Given your house style, you could pump up the modern architectural aspects of the garden
Fill the long side of your wall with tons of grasses (miscanthus sinensis) that will sparkle in the day and have quite a lot of growth (there are smaller varieties if you don't want to go up to 1.5m tall). In front of it you can add a lower grass such as pennisetum or stipa tenuissima. These all look a brilliant green in the spring, then fade to a lighter green in the summer and stay straw (but pretty straw colour) in the winter.
Flatten your lawn and make it the feature.
Then add a series of trees planted in square planters from your gate up to your driveway. These can echo the trees you have by your front entrance but should be larger and taller (it will give a perspective of a longer drive with the smaller ones in focus).
You can then plant three pampas grass in the lawn (or even leave the lawn to grow wild in three patches) as a butterfly garden....

thank you so much for your suggestions, they sound great! I will look into those plants, thanks again!

I would open up your entrance a little to make the front of the house more inviting to walk up to. Adding a mini courtyard where you could put some chairs would be nice.... you can sit out front on non-rainy days. I know you are saving for indoor renos so in the mean time you could do shapely gardens along your perimeter. Which would not only increase curb appeal but you'll get to enjoy looking at it from inside your house. Here a a few designs that you can pick and choose aspects of them. There are stairs that you can just take out. There is one backyard...forget the patio but consider the gardens. Trees would be nice to get height variations. You can browse more ideas www.blushirt.com

Blushirt, thank you so much for that, really appreciated and I will certainly take a look at your website.
Emily

No problem...if I can help more let me know!