Depend on your budget,you could add a porch,a fence,replace the walkway,add bed.,plant hosta,hydrangea,azalea,forthia,boxwood,j-maple,cedar,...I design a part.

Maybe a Japanese maple, something narrow like (Acer palmatum 'Twombly's Red Sentinel' ). Then surround with low Hosta and under the window something like Endless Summer Hydrangea.

First, it would be good to enlarge the landing at the entrance so that it was more in scale with the house size and didn't force a low-rent looking single-file approach to the porch. Then, incorporate a simple, low maintenance planting that includes seasonal color, groundcover and a couple of shrubs below the windows. (There would probably be additional interest incorporated at each side, but the picture does not allow to show it.) It doesn't look like any of the existing shrubs that remain are usable. Their existence doesn't enhance; it detracts.

(Thanks SC77 for the hydrangea.)

This isn't a 'shady' area. It is an area that gets decent sun. Shade plants can often handle an eastern exposure, but not always.

Start by deciding what you would like it to look like *in the winter*. Deciduous shrubs look like dead sticks. So it is usual to plant shrubs that have some sort of color during the winter. Instead of the hydrangea, a blue colored conifer like a blue juniper would provide that color all year, then a shorter, flowering shrub could be planted in front. There are also gold conifers.

BTW, the shrubs on the left are probably some sort of flowering shrub. I'd get them ID'ed before yanking them out. A lot of things are looking unusually ratty after this winter, and they may just need a bit of time and some pruning to look decent.

"We plan to go to the nursery tomorrow " .... Please don't.

Take the time to sit down with a site plan, figure out exactly what you want to do out front, and what plants will do them. Then call nurseries until you find the plants you want. Not just species, but what variety by name gets you what you want.

Those "knowledgeable people" have one goal, which is to sell you something they have in stock. Your ideal plant may be one nursery further sown the road.

=============
I'd go farther than Yardvark ... make a nice entrance terrace out there across the front porch area between porch and sidewalk.

I would just make the whole area lawn. Seems grass grows just fine. Do it on the other side too, those azaleas are done! You don't have to go all flowery, I like the idea of extending the porch area as lazygardens suggested. A garden bench, a pot or two of colorful flowers and a simple table are lovely and no watering necessary :)