Your house will be adorable with little effort! Remove the bushes right away. You can replant after the other work is done. Having them gone will be a big improvement. Replace the storm door with a full glass one...paint trim to match the door color. I would paint the door SW Rustic Red.

The steps/railing/porch should be replaced with something more beefy. Paint the wood on the side deck?

I didn't notice the side deck at first. I was thinking from the door to the corner toward the drive would make an awesome front deck, rockers...now I wonder what it would be like to connect the two.

Depends on how much you want to spend, but around my parts I am seeing metal roofs more and more. I'm not sure what kind of metal, maybe galvanized steel? But anyway, they come in a myriad of colors and will probably almost never have to be replaced, and if and when you do replace, you can sell the metal from the old one. Just a thought though. Yes, obviously remove the large and labor intensive shrubs from by the railings. I think they are yews, and yews would need to be always pruned to keep them small enough for in front of your house. Yews are trees! In the case of your house, it is actually a situation where the classic "foundation planting" that you hear so much about, would apply as a need, to cover the cement foundation. It's not that it looks that bad, but it is rather boring. Look for SMALL shrubs that don't get bigger than 2-4 feet. There are lots of dwarf shrub varieties like that. Other shrubs could work but you'd have to always prune them and who needs that headache! Be sure and plant the foundation plants at least 3 feet from the house so they won't harbor moisture and pests up by your foundation, and you can get behind them to trim, etc. The sky's the limit for you as far as what to plant, but if it were me I'd mix something evergreen with something that flowers and has pretty foliage. I don't know your zone, but I am a big fan of "magic carpet" spirea, because it flowers repeatedly and also the foliage is pretty too, when it is not in bloom. But that is just a thought, there are many, many options. Also if it were me I would put a little colorful annual flowers narrow bed along the front walkway. That is just simple, quick and dirty stuff. If you really wanted to blow the bank, you could put a little peaked roof over your front steps and widen them and the landing.

Yes to a new roof. Do you need the TV antenna any more? I'd seriously consider getting a colored roof like green and then painting the window trim to match the roof, leaving the siding white. Photo just for the color scheme:

Some details bother me, like on the upstairs window, why is one screen lighter than the rest? On the gutters, see if you can bury the end of the leader that takes the water away from the house so the leader can be up against the house instead of angled away.

Yes definitely get rid of all of the existing landscape as there's nothing there to salvage. Get the house straightened out, and then get the landscaping done.

There seems to be something odd about where the gutter across the front is and where the eave of the gable above is...I can't tell from the pic what's going on there. IAC, the nicest things for visitors is to have some shelter from the weather if they're standing at your front door. If it's in you budget, look into possibly adding a gabled or shed porch roof over the front door to help make it more prominent and welcoming.

I agree the steps should be revisited and I suspect the railings too.

Like pinkmtn says, you really do need foundation plantings - just make sure you do it right and not too close to the foundation.

I also think you need some definition b/w the house and the sidewalk. A fence or hedge of some sort along with the foundation plantings would create layers and the look of more space.

I would leave the rounded shrub that's there now against the left hand rail (but prune it so that it is shaped properly). Then I'd take out the one on the right side and do a very square boxy hedge under the two windows.

What colour were you thinking of painting? I could see your house a darkish mossy grey green with cream trim, but the possibilities are endless depending on what you like and how adventurous you are.

Another thing that's bothering me is the width of the trim around the windows is not consistent...widest on the ones right of the door, narrowest up top. It would yield a much better look if the trim were the same all around.

Is this an enclosed front porch? If so, maybe you could take down the walls and return it to a real porch with turned posts and a simple railing. Add matching railings to the front steps. Get rid of the overgrown bushes as mentioned by others. Smaller bushes and some perennials in a nice curved mulched bed will do wonders for curb appeal.

I was thinking the same thing Prairie. Making that back into a covered porch would do a lot for curb appeal.

Its possible that your house is something like an Avalon Sears kit home but not exactly the Avalon, there were several kits so you might want to look into that for ideas. Maybe 1940's but I haven't really read up. Did your house have a fireplace originally? Is that back section an add-on? Looks like there have been several modifications over the years. I think they were with and without fireplaces and some had this look but in reverse.

Your House.

reverse...

What a sweet home!

Regarding the bushes, they bother you because there is nothing else substantial that accompanies them. If they were trimmed and then more plantings along side them to line the foundation of the house, the landscaping would look more pulled together. Before you bother removing them, trim and add some flowering bushes or other foundation plants, like in the sample photos above.

I would widen the front steps out toward the street so there is a place to stand - room for several people to stand - at the same level as the door. It looks like if the door opens outward it would knock the guest off the steps.

THANK YOU for all the ideas! Grapefruit, I those new landing ideas are great, I think we will plan on doing that.

We don't want to connect the two decks, I don't foresee us using that area that we would connect them with.

