While you're (probably) removing your current shrubs, consider painting the foundation white to match the siding. And with a deeper foundation bed, try to leave space between the foundation shrubs and the house. This will allow for maintenance to the shrubs, also maintenance to the house, window-washing, easier access to the water faucet and the window boxes, etc. Ideally there should be at least a foot between the shrubs (at their mature size) and the house. I inherited foundation shrubs from the Previous Owners which are a good distance from the foundation -- and others which are right up against it. It makes a real difference! I can't really suggest shrubs for you because I have very little experience with sunny areas in your zone. My best recommendation for sun would be one of the low pines or junipers which stay in the 2-4' height range. However, I have no idea how they do with the amount of snow you can have in New England. You might get some ideas from UConn's Plant Database, which allows you to specify conditions, type of plant, size, etc.: http://www.hort.uconn.edu/fmi/xsl/search.xsl or MOBot's Plantfinder: http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Search.asp [Sometimes when you select too many characteristics, you get very few results. So while you'd prefer something that requires little maintenance, you might need to de-select that or a few other fields.]

I planted 3 blueberry plants (2 rabbiteye and 1 SHB) in January and the temperatures were in the 20s. They are growing fine now. With that said, they came in cold dirt and I planted them in cold dirt. You may want to acclimate them to the outdoors before planting them. When you do plant them, water them well. Better too much water than too little water IMHO.

For perennial suggestions come on over to the New England gardening forum and post your question there. You'll need to say more about the direction the house faces/how much sun and shade it gets. Any other info (how tall/wide the plants should be? Do you want the flowers to bloom in spring? midsummer? fall? favorite colors? open to shrubs?) would help too. For annuals I'd just head over to your local garden center and see what they stock for your region. The garden center will have them divided by sun and shade annuals.

If you have the umbrella pine 10 ft from the house it is going to receive comparatively minimal benefit from its presence. And walls make wind worse, by compressing it - when the wind gets into where the walls are. Except where there are enough wall angles to have some effect on wind movement the main benefit of walls to plants is by providing added warmth from reflected heat, or cooling shadows. And to get in on this plants need to be against walls or similarly close. Later when it is sizing up the umbrella pine may seem too big to be even 10 ft. from the house. And to have gotten to that point it will have to have survived the wind and ice anyway - the house would only help with ice if it provided a long extended roof that the conifer was growing beneath.