I see you added the pic of Podocarpus... that you are keeping as a bonsai. If a person wanted, they could keep an Oak tree at 18" ht. interminably by faithful regular cutting. But using such a plant in a tight space is far from optimum. In your case, Relleum, I'd select a different foundation plant for any new additions. In the future, the Podocarpus you already have may make its potential better known and cause you to want to replace it. As for what to use as a "foundation shrub" I'd consider that you probably don't need anything... depending on what groundcover you end up with. It may be high enough that it's sufficient. There's not a need to cover to cover all the space below the decorative brick band on the house. If you covered the bottom 12", or so, that would take care of it. If you must have a shrub, something that gets no taller than 2' without trimming for height, would be good. Even a perennial could work. Something like Gaura lindheimeri, though it gets 30"-36", it's upper portion is airily transparent in nearly constant bloom. Available in green foliage with white flowers or burgundy-tinted foliage with pink flowers. You could check locally for other shrub and perennial possibilities in this height range.

I really like your mix of ornamental grass and succulents with flowering plants. The Red Yucca and Lindheimer's Muhly really need a lot of sun to look their best. I have both of those and in the summer they each get 12 hours of direct sun. Northern Sea Oats work well in part shade and might be a good substitute for the muhly, especially around the porch. The red yucca does fine up against a rock wall in my yard. It doesn't seem to need a lot of room. Do try to move all the plants out a bit from the house when you actually plant them though. Most of the plants you have selected die back in winter, so if you want more winter interest work in a few evergreens like a holly. Your layout looks quite good and would work well as is, but since you asked I have a couple suggestions. I would replace the nandina on the left of the plan with one larger flowering shrub like a Viburnum. In front of the MBR I would also flip the rose creek abelia and emerald snow loropetalum so there is a greater mass of abelia. These changes will keep your "threes" from being too repetitive.

Per usual, I'm offering a simple, basic planting layout/arrangement. It uses a couple of small trees to help provide a sense of "sheltering" and "nestling in," the minimum amount of shrubs so as not to smother or overwhelm, the standard color "cheer" at the steps and low groundcover to knit together the loose ends and provide a cushy platform for the house to rest on. Regardless of how the ground slopes or undulates, the shrubs would all be maintained to the exact same level, relative to the window heights. (They would be shaped like domes, not balls.) If there is anyway to do it, consider widening the walk as it approaches the steps, equal to their same width. The existing narrow walk makes the whole house look cheaper. (PS... the new pics were great!)

Those are the best looking garage doors that anyone has brought to the forum in quite some time. The house is nice looking, too. The forum is a place where you can get help with landscape design and related issues, but you must keep in mind that is has limitations. For one, if the conversation is too wide spread -- about all areas of a large yard, for example -- it can quickly become confusing. It's best to focus on one area for a given thread ... a front yard, for example. It's best to work through that and then move on to other areas with new threads. And giving "help" means giving you assistance. You will still have work to do in converting any advice you get, whether it be verbal or graphic, into a workable PLAN. Either you must do it, or you must hire a landscape designer or architect to do it. But you really can't do landscape work, at least in any well organized, logical manner, without a plan on paper. On a larger than average property, a plan would be especially necessary if you mean to avoid waste and mistakes. Given that your are probably going to reside at the property for many years and will surely want to create a property as nice as the home, I highly recommend that you hire a landscape designer to work out all of the issues that you'll face while planning a quality landscape ... especially if you're not able to visualize things easily. Meanwhile, you can work on sorting through your thoughts on the project and on a direction to take the design. I'd suggest you start with the front yard. In order to do that you'll need to supply better pictures. In taking them what's important is not just what's directly in front of the house, but in an area the surrounds the house about 20' - 30' out, including the ends. Also, when taking pictures for those who can't personally visit the site, it's best if the camera is lined up with the center of the scene. For a given scene the camera must stay in one location and only pivot for each picture. Snap from left to right while taking slightly overlapping pictures and post them all, not a panorama made from them. That's a starting point. Another picture that is usually important to show is one of the front of the house as one sees it from a distance, showing how it fits in with the neighborhood. since you probably have a very large front yard, you might show it from where you see the house upon entering the property. If that's too far away, maybe as you're seeing it from a hundred or more feet away. Hard to be too exact without knowing what you're working with. You might also include a view from Google Satellite if that will help explain the overall layout.