I will go out on a big limb and say the front yard plantings need more structure, more boldness, and more unity. I think that is akin to what karinl is saying as well (pardon me if not). laag is the unity king, and so I will get into trouble with it by myself, but since the front of your home has a variety of different backgrounds--the wall, the inset porch, including the little fence, the driveway with garage viewed beyond-- those backgrounds themselves do not tie anything together, and so something in the garden itself has to--the choice of shrubs, or a strong edging planting, or something. Then, the fine-leaved plants disappear into the current background, and the ones you have now don't have much shape, so to me it all seems to disappear. So some kind of small tree or shrub with a trunk, or some larger-leaved plants, might give some oomph. Some of these would need to be set farther away from the house and driveway--the narrow beds hugging those edges contributes to the problem of not having the room for something with some mass or visual oomph to it. Or, as in the container suggestion, there could be a way to get this kind of structure in a non-plant material, and that might even work better. That said, it isn't necessary or even desirable for the plantings to all be continuous from the L edge (as viewed from the front) across and down the driveway edge. It might actually be better to think of having separate planting pockets in 2-3 areas in which you can design for the height and depth of the plantings that look best at that part of the house; then you would either tie them together with a low groundcover, or mulch, or potentially even the lawn connecting them. (To me, it's not always wise to tell someone that their plantings have to be one big sweep, because for some people that will create maintenance issues of large areas to mulch and to weed, compared with the simpler process of mowing the lawn, as long the way the beds are edged does not itself create more maintenance, or the lawn invade more, or something. Because otherwise, it may be too hard for you to plant fully in that whole area in a way that is affordable and looks good. In fact, I'm not sure that planting along the edge of the driveway does much of what you need from a front-yard standpoint--except that it's a fine way to grow more flowers and plants--something that I can sympathize with. Since you naturally want to try to use plants you already have, an example, I think, could include that instead of having narrow rows of roses all along the way, you might use several in a mass planting. Someone else here will really have to help me more with these concepts. Because one thing I am saying is that it lacks unity, and at the same time I am saying that I don't think you can accomplish a good thing by planting just a row of homogeneous little shrubs all along those edges. I'm not able to combine these ideas into a "do this" instruction, however. Don't despair--clearly you are getting out there and arranging and planting and learning about what you like and don't like.

There is nothing wrong with having a beautiful lawn. I have a lawn with garden areas all around the perimeter of the yard with a sunny perennial border in the back and the shady hosta garden up close to the house and patio. IMHO if you have children, grandchildren or pets, you need some where for them to run around and play. And a lawn is also nice for family gatherings and barbeques in the summer. You can still have your lawn and have a beautiful hosta garden too! I think your yard looks very nice! Do what makes you happy! Linda

Thank you lizbeth and k9arlene for your thoughts. @lizbeth: I appreciate your kind words on the house. Thanks for your vote on the railings, and for helping me once again on my home. I see that the darker stair railings do draw your eye to the door more. DH has mocked it up as a brown to match the door. In real life, we won't likely get a brown that matches the door as well as the mock-up shows. The metal railings only come in so many colours. The door is a stained door, and the man door is painted metal. We can paint the man door brown, but it won't look the same as the main door. I will ask DH to mock-up the darker door to see. As per having the picket railings on both sides of the steps, I don't believe there is a safety issue (please let me know if I am missing the safety concerns). There is a full wall on the left side (left as you up steps) so the pickets are not needed for safety. However, they may look better if the two sides are symmetrical. @k9arlene: Thanks for your question. If we did a different kind of deck railing it would block the gable window and gable door. The glass railings, while not allowing privacy as you stated, prevent the house behind from being screened. Our build has been long. At one point, we had a gable roof on the garage (not the flat roof that we have now). Sadly, we had to tear down the newly framed gable roof as it blocked the window/door behind and did not look right (too tall of a garage in your face). Carol

Much depends on your local market, and WHO you're selling to. In the SF Bay Area, where Gen X/Y couples looking to move from a 1/2 bdrm condo for a 3bd SFH to raise a family, I can honestly say House #1 would attract 90% of the interest and get the best bidding war (somewhat, but not completely, dependent on local school system). They would love the remodeled kitchen (easily a $200K job out here) and that great oval vessel sink in the bathroom (#10) would wow them - I'd have used a different photo and highlighted that. All three houses had amateur slideshows. A professional would have done much better photos; there is never any excuse for posting distorted wide-angle shots. They can make a lovely room look awful. And the patterned curtains (house #3) with the swags on top - ugh, right up there with stick-on paper blinds, in young urban buyers' eyes. Interestingly, as I went through slideshow #1 it seemed to me that if you transferred their decorating ideas to an urban loft it would have worked better. I would have removed about 1/3 of the items in each room; they were cluttered which lessened the visual drama of each individual space. Less, when you are selling, is truly "more". And you want your drama in the center of the room, not at the edges. That's the mistake I think House #3 made. House #2 and #3, as they look now, are decorated in "grandma style" to their eyes. Ditch the rugs, all three houses. Out here the majority of valuable older homes are either Spanish Mediterranean or Arts & Crafts. MCM and contemporary architecture are highly prized but much more rare, numerically. Victorian exteriors are admired but it's commonly accepted the original floor layouts and lack of any closets are a huge drawback and very expensive to overcome. This is a remodeled San Francisco Victorian. Every friend I've shown this slideshow to, from Gen Z to Boomer, has agreed this was a stunning architectural and design remodel, even if their own tastes are not contemporary. This is design/decor that sells right now in our local market, and generates serious bidding wars: http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2016/03/11/remodeled-noe-victorian-with-stunning-roof-deck-has-before-and-after-photos-that-may-shock-you/#photo-744497