Thank you for the responses. Holley, you have some great questions which I'll answer below. I totally agree that the evergreens overpower. I'm adding a new picture in this post so you can see the whole front of the house. The flower bed that I mentioned above, and the one to the left of the porch where all planted when we moved in. I've already taken up some of the bushes (hence the reason for the bare spot to the far left). The bushes that were already planted when we bought grow like crazy. I planted the 5 small evergreen shrubs going across the porch. I like these because they really don't grow much and have been easy to keep up. To answer the questions above: 1) I'm not sure what plants I'm wanting. I like color. I'd love to pull up all the bushes that were already planted and redo the bed with the flag pole and the one to the far left with some color and then keep the 5 small green shrubs as a balance in the middle. I like grasses as a border. Something that attracts butterflies or hummingbirds would be good too as we have a lot of both. I guess it goes back to the "overpowering" comments above. We have this fairly large flower bed, but it's totally bland because there's just some big green bushes. 2) I love being outside, so yea I guess I'm a gardener. My problem is just not knowing plants and being able to envision what beds will look like when everything comes together and especially what things will look like in a couple years when things start to grow. 3) Talked about this one. 4) I would like to keep the flag pole. My best friend is currently in Afghanistan, so I'd like to keep it up. Thanks again for the comments thus far!!! Here is a link that might be useful:

You will never be able to eliminate "weeds" and keep them gone because they tend to seed very prolifically and will fill in anywhere there is space for them. No matter what anyone tells you about some product none will eliminate the need to work in the garden to eliminate these unwanted plants. The most environmentally friendly, ecologically sound, method of "weed" control is to mechanically remove them, ie. dig them out. Beyond that the products sold to "control weeds" are being found to do serious harm to our world.

Leave the cabs - paint will just make them look cheap, not more modern. New backsplash. New hardware. New pendants. I wouldn't even replace the ovens. Honestly, white appliances are a fairly new modern trend, while stainless is what you find in every traditional kitchen. If you can swing it, i'd replace the countertops. But only if the cabs are in excellent condition and you'll leave them for 20 years. I might look for a backsplash with a little color -- maybe a blue or green - that distracts from the all beige-white look of your kitchen. But very simple backsplash so as to not compete with the countertops (assuming you don't replace them). Hardware -- maybe lewis dolin bar in matte black? https://www.lewisdolin.com/bar-series?lightbox=dataItem-ja2yeozt Or check out the wonderful selection of cabinet hardware at anthropologie.com, where they have really cool stuff that could add the punch of modernized interest you need in this beige kitchen.

I figured I should give an update. Today I bought bricks and dirt and mulch and plants, and I created the actual border. Tomorrow’s tasks include going to the nursery to get a few more plants, planting them all, and them filling in with soil and mulch. Weed and feed is down on the lawn, so it should start looking peppier soon. No progress yet regarding the electric meter. What do you all think?