Do not change the soil level around the oak by creating a planting bed. Your oak is splendid and protecting it needs to be your first priority. I would grow moss around it's root zone.

Running shrubs or a planting bed along the sidewalk would make your small front yard look even smaller. Just grass there please.

Your windows are rather low but you could use low shrubs (Blue Pacific junipers maybe) and impatiens there.

Holly Fern, Cyrtomium falcatum, would make a nice groundcover plant under the oak.

Here are some ideas:

Liriope spicata will establish around that tree as will many groundcover Epimediums (some are clumpers, you'll want a groundcover type). Another great plant would be Geranium macrorrhizum, an evergreen groundcover that needs no attention whatsoever--not aggressive and it flowers in late spring.

NEVER remove that gorgeous tree unless it threatens house.

Belated thanks for your suggestions! The tree is like a member of the family - the arborist told me he sometimes drives by just to check it out - but it can be a headache. I feel like I have to rake year round and we've had a few issues over the years including roots in the sewer line while we were renovating. And if it weren't there, we could improve the driveway layout for our busy street. But for now it stays, and hopefully with some new sod and plantings it can look half as good as the visual by @Dig Doug's Designs! We had a cold snap - 30 degrees these past few days - but our lawn guys have promised to install any plantings I get when they re-sod, so I'm eager to get started!

What an adorable house - you did a fabulous job with the renovation and I love the bigger windows and nice color. You might also paint that white downspout the same color as the house - the vertical white line definitely jumps out.

I think you did a really wonderful job with the house, it looks so much more balanced now.

You definitely don't want to disturb the roots or raise the soil level around the tree's root flare as that would essentially smother it.

We have a very large, old maple that is one of several significant shade trees for us. My husband had been wanting to take it down for years but I've fought him about it. I've finally accepted that it needs to go soon--it keeps losing so many large parts of itself and has started to die off. I've ordered a Scarlet Oak as a replacement. I'm excited about the oak because they are such ecologically important trees (read Doug Tallamy if you're interested).

Good luck!

You probably can limb it up by removing lower limbs, which will get you more light. . Some trees react better than others so talk to a tree service.

Hostas will grow anywhere.

Well the sod and schip laurels are now installed - more quickly than I expected so I didn't have any new plants yet. And the landscapers mistakenly left the yews in front of the oak so I have to pull those out and generally green up the base some, plus clear out the old acuba japonicas and do some new foundation plantings and black eyed susans in front of the house. I've already planted a few wild geranium in front of the oak, maybe I can add some hostas. The back yard also needs some plants but new sod makes a huge difference.

One more question for all of you - should I fill in the schip laurels with a few more? It's already an improvement, but seems a little sparse.