Love your dog, one of my favorite breeds. Not a fan of the racket they can make but I ended up with dogs that are plenty noisy anyway. Le sigh.

Nice house. I'd paint the downspout to match the black railing until you have the chance to change that. Looks like the garage door needs painting, I'd consider repainting all the white wood to something that doesn't contrast so strongly with the brick, medium gray perhaps? Take off the shutters as they are too small for the windows. I'd paint the gable trim to match the gutters.

I'd run a swoopy arc along the front of the house 4-6' in front of the front walk as your planting area. That gives a narrower border along the walk and a deeper one to the left. Use a hose and make the arcs wide and easy looking with probably a 10-20' radius. Somebody just posted a link to an this old house article on foundation plants that looks perfect for you. Mulch with small sized brown shredded bark every year. To save money buy the small gallon sized pots rather than the bigger ones. They are large enough so you won't forget they are there and in 2 years will have caught up to the larger ones anyway. Measure where they go, it will look silly at first since they are so small. Fill in with annuals or broadcast the seed of weedy annuals like sweet alyssum if you like the casual look and need to 'edit' them forever after. If you are up to it you could plant an actual annual border around the baby shrubs this year and next as the shrubs take their place. Statice and cosmos don't get top heavy for me. Zinnias have a lot of presence but tall ones can need support. Lots of other annuals that grow a couple feet tall that you could use.

Thanks Sammy! I definitely agree with you about my dog - and he loves jumping in a picture!

I appreciate the advice, too! I have already bought paint for the garage door - just waiting on a couple days of consistently decent weather. For now I have just gotten plain white primer, which will probably look terrible. Should I try to get it color matched to the awful green that I'd rather get rid of? The siding and shutter are at the top of my last as well. Thanks again!

Here are some ideas - please understand I am limited by the application on things like columns. I'd replace the garage door and front door, beef up the columns and do a sidewalk to the street and to the side. Be sure to pull the landscape away from the house.

As another OP stated, shutters are not the correct size. They should cover the window when closed.

Some general suggestions:

If the walkway isn't wide enough for two folks to walk side by side, add a row of patio blocks or bricks on either side to make it feel more generous if you don't have the funding to fully replace it.

If you will be doing painting, replacing of the wrought iron, or any other work on the outside of the building, do that before planting anything within 15' or so of the building. I know it's difficult to be patient with a front yard that looks less than ideal - I lived with a front yard mess for a couple of years during foundation work, chimney work, painting, and reroofing that were needed on my house. But if you plant before the work is done, much of it will be damaged when the work gets done - broken branches, compacted soil, etc, etc. For now if you want some gardens, work on improving the soil by turning in compost or manure (a truck load is the most economical way to buy this rather than a bunch of small bags) and then you can plant annuals to fill the space and give color until the work is done. (The wrought iron looks like it might have good potential to use as trellises for vines elsewhere in the yard if spun 90 degrees.

There's also a landscape design forum over on the Garden web side of things with folks that usually have some suggestions on improving curb appeal. I'd love to see some photos from the road that include any trees you have and some idea of what type of gardening you will want to do.

I would paint the garage door, the brick, add walkway to the drive... and landscape, landscape, landscape!

Definitely get it matched to the "awful" (ha!) green. If you do that plus the other two things on the urgent list, it at least won't look shabby while you're putting together your overall plan!

And if I had to guess where you're located, I'd say the South. The dormant brown grass of winter looks awfully familiar, and I think I see a crepe myrtle on the left and maybe some scraggly pines in the back. If that's right, and you are in the South, I can offer you some advice in the selection of shrubs and other landscaping, too. :)

Use a light and dark charcoal for your house. Lighter for all that is paintable, including the trim around windows. Muntins are darker…great!

Absolutely, please remove those shutters. They are vinyl, do not fit and do nothing for your home.

JudyG: I think the window muntins/grilles are white.

Skyler, if you would like to see some virtual updates to your home check out my web site, Creative Visual Concepts.

I suggest removing the railing and not replacing it. It is not needed for safety and makes the porch look closed off. From what I remember the railing is bolted to the uprights and also to the concrete. See if you can unbolt it. I can't remember if the brackets unbolt or not, look into that. None of these suggestions should cost you anything if you already have the wrenches needed.

The doors are underneath a roof and appear as a black abyss. I would choose a different color. I like doors to have a color of their own, different from the shutters.

I am not punctilious about shutter size, however, double windows should not have shutters. Remove them from the porch window, keep the rest if you like them. Are the shutters vinyl or can you paint them? I think the black color is harsh and would use something lighter.

Since you are trying to save money I would not replace the garage door. I would paint it the color of the roof. Then paint the fascia board a darker shade of the roof.

The bed in front of the porch is not deep enough for shrubs. I would plant a uniform low groundcover. Leave space for annuals. If you give your location people can suggest specific plants.

I love the suggestion of a path from the sidewalk to the front door. It is worth saving your pennies. In fact, I would spend money there rather than on a new garage door.

I'd lighten the mullens - skip the green siding and pull a color from the mortar to paint the siding.

Remove the shutters and all the wrought iron. Replace the posts with two plain square wood posts. Replace the green with gray and white. Paint the door.

And then some major hardscape, because I hate to mow lawns when they're growing and I hate the way they look in the winter.

If you do change the color of the brick, we always recommend staining
the brick instead of painting. Brick stain allows the brick to breath
so it will never fade, chip or peel.