It's odd and not good looking to have the trees growing from the bottom of the ditch, especially when there is a large tree right behind that they are growing up into. I'd consider removing them to make room for better things. In seeing the "end goal" inspiration rendering, I have to think that an objective is to smother the house with plantings, showing as little of it as possible. I understand an objective to have privacy from the street. But the planting example will barely let you see your house once you're in the front yard. Looks like it could be a lot of trimming, too. Be sure you want those things before you create them. Another possible trouble spot is the use of pyramidal evergreens. They look all nice and skinny and tidy in the rendering, but in real life some of them can develop tremendous spreads. When they start running over the driveway and house, there is usually no alternative but to limb them up into tree forms. Goodbye privacy! Be sure to use varieties that have a confined spread. Bouncing back to the trees in the ditch ... keep in mind that new plantings require some light in order to grow well. It's going to be hard to create plantings that wrap the front of the lawn and have them grow well under dense shade of those trees. Keep in mind that it's not really possible to give much specific direction for a complex planting in an online forum. Usually, here, people give ideas of a more general nature. Sometimes I give schematic ideas about fairly simple, basic landscape organization (which your pictures here are not conducive to.) I'm puzzled about your comment on hardscape. Are you saying it's completely finished? As I look at the picture and see a future mud hole and patch of gravel being used as a walkway, I have to think that you're going to do something to make it more livable. Even if that something is not going to happen for some time, it's still part of the planning (design) process and the planting would be subordinate to whatever it is you do. Also, the slab is exposed so it's calling for some kind of attention. One plans even if the work will be put off for years since it's important to know what's eventually coming.

@Yardvaark @decoenthusiaste Thank you for your inputs. Will surely think about the palm tree placement. Also, my bad, I should have specified earlier that the door in the picture is not the front door, but the door to the spare room on the 1st floor. The front door is the one with the grey tiles & 2 windows beside it. Here are a couple of better pictures (Photo 1- brown door on extreme right) Photo-2 Front Door No HOA so we are sorted on that front. Any specific kind of pavers you would recommend for the space keeping in mind that we don't have a very big budget yet want to add value & make the space usable. Also, the yard has an automatic slope- what would we need to consider on that front while hardscaping? Also, any views on artificial turf?

I have no idea without pics of your space and the materials and what ech space is being used for. I happen to think yards are kind of like your house and the fewer materials used for decking or patios the better.

Assuming you can’t change your door to face forward, you could remove the stone and then add a porch that extends to the right side of the house to the driveway. Widening and curving the walkway up to the porch adds interest and softens the yard- you could try finding pavers or stones that match the gray stones on the outside of the house/the roof to tie the landscape together. You could also try a wider straight path lined with shrubbery like this one or try planting grass around the pavers for a more modern look like this one.