put in new-has to be up to the current code. At least here Having said that-the right for you and your family location trumps so many other things. Which is why we got into our remodel as well. And it's for sure anything but boring. But we were a bit naive as per costs and time, since I found this forum too late in the game..:) Be prepared, find good pros..will help with both expectations and execution living up to these expectations. If you want collective thinking beforehand, about design aspects-post plans. There are some very talented people here. Not me-I'm pretty bad and slow in reading plans and suggesting layouts. But many here are extremely talented and helpful in their suggestions.

I think you have some good ideas. When you pop off the corbels you may be able to touch up with spackle and paint. If the gap is too wide to fill with spackle you can use a small trim piece to fill it. I would do the same thing with the fireplace surround. Just pop it off and see what you have to work with. Installing a single mantlepiece is not that complicated. I would take off the frou-frou over the top of the dining room entry as well. And paint your vent the same color as the wall color so it will recede. Are you painting the room gray? Do you plan on changing the carpet as well? On my monitor, the cool paint and the warm carpet aren't playing well together.

Beverly – I hear you and respect your opinion. That is the long term goal but reupholstering the chairs was an easier fix and believe me the previous fabric needed to be replaced….it was a good first step. Hoping to stain paint both pieces eventually but I have just too many projects going on at the moment.