I would stop at the gutter and transition there into foliage.

The whole area would probably be fine if the bed were properly planted with small shrubs and groundcover.

Your beds look awfully wide for nothing in them. How long have you lived there? I am thinking if you rummage around a tish you will find holes where bushes were planted/died and were pulled up. Perhaps they got too much sun and no water if that is full sun there? In my world that area would have a lot of blooming flowers to take you throughout the seasons. It appears you are low maintenance where outside is concerned so maybe you should look into flowering bushes? To suggest plants we would need to know your zone/soil type and more about what you mean by 'full sun'. I don't see the point of adding decking or expanding the cement pad (my first choice) if you aren't going to "hang out" there. Walkways are more welcoming if they have a curve..maybe if you backed up a bit and we could see the path you walk from parked car to door we could help more. Even a large pot with flowers would be cheery.

It looks like only a little grade difference that you may be able to eliminate steps entirely. I would recommend making the stoop spacious, extending it further outward and turning it to connect to the drive, as a nice, wide entrance. (I'm scratching in some placeholder plantings, but the view is not really the one to use to formulate ideas about foundation plantings.)

Where are you located?

Do you like the full sun on your windows between door and gutter?

If not, more porch could shade your window -- you could add a forward facing gable over your porch.

Like the suggestion/pic from

Yardvaark.

I wonder if anything happened with this project ...??

At first look, I didn't notice it was from the past. Was thinking that IF there was to be a patio here, it would be nice to pull it a few feet (6'at least) away from the house in order to create a normal foundation planting, such that the patio had a backdrop of plantings.