Please tell us where you're located (nearest big city & state). Would you prefer a low maintenance design or do you enjoy playing outside? Got kids or a dog?

Nearest city is Louisville KY. Low maintenance. I have both a kid and a dog and 2 cats that try to venture out.

Do you want a front yard sitting area where you can watch your child play?

ETA: One last question: when inside your home looking out the windows, are there any views you'd like to block (like a neighbor who parks a huge RV in the driveway or a gas station on the next corner with flashing neon)?

No we don’t sit out in the front yard very much and we have chairs on the porch for that. I don’t want any windows blocked

I'm not suggesting blocking windows but rather planting a group of screening plants at the corner of the property if needed. Anyway, you need a couple of shade trees on the western/southwestern side of the house. Either red maples or willow oaks would be great, whichever you can find this fall. You should plant those ASAP so they have the winter & spring to settle in.

Next a few evergreen shrubs along the foundation - not a solid row but a few dotted along. Hollies, azaleas or yews would be fine. Add a tall holly at the left corner of the house.

With the shrubs you can use daffodils, daylilies, Autumn Joy sedum, nepeta and variegated liriope. Those are low maintenance plants that you're sure to find locally.

I'd recommend trees at the corner of the house, slightly behind --- probably evergreens and one lovely flowering tree in the front yard. You want foundation shrubs. Flowering evergreens are Rhodos, some azaleas and Mt. Laurel. A mix will get you a varied bloom time.

That's what I'd start with for the front. Of course, if you're facing south, that might be a bit too much sun. There are some Rhdodos that are sun-tolerant.

You want to pay attention to final size, so that you don't plant something that's going to block your windows or be too close to the house 5-10 years down the road.

Forgot to say I have a magnolia tree in the middle of the front yard

House is south west facing

Can I get some drawings? I am a more visual person which is why I have not made a decision with what I want just yet

Since the front of the house is SW facing, you need more than just a magnolia there. Where are your well & septic field located?

I’d use the small inset at the bottom as a guide to laying out beds so that your yard meanders through them. I’d also increase the size of your landing in front of the porch using paving stones.

Septic is in back

Here are a few ideas:

Gorgeous ideas thank y’all so much.!

Nothing in the picture above will to anything to help the summer sun baking that house. If the house faces southwest it is blasted all summer with the hottest sun of the day. I would want small trees to shade the house. They should be planted in deep beds (that is, deep from front to back from the house), at appropriate distance from the house with shade plants underneath. Such a planting can be quite low maintenance with pops of color from bulbs, small shrubs and the trees themselves if they are chosen well.

We don't know how far from the house the magnolia is, whether it's deciduous or evergreen and how large it is at this point. But consider planting at least one other tree that will grow large also at suitable distance from the house. And I would certainly want to continue the same type of planting directly to the west.