I can visualize a small peaked porch added in front of the entry door. I think everything would be more balanced then

A peaked porch like rubyroses said. And some shutters, and solar walkway lighting.

Charcoal gray with white trim will look great on your house! Congrats on the new house! When you have a chance, new landscaping will help too.

thank you for the ideas!!!

I was inspired by the suggestions given that I tried to photoshop them in for you. I couldn't find a good photo of a portico with columns that was facing the correct way, but this still improves the look. I added black shutters to large window only because it proved to difficult to crop something small, and then planting beds with some red to relate to front door.

Wow Marlene! Thank you. I can totally see these few changes make a huge difference

And a larger light fixture by the front door..

The pergola is an interesting idea. It's a 1964 house and I'm sure some things were taken away. I wanted to see if I could find the original plans.

Shutters will look stupid on those windows. There is no way to add shutters that look real--that would cover the window if needed. Adding tacky, fake shutters that are too small accomplishes nothing.

A covered porch, better light and some living grass would help. A larger, but not difficult, project would be to put taller windows above the garage. The current windows look kind of beady-eyed. I'd also paint the window frames/trim a darker color to draw less attention to them.

It really depends on your budget, so here is a shopping list. Enhancing/enlarging the look of the windows by adding additional trim or even the idea in 2nd picture for your living room window, adding stone on lower half on the right, adding a pergola over the garage or a portico over the front door, painting the screen and front door the same color, and landscaping,

Yes, no shutters! I would have a finished carpenter beef up the trim around all those windows! Instead of shutters.

An awning would be a little easier than an addition.

Needs more work and better colors.

Add some carriage door hardware to the garage. It should make a nice difference too. You can pick up the kits for about $25 in any big box home improvement store. We have a front facing garage too and it really added curb appeal.

Just curious, what does everyone have against shutters? I see that sentiment in almost every curb appeal question. Are they dated? When they were suggested initially I thought it made perfect sense to expand the visual size of the windows, which are quite small right now in relation to all the grey siding. Thank you

PPF how did you render that so fast?! What program do you use? Amazing.

Hilary: The problem is when they look so clearly fake. Real shutters have to be able to completely cover their window, so that means each one has to be 1/2 the width of the window it's attached to. There is no way to do that on that picture window on this house; it looks stupid. And there's not enough room beside the smaller ones for shutters that fit.

When the shutters are so obviously fake, they are often referred to as "shudders".

Also, some housing styles (and window styles) don't lend themselves to shutters--this is one such house.

Everybody knows that most shutters are never used and may be mounted in a way that they can't be used. But they shouldn't stand out as clearly fake.

Makes use of multiple materials. Something smooth like stucco for the lower part, and steel for the right side.

faciem -- I'm using Chief Architect, but they sell a DIY version called Home Designer. The entry level (Suite) is $100, and will do most of what I've shown.

When we renovated one of the things we did that made the biggest difference was increasing the size of the front windows (mostly making them longer) and beefing up the trim around them. Your windows look a bit small for the size of the facade. Is that the living room window to the right? If yes, I think you could go with something quite a bit larger. It can make a massive difference.

PPF- Your last rendering is terrific. I'm wondering what kind of budget faciem has available for this project. Would some of your suggestions lend themselves to paint if new materials are too costly? Thanks!

@flopsycat1 -- Thanks. I think the texture is what's important, so paint won't work, or rather paint will give a different look. Ideally, you would continue the materials all around the house too, but you could do this.

Using the idea from lisa0527, made right side lower window wider to match the one above.

I like the shed roof design better for the porch. if gables it must have the same pitch or angle as the big gable.
Unless it is in bad condition wait on paint and work on landscape first. and painting storm door to match front door.

The porch roof should cover the entire porch (maybe even the steps too. Enlarging or baying the main window would make a huge difference. Instead of changing the bedroom windows, paint a band down to sill level across that entire upper section. Plant a mix of high and low shrubs with flowers (perennials) in between.

An alternative would be to extend the living room roof a couple of feet forward. At the moment, there's no sense of line.