I think opening up the porch area and extending it could help, without being prohibitive. I'm not sure where the street is, but I think this may be the street view? You could use the brick from the planter to "patch" the wall on the left, I think. This is just a basic idea; it could be elaborated on. I don't think it is worth covering the brick, and painting it wouldn't work well in this instance as its texture is so distinctive.

Oh, forgot -- if the budget allows, it might be good to resurface the porch itself. I could see terracotta tiles working well there. Alternatively, just give it some kind of surface treatment such as staining to make it a bit more striking.

I would install some Hanging Garden Trellises from grownsolutions.com at the edge of the patio covering just over or outside of the railing.

Thanks all. Rina- it's an old farmhouse so it has a super long driveway- the garage is on the right side of the pictures (mostly not shown) but the pathway comes out to the driveway too. The farm is now filed with houses sadly, but that's why it's so uncommon. So you would use tile to resurface? We've been debating on that too. That edge trellis could work but not the large ones suggested by garden solutions because the central window on the porch is the kitchen sink and my mom wants to maintain her view.

Amanda, how about standing way back, then, to take a picture and say "this is the view we want to improve"? The pics above were a bit hard to deal with as far as roof line is concerned (not that I'd necessarily be the best person to talk about that, but there are others that could).

I'm thinking specifically terracotta, or perhaps a stone tile ... something that's not too super-duper modern, with a sense of the past. There is a lovely old-family feeling to that porch that I think should be retained.

The flat roof is a good choice for that corner. However, I would replace the post and railing. First, tear out the planter and remove that big bush next to the sidewalk and remove the sidewalk too. Now the idea is to make the entrance highly visible. I would put a beam or wide fascia around the edge of the roof and square posts one where the planter was but against the wall. (this will hide any damage to the stone from removing the planter) The posts should be the same thickness as the fascia board. Look at the photo below and see how the wide fascia frames the roof and is the same width as the column. I don't think a railing is helpful as you want to feel like you are in the garden and you have a lovely garden next to the patio. Now imagine how the columns and fascia will frame the patio and bench. So welcoming.

Build a wide walkway from the front of the house, It could be as wide as the patio or you could make it a little narrower but not much, and make it a little curved.

Stone is quite popular so I wouldn't change it. It really is a selling feature of the house.

Take the bench and paint it a bright color, yellow, orange, turquoise. Add pots of flowers.