I would start with landscaping. It will change the entire "look" of the house. Tear out what you have, and add trees, shrubs, flowers. Look at what the color/texture does for this yard!

Change out the concrete by the patio door with a paver option - add some inviting furniture and large pot with flowering plants.

How far does the roof extend on the front of your home? Can you add a porch without re-doing the entire roofline? If not, you could add another paver patio by your front door, with a nice wavy walkway to the road, one around the house, and a nice stairway leading to the lower patio.

Some option to go

I removed shutters.

No dormers!!😳 Celery’s design with the portico and boxed supports is good, but apparently the sidewalk is going in the wrong direction, and the 2nd floor windows make no sense. Lose the trees, and the sidewalk should go RIGHT towards the parked cars and driveway. The slider to the patio should be replaced with something more attractive. Does the patio need to connect to the front entry? How will you use that space?

Good catch! Sorry I did not notice cars... :-))

Celery’s pics are great! It depends on your budget. If you do not intend to do such an extensive change, I would get a professional landscape/ hardscape plan.

At the very least the porch posts should be changed to beefier wooden posts. A walkway, retaining wall, patio door reno is needed. Any door that you choose should have window treatments that are attractive from the outside as well as the inside. An extended and dressier patio surface are needed.

It looks like there was a garage conversion, which didn't do this house any favors. It's a funny place for a patio. I'd convert it back to a garage.

@ShadyWillowFarm when you say “the 2nd floor windows make no sense” are you reiterating your dislike of the dormers or the two windows on the left side of the house?

@Celery. Visualization, Rendering images these images are great!

@latifolia we too believed that was originally built to be a garage but it never was one…..maybe builders messed up who knows….

@RappArchitecture there is no garage. They have spoken about putting it on the right hand side where the driveway is but have a septic field right next to it so they are challenged with building a solid structure. They would have to move the septic tank.

To start, get rid of the shutters, get new posts, and landscape.

No shutters, larger lantern lights (1/3 of door's height,) and posts instead of wrought iron supports. Then on to landscaping. If you want to keep the patio where the sliders are, upgrade the doors and add a pergola over the patio. You could also shield it from the street with some kind of screening effect when you landscape it. I like Celery's rendition except the large dormer cannot likely be supported by the home's current structure and doesn't look like more than a cosmetic, but useless, fix.

I would paint the exterior. The light gray is kind of blah and gives the house little personality. A deep navy would allow all the white trim to stand out. Or a deep charcoal.

Looks like the lower level was a garage that got used as interior space. Can that be converted? Moving your septic on the right side of the house sounds like a HUGE job.

You house is fine. The pale gray paint with white trim is a bit boring. If you don't need to paint, then pick a bright color for the shutters, a blue just shy of navy or a pale blue both might go with the gray.

No house has curb appeal on a dreary March day with yellow grass.

I'd put in some more landscaping, and transplant the middle tree elsewhere.

If you are going to use a wraparound porch, by all means put it in. If it's just fir looks, you won't get much bang for your bucks, ditto dormers.

That steep slope is probably murder to mow. I'd plant some native ground cover. Creeping juniper is easy.

RappArchitecture i think the garage got converted, and now there's a sliding door.