Cute house - don't be so hard on it! A few tweeks will make a difference. I would paint the garage doors the color of the trim (white?), and remove the shutters on the front windows. Love the idea of a pergola over the garage door. More prominent outdoor lights would also give the house some character, as would house numbers.

Don't skimp on landscaping - it has the ability to provide a lot of curb appeal to the home! See in the example below how the landscaping helps the garage disappear visually? When you choose plants, think about various heights, sizes, textures, colors, shapes, and curved beds...

It's a great house!  A few small tweaks, on top of your landscaping planned for this fall, will hopefully leave you happier with the exterior. I agree that a pergola would look nice over the garage door. Bigger lights at the front door and at the garage will look more proportional (strive for about 1/3 of the door height even though that sounds big-- it works, I promise!  The shutters are too small for the windows, so you may want to consider removing those.  Have you considered window boxes on the left side windows? They might give a fun pop!  Good luck with it, and congrats on the new home!

It appears that your home is below street level. The most important thing will be proper drainage to make sure rain will run down the street gutter and not down your driveway into the garage or onto your walkway to the front porch. Is there a drain grid in the lower part of the driveway?
A decorative wood or metal medallion or faux window might look good centered under the peak over the garage door. Center it between the top of the peak and the top of the garage door.

Thank you all so much. We’ll start with the pergola and bigger lights. I had no idea the shutters were too small. Would purchasing longer shutters be an option? I’d rather not remove them completely. It reminds me of a face with no eyebrows :( Weird, I know. If longer shutters are an option, should we change the color of those?

@felizlady I haven’t noticed a problem with drainage at least to the driveway and we’ve been here for 5 months. There’s a large drainage pipe running through the front yard under the driveway. We are having some water enter one corner of the basement. We’ll look further into this.

You have been given solid advice that I will echo - the pergola, faux detail in garage peak, paint garage door, larger lights.
I too would remove the shutters. It is not the length of them but the width that makes them problematic. However if you like them, keep them and recognize them as being purely decorative and not to scale. Decorative shutters are very mainstream so You will not be alone in your preference.
Keep in mind that if you want to remove them, sooner would be better as the area behind them will not fade like the exposed siding will (eventually).
Landscaping will be the star on this very pretty home.
Congratulations.

Double windows should never have shutters and you do not have space for the right size ones at all. Is there actul useable space above the garage or just empty ? IMO a nice window up there would be the best. You need a front porch type area so maybe a aptio type space acroos the front of the porche I agree the pergola will be agreat addition and then landscaping will be what brings this house to life and maybe down the road a better color for the front door.

There's no rule about double windows and shutters, they actually make more sense than with single windows. But they are too narrow, something at least 50% wider would look better. Most people understand that shutters are purely decorative and not intended to look as if they would ever be closed over the windows.

On the look for pergolas now. Would a brown pergola be okay? Color suggestions for the front door?

Although a window would be nice, I’m afraid that may be too costly for now. We can look into that option later down the road. It is simply attic space above the garage.

I vote for pergola above the garage.

A simple belly band does wonders.

Shown here with contrasting gable end siding.

Same color but shingles over lap.

Braelinn, this link offers some helpful guidelines for shutters. For me they look best when sized right, even when just decorative. However, your own opinion is what matters. Most shutters I see aren’t sized right. I think some people consider them ”trim.” Your house, your call.

https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/residential-architecture-101-shutters/

@ci_lantro The belly band looks like a great option and it will allow for us to add more color, I believe. We’ll look into this also. Thank you.

@chloebud Thank you for this. That was very informative. I’m a bit annoyed that this wasn’t known by the builder. We’ll get them sized correctly and maybe change up the color while we’re at it.