You know to see what things look like and do well in your area drive around the neighbourhood and see what appeals to you. Ninebarks have lovely golden leaves and will grow in partial shade.

I have grown bridal wreath spirea and mockorange in similar situations. My only complaint with mockorange in part shade is it tends to put out a lot of weak growth that gets attacked by aphids, which it doesn't do in more sun. It still blooms nicely though.

Maybe someone can help me out here . . . can dogwood take dry conditions at all? If so, if it were my house, I imagine I would plant a dogwood. There are many kinds. They look nice all the time, especially in winter when the red- or yellow-stemmed ones add some color in the whiteness. I know they can take shade, and maybe if they were mulched they could take dry as well?

You can post photos (if you have them) by hosting them on Picasaweb or Photobucket and copying the text to embed the image (in Picasa it's called "embed imgage", I believe). Just in case you would like to.

No dogwood doesn't like dry conditions, but it would like the rest of the conditions. No shrub that grows 5 feet should be planted closer than 3 feet of the house anyway. Rerouting the water from a downspout with a plastic sleeve would keep any shrub well watered

Thanks for the info! Here's my attempt on trying to load a photo. The soil in that corner is very dry, grows weeds, and seems to be some animals' toilet. I want to cover it with woodchips and then plant something beautiful. I'm not a very green thumb, so I want something that takes care of itself.

Here is a link that might be useful: Yard

I'm thinking some Lilac...or a Amur Cherry if you want a tree, the bark
is a nice bronze to look at in winter.

Konrad

Lilac is a great suggestion. They're really simple to look after, and mine don't seem to mind the dry. Their flowers are pretty and smell nice, and they're fairly attractive the rest of the time too. But I still would be tempted to put in a dogwood and water it. I'm sure the other suggestions are good, too, but I haven't any idea what those things look like.

I'd go for a Coppertina ninebark, and maybe a Snowmound spirea as well. Dwarf Korean lilacs have a wonderful smell, but you need to do some work with lilacs to make them really nice.
Go for a variety of heights, not just one size type of a look.