Would love some input on adding curb appeal to our 1971 bi-level! I'm much more a colonial girl so bi-levels have never been my thing. I love the inside of our house and never felt the outside looked as good. Nothing really bad just bland.

We have a limited budget and our plans in the next few weeks are to:
add stone veneer to our stairs and new vinyl railings
rip out the big bush in front of the steps
get a new front door and sidelights (thinking white sidelights and red door)
add a new light over the door
paint the shutters either a dark gray or black
redo the stone around the planters to match the stone on the house (I hate the brown stone now with the gray house)

We do not have any plans to change the siding- just too pricey and it’s in good shape so unnecessary.

Somewhere down the line I would like to add a bay window but that is low on the priority list.

If more budget allowed itself we would want to veneer the entire bottom level of the house but we are also just thinking of veneering the exposed foundation and leaving the siding in place to save $.

Also in our dream vision we would add a portico but we had that priced out and is just way to out of our budget.

Thanks in advance for the input. It would be so helpful to get an outside opinion on this.