No window boxes or shutters on this house.I would really consider some larger windows for sure. As for the door get a MCM one in a color that will go with the brick. No pergola and not painting the garage doo to make it even more of a focal point than it is already .The best way to have a better entry is to run a wide sidewalk from the street to that entry so removng all the tall shrubs beside the house will allow that to happen . then check out some MCM walkways .If you can’t doo larger windows then wiiden the trim around the ones you have.And BTW espresson colored wood would never have been used on this house A nice addition would be a nice natural cedar MCM garage door with the same cedar in the entry .That new garage door would then at least have some design elements that suit the house

Just put an addition on my house as well, and it looks very similar to yours, only I have a front porch. Because my house has a hip roof, we were only able to go from an 8 to a 9 foot ceiling for the back addition. Otherwise, it would have looked weird in the front of the house. Your architect will be able to help you with that. I would go somewhere from the front door to that walkway between the garage with the addition in back. I'm not a pro, so don't take my word for it....but I think the placement of the roof lines with that area will make the most sense. You'd be surprised what an update it will make! Lucky for you, your garage is in line with your house.....my was at an angle and made for a VERY tiny laundry room coming in from the garage, but it's just the two of us now and we will make it work. I could only make my addition 20 feet wide because of the angles of the different roof lines and hip roof. It doesn't appear you have that problem, so could make a fairly large addition out of it! I'll try to attach some pictures of mine to give you some ideas of how it transitioned into my roof line. I, too, have two entrances like you. One we use the heck out of, the other one just for moving big things in and out of the house! LOL!!

and I love the new navy homes but my next-door neighbor just went with a gorgeous navy so we cant be twins. LOL

Thanks for the additional pictures… One addional key piece of information is - where are you? Is winter/snow something that would impact landscaping plans? The third additional photo is particularly useful - that large, heavily pruned shrub on the left side is unattractive to me and must be major work to keep so closely pruned. Was it your or a previous owner’s attempt to ’balance’ the garage? If so, IMO it fails and makes an awkward-looking planting there. Looking at the gable over that wing and the one over the garage, I think still that was the intended balance feature. What is the big tree on the lawn? It looks like any attempt to put a straight path from the street to the front door would risk damaging the tree roots and/or risk having the path be damaged by the tree roots. Would a path from the street actually be used much? Do guests/visitors park on the street or the driveway? The current path makes sense if guests normally park on the driveway. If only family park on the driveway, an alternative could be a step(s) up to the porch at the end of the porch and then have them walk along the porch - but privacy would be an issue as they’d walk by those windows very closely so the current path might make the most sense. If the hedge was removed, how wide would the space be for the complete planting bed? Being a gardener that would be my inclination (i.e. remove the hedge and plant a wider flowering/ornamental bed berween the walk and the porch), but if you don’t want to do the garden work, that might not appeal to you. I like porches so when we renovated here, we created both a front and a back porch that is both roofed-over and has a railing. We don’t have kids but dogs have been a constant part of our lives in the 23 years we have lived here. All the dogs have liked looking out the dining room bay window that looks down the driveway to the road so, from the pictures of your house, it would appear that your dog would have lots of viewing opportunities with the easy ’see through’ styling of most railings :-) I like front doors with the sidelights rather than the double door you have with the odd-shaped window inset. When you do get around to considering replacing that door, consider the styling and lighting carefully, especially as it affects the interior front hall. Re the shutters - a lot of people will say the shutters should be half the width of the windows or remove them. Because non-functional/ornamental shutters were common on houses of a certain period, they don’t bother me as much as they do some people, but wider is better than narrower….