Have a look at Liz Primeau's Front Yard Gardens. It's a terrific book with wonderful ideas and picture to help make your front yard beautiful and usable.

While you may not want to hear this, the best thing you can do to really make that front elevation pop is to get that bead board out of there. If you're on a budget, just plan on the porch being a 3-season room for a while until you have the budget to put in large, insulated windows and that french door you're talking about.

Also, change your mulch color so it contrasts the brick. I'll share some photos of our ongoing foursquare work...

open up that porch and give it the charm it was designed for. It will also allow you to get a nicer breeze in the living room off the porch, or whatever room you have there.

No shutters. I would vote for opening the porch to its original state, I don't think French doors are going to improve anything. If it's necessary to keep additional indoor space, at least replace the windows with a period appropriate style. Sorry these aren't low budget suggestions, but if you can save up for a few years and maybe refinance it would most likely improve your house value.

https://www.houzz.com/magazine/roots-of-style-the-eclectic-american-foursquare-stsetivw-vs~57623968

https://www.houzz.com/magazine/foursquare-architecture-stsetivw-vs~10177660

https://www.houzz.com/magazine/foursquare-homes-come-full-circle-in-us-architecture-stsetivw-vs~5274563

We are starting to wonder if it was ever really open. The sunroom is at ground level. So there would be no stairs whatsoever if we opened it up. I'll look online and see if there are any four squares like ours. Ours seems to be a little different without that third level as well. Any other ideas on a small front entertaining space?

What a great home to play with design. This is a typical colonial home with a side salon, noting your main entry is the side with the columns.

I suggest you dress it up as such. Putting a door on the second level and creating a deck on it's roof (with outside stair access hidden to the far side). It would be a great place for outdoor living without compromising the small footprint of the property.

As finances permit add taller double hung windows and french doors for the room itself.

Haha.. I have image photoshopped similar to that

The blue is just a dream so please disregard. We immediately talked about putting a deck up there and over the garage when we moved in, but it's just not in our budget. We already added two bathrooms and gutted/redid a third. The 4 bedrooms were very small so we combined two and now there is a master suite where those two top windows are. We've opened up some space in the dining and kitchen and also added a deck in the backyard (backyard is only 10ft wide by 30 ft long or so), but it's a more cozy private space. We still have work to do in the kitchen plus the sunroom/front of the house and I don't think what's left or our budget will even cover that. Thank you for the photos and advice.

I should mention we plan on selling this house in a couple years. Otherwise we would save and add more later.

Get an estimate (or 3) adding the railing, stairs and decking it would keep the premise of the home. A door would serve as a great MBR terrace too but not essential. Think how nice it would be to sit out there with a good bottle of wine, on a warm summers evening, after the kidlets have gone to sleep.

I would plant a nice tree against the house, in between the two windows to fill in that space and bring in some greenery. Good luck!