Before you pitch the plants, I'd find out what you have and if it's usable. They're planted too close to the house, but maybe you could adjust the placement.

Why are you getting rid of any mulch? Usually, it could be covered with a top dress of new mulch and all will be fine.

If you want design advice, you need to show a complete scene, not just part of a house. Stand in line with the front door where the camera can capture the roof and about 15 feet of landscape space in front of the house. Then pivot the camera left (looking at neighbor's house and begin taking slightly overlapping photos while panning rightward until you capture the other neighbor's house. Post the pics. (Don't make a panorama of them.) Also, go across the street where you can capture the WHOLE front yard and post that pic, too.

If you are doing masonry work on the house this year, plant annuals or set out plants in pots. Any work you do has a high chance of being damaged by the workmen or by the lime leaching out of fresh mortar, so save yourself some heartache. I moved into a home that needed extensive work, siding, roofing, insulation, foundation, etc., and waited 3 years for foundation plantings. In the mean time I planted in other parts of the yard away from the house.

Thanks for the replies and apologies for the delay. I will be posting better pictures tomorrow (too dark now) and I'll reply to the other comments as well.

thank you again

Hoping these are better. If not let me know as I had to take these in a hurry. Reason for the mulch is two fold: Forst is because the previous owners put way too much down and it's almost overflowing and second is because it (in my opinion) just looks old like it hasn't been changed/turned over in quite some time. I could probably get away with just taking some of it out and then top dressing wth new but that's why I wanted to ask.

Also considering creating a border with bricks/stone/etc. but would like any opinions or suggestions. Thanks so much

Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it. Just out of curiosity what did you use to do that design?

The drawing is via MS Paint. A great tool to imagineering on photos. I use stylus and touchscreen. Only some tools useful with mouse.