I did lots of thinking on this and came up with this non-constructive thought. If you were to want to sell you home, you would probably ask some real estate agents for proposals (price, their way of marketing, commission, etc.). Once you determined which one you want to represent you and home, the agent will take some pictures as part of the marketing (mostly online anymore). The agent is looking out for you, but also seeking the sale. If the agent believes that something is not right with the photo taken, then you would have a tendency to listen. A real estate agent is not an artist, nor a landscape person, but a good one will have seen lots of homes and knows what works and what doesn't. Stand at the curb. Take a picture, walk to the left and right several paces and take more pictures. Walk up the drive a bit and take pictures, not just of the house, but the view from the house. What would you want to do if you were thinking about buying your home? Now for some other comments: You have many horizontal lines on the actual house. The windows and doors are rectangle. All of that is very typical. Your yard counters that look a bit, but it also moves the eye in an awkward manner. You need to negate that. In your first photo, it appears that the house is leaning because of all that. I concur on getting rid of all that grows between the current walkway and the house. I concur that you ought to not have a straight line walk to replace it. My suggestion to balance the overall look would be to create a small berm on the left side, about 20' out from the house. Nothing large, but something that would break up that falling away appearance. In the first photo, there is lots of shade coming from the left side, I'll assume that there are some tall trees there. I'm a big promoter of color in the front yard; something that complements the colors of the house. Some might think it trite, but a burning bush on the berm would look good as the leaves are changing color this time of year. Those can be pruned to shape or let it go. I would also include blooming perennials that show different colors throughout the year. Poppies might work, as might some Veronica. There are many, many options for that kind of thing. Jim

You have a nice wide path to the door. My first reaction was to think of what not to do. I have often seen in gardens like this a barricade of plants hiding access to the stairs. Like below. I have a personal dislike for this type of landscaping. Do you like gardening and how much time do you want to spend maintaining it? I see shade from what I presume is a tree. Could you post a photo that shows the tree? What is the tree off the left corner? As to the house, it is very nice and does not need to change. If you want to try something different you could paint the door a color and paint the garage doors a khaki or beige to make them less prominent.

if there was a 'love' button i'd click it for ryan oliveiri's post. if ever there is a single miraculous difference in homes in this area (i'm in arlington, right next door to cambridge) its between wood/fiber cement and vinyl/ aluminum siding. i was just reading how housing prices doubled in cambridge between 07/08 and now. and shedding vinyl or aluminum siding is whats making more neighborhoods look great. (oh, and if you are selling, no need to do a thing. put up a listing and stand back from the hordes)

Missing still are large chunks of the view that are important to the yard. You are not capturing the problem with steps in the photos. (They look like some kind of stained, textured concrete.) I would not have necessarily added them like that. But they are there so I wouldn't necessarily remove them. If your drive is too steep to walk on comfortably, the steps are probably actually useful. If they need a handrail is better judged on site, as photos can be very misleading about grade. It looks like the grass could stand being fertilized, watered and mowed regularly.