My husband LOVES the idea of a steel roof. I'm struggling with the color. If we were to repaint our house, I was thinking of keeping the current color scheme. Or if we were to pick a totally different house color, I really like dark gray or a darker blue... not sure if we are ready to go that crazy, though. I have read on here a lot about painting aluminum siding and I think it is intimidating enough if we were to stay with the original color, what if I cant get good coverage or make it look nice with a darker color?

I never noticed the upstairs window situation, we forgot we took out one of the screens.

Also never noticed the varying width of our trim!

Juster, we think you are right, the house plan was supposed to have that little porch not be enclosed. But I LOVE that little porch, I have a little couch in there and it is like a perfect little sunroom.

I didn't realize there is a landscaping forum, I posted this picture over there to get some more planting ideas.

Thanks for the feedback!

Well if you ever deside to change it I noticed on a few other photos the porch was extended out to the right by 2 or more feet. Wish I would have saved them. Anyhow, front porches are great fun.

As a side note some of these Sears kit homes restored back to the original look only better are fetching some good resale prices.

I might think about adding a trellis/pergola across the front, to provide a little interest and shelter at the front door, as well as a way to hide that horizontal gutter. Maybe not as elaborate as this with an extended porch along the front:

Talked more with my husband. I think we need to stick with the white house color. We have 2 garages and between the 2 garages and house, we have 3 different siding materials (tin, aluminum, vinyl) so getting a color to match all 3 types would probably be a nightmare.

Although I think those open porches are beautiful, I don't think we would use them like that. Our side porch/deck is where we hang out, its quite a bit back farther from the street.

Olychick I really like your top picture, would that add to much to the several roof lines we already have going on?

How long have you lived in your home? I ask because...you don't seem to want any changes except landscape. If it's due to $$$ I get that. However, if you are really unhappy with more than the landscape you need to put your dreams down on paper and set up a "do" list by doing a few things each year until you get your vision.

The things I don't want to do (join porches, paint a diff color, open up the porch) are because two ideas wouldn't be functionally beneficial to us, and i cant figure out how I can get the same color tone on three different siding types. How else am I giving the impression I don't want to make changes?

We have lived here since 2013. $ is definitely a factor but I really want to make the front more beautiful, hence me asking for ideas.

Just because you haven't jumped on suggestions made so far, I don't think that makes you resistant to changes. Sometimes it takes lots of different eyes and ideas being thrown out for something to appeal to you. Hopefully, more people will have other ideas that would catch your attention and some good ideas have been made so far (Grapefruit's screen door, steps and railing suggestions, Annie's ideas about the window trim and missing screen, etc., removing the TV antennae if possible, and lpm's landscape ideas).

I personally would explore the possibilities of a new color; from what I see about it online, it seems like if it's prepared properly, changing the color shouldn't be a worry. For me, it would be worth a try. I think it could make the world of difference in the curb appeal to have a new roof and siding color combo.

Painting aluminum siding.

eta: I don't know about adding another roofline....my suggestions were just to get you thinking about doing something horizontal across the front of the house, like a trellis/pergola, to shelter the door a bit and hide the gutter. If you add a new roof, it may be possible to extend it a bit to accomplish those things, but you probably need to see an architect or designer or rely on a talented contractor to help you with that.

Is there a way to match up the siding? Getting it all uniform would look nice. A nice new roof in a different color maybe. I have always thought a brick red roof looks great with white siding. Or very dark grey/black. Visit a good garden center with pictures of your home for help on landscape. It's hard to get help here on particulars when your zone is not known but there is a section on gardenweb for that.

Sometimes after you get what needs fixing done the rest just sort of evolves. A new roof and color inspires ideas on products for steps and landing or railings.

Juster what program is that you used? I LOVE that mock up!

I have never had a estimate for siding so I have NO clue what it would cost... that is worth looking into (to see if we can get all three buildings to have matching siding)

Sorry I didn't mention what I thought of the other ideas (screen door, antenna, screen on second floor) as those are quick and easy fixes which we plan to do ASAP.

Thanks again for all the help so far!

Lum, I just use a combo of Microsoft "paint" and Photobucket edit. Paint is very basic but you might try a shiny charcoal door as another idea. Save a picture of a dark door on your computer. Cut and past it onto your home with Microsoft paint. That option is in your upper left corner of M paint.

The trees and bushes are painted in manually free style with M paint.

Sorry I rattled your cage earlier. Sometimes it's useful to cut to the chase before I spend time doing a mock-up.

Lum, I think this dark door looks better with the roof and brick red accents. What do you think? Pretend the opening is on the other side.

I really like the red door.

Ill have to play around with that program but I think you hit a super gorgeous idea!

Best way to get rid of super heavy concrete steps that aren't needed anymore?

Don't know! Do you have a close up of the steps? It looks in the picture that they are shallow and have too many short steps. Maybe offer them cheap on Craigslist or free if you don't get any bites. Or, if you hire a contractor to do that area to code (would recommend) he/she will take them away.