Great! If the roof is brown, you have a world of colors to choose from. In that case, I would chose a color for the trim and then paint the garage door that same color. The house door can then be another color to bring attention and help it stand out. Do you want to paint your trim every several years, or are you wanting to cover the trim with vinyl and aluminum? That is the first question you have to decide. The second choice greatly narrows your color choices. If you decide on paint, Chose a color family (like dark taupes or bronzes or ivory or hunter greens or turquoise...) and get paint samples at the local paint stores and paint some poster boards. You just live with them next to the house and roof on non-rainy days and see what you like. I once painted stripes of color on the wood of a house we were going to side. Neighbors walking by were asked to vote! Are you gardeners? Are you interested in taking care of annual flowers (water once or twice a day, fertilize occasionally, keep weed-free), or learning about perennials or bulbs? If you want to learn, you can actually make a garden bed that always has either a bulb or perennial in bloom. Or, you could go low-maintenance with shrubs and mulch. Again, your zone and your house's orientation (NSEW) is needed for anyone to give you advice on plants. I am with those who think that your bushes are way too old and overgrown. Maybe you can keep one or two that are green all the way to the bottom and don't look all shaved down. Use those as a backdrop and go from there. Are you interested in putting in any hardscape? If the window next to the door does not come down too low, it might look nice to have a bench there. Is there a concrete slab area behind the bushes there? if yes, you can use containers to add colorful annuals. If you want to garden, you can make garden beds in front of the front door area. Little fences or a raised bed made with landscaping stone are all options. Over where the room comes out further than the porch, there is a nice bush near the corner that may be in good enough shape to keep. Not the one by the downspout, the one in the front. (I would remove all of the bushes to the left of that one.) If there is a matching bush in good condition on the other side of that room, I might leave them both, but remove the ones in the middle, so the other two have room. You might be able to put a trellis under the window and train a flowering vine to spread side-to-side and fill some of that space on the wall. A few low plants around the tall bushes and in front of the vine, and you are done in that area. With a taupe roof and creamy brick, you have a pallatte limited only by your wallet, skills, and imagination!

Thanks for the responses so far. @herbflavor: We are definitely open to a floorplan change like that. In fact, my wife and I have discussed it before. We just want to make sure that losing 2.5'-3' of wall space in the kitchen won't limit the functionality in any way. Any suggestions for where to put this passage and how to configure the kitchen with that wall space removed? @onedogedie: My first message, although lengthy, was typed on my phone, so I tried to be as brief as possible. There are other issues with the kitchen, including stapled drawers that are coming apart, cabinet boxes showing signs of wear, a dishwasher in the "wrong" place (note that I know nothing about kitchen design, but when you open the dishwasher, it practically hits the person standing at the cooktop, which seems wrong to me), worn formica countertops, etc. We're looking to both fix the current issues, both functional and mechanical, and generally update all the cabinets, countertops and appliances.

I would stay with casements or sliders (I prefer casements) as your windows are wider than they are tall. Because of newer and better materials, what was a three wide unit (last picture) when the home was built can now be done with only two panels so that will give you more of an "open" feeling. Some of the two wide units may also be done in one wide depending on the overall width (e.g. a window 36" would have been two - 18" panels. Now you can have a single window 36" wide). I also agree with eliminating the grids or divided lites unless you feel strongly about them.

For budget reasons, you probably should not move appliances very far. My first thought would be something like the following (hope it is legible). This maximizes counterspace, which may or may not be what you most desire. To maximize storage, the pantry is full-height, and around 15-18 inches deep. It would hold much more than just upper cabinets. You did not show a photo of your buffet window, but I am guessing that you might need to raise the window sill, which could be a big budget item.