Keep the shrubs trimmed and add some container gardens with colorful flowers. Put a large one on either side of the garage and maybe add a couple of hanging planters at the front porch.

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The window next to the garage looks like an oddball because the other windows on the front of the house are smaller. Either remove all the shutters or add shutters to the new window. The landscaping is so overgrown I can't see your front porch.

Don't change the color of the gutters unless the body of your house gets much darker. Gutters and downspounts aren't design features. You don't want to emphasize them. Don't paint the brick if there is any other option especially if it is on all sides of the house. That's just a way to turn a no maintenance surface into one requiring maintenance. Can you post a picture of the brick from closer up? How much of the exterior is brick?

I would just take all the shutters off the house and put all your money into landscaping. I can understand the urge to replace the metal support column but a cedar one will just be chunky and the house will lose some of its floaty quality, which would be a shame because you have a heavy looking roof. Dark gutters will only make the roof look heavier.

I would shy away from overloading with flowers. The style of your sprawl-house is meant to be carefree and open.modern living. Get rid of the dense bushes and do low relaxed plantings -- although you will probably neee some trees or taller plantings in the area of your big window., with an echo of it on the other side of your driveay. You might even consider a well-chosen tree on the lawn near the big window, just to screen it a bit.

It's a perfectly nice house that only needs some tweaks, and you shouldn't feel in a rush unless you are trying sell this place pronto. You can just add and fiddle as you go along once all those bushes are gone.

Good ideas above. Try painting the shutters white to match the new big window's siding surround since the siding looks like shutters.

The biggest change would be to trim the overgrown shrubs to a height below the window sills.

Don't paint the brick since it harmonizes perfectly with your highly visible roof. Do remove all your shutters since they just draw attention to odd window sizes.

Hire a landscape designer or work with a small garden center designer to create new foundation planting beds--something simple, but low. Until you do that, trim down all your shrubs in a natural, not shaved, style.

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Down the road, as budget allows, you could create a planting bed within the lawn for visual interest from the house..

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Inspiration photos for creating a nice entryway from your driveway and give yourself a front patio to sit outside, wave to neighbors, sort the mail.

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Other front yard seating spaces:

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Island garden on lawn, low foundation plantings:

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No to the black gutters.

Here's a ranch that reminds me of yours. I hope these photos convince you to put all your budget into landscaping and not painting brick or doing much else. It's a very nice house already!

Agree with all above re landscape and remove shutters. Strong no in my books on adding anything black to what could be a timeless exterior.

If you wanted, you could build/trim out a wooden box around the metal column and paint it your trim color - having a nice square column there would beef up and simplify that corner of the porch-

we did this to 2 columns on a ranch - it was inexpensive thing that really cleaned up the façade

Thanks for all the suggestions. Chainsaw is ready to remove the bushes. Not sure why the previous owners put those there.

It’s been a rental for a long time so we didn’t care much about updating/upgrading just kept it nice and clean. Now that I am actually going to live there I want it to be as nice as possible.

Paint the trim and the gutters the exact color of the brick.

Obviously your roof is brown tone, but this is the idea; paint the clapboard the exact brown of the roof and add the shutters you want.

B.M Mt Saint Anne for front door.

One other thought. You might consider painting your garage door to the siding / brick colour so its less of a focal point and makes the house look bigger / more unified. Along w the other suggestions re clean white larger post (I just did this on my bungalow) and landscaping focus.