I am wondering what the original thought was?

I would definitely remove the wood fence directly in front of the house.

are you planning on some outdoor living space in front of the house?

I would agree that the fence should be removed. As far as plantings, I would definitely include at least one tree (three would be great), preferably native to your area. Personally, I prefer mixed shrub borders, but that is purely a personal preference. Depending on what they are, you may want to leave more space between your shrubs, especially those in the last photo-you want to pant for their mature size. The one next to the tree is too close to the tree I think. Be patient-they will fill in the space! You have some healthy lookig shrubs, so have fun. Move them around if you aren't really happy with them. That is the fun part!

ETA. Lovely home and the yard will be too when you are finished.

I'd paint the fence white and put some of your roses on it.

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I think you need to inject some curves into the landscape design. Too many right angles. Here is some inspiration.

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Thank you for your inputs!
We are not really planning to have living space on the front, but we do have a little porch area behind the fence where we like to hang out. We do have young children who like to play in the front of the house so my thought was to enclose the front yard so it would give them an additional area to play.
We live in the Bay Area zone 9b, it gets really hot and we have intense sun in the summer, so I was thinking to plant an olive tree (might be too many olive trees) which I currently have in a pot and I also have an orange tree that could be planted there.

This is the porch area behind

Honestly, if you live in the Bay Area, I'd go with drought resistants landscaping on a drip system.

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Don't try to enclose the front yard. Those bushes will grow bigger and obscure the house.

I could fit 100 roses into there!

The one thing I will say is shrubs next to a public side walk can get overgrown and leach into the sidewalk area, make sure you plant them far enough back off the side walk that they can fill out and not be in the way. Same goes for the fence line, you might get crowding there too. I like Dougs idea, bc creating a boarder around your front yard is kinda pointless. I would also think to remove that fence on the porch, and perhaps create a path to the front door and break up the space.

Great ideas above, definitely get rid of the railing. Don’t box the yard with plants, leave a line of sight from the street to the house.

You have a beautiful home. The shrubbery you have selected looks perfect. I would keep things simple and easy to maintain. A rose bed, if planted correctly, using varieties of roses meticulously researched for ease of care, will be a delight to care for. However, even a bed of Knock Out roses is not carefree. Watering, fertilizing, and pruning are minimally required. A step above Knock Out roses will involve possible disease and insect control in addition to the chores Knock Outs require. Dead heading is usually a weekly chore.

Roses need water. That's a fact anywhere, especially in your climate. Rainfall cannot be counted upon to keep your roses thriving. Besides a good mulch, you should consider a soaker hose or drip system that conserves water and minimizes effort. A watering system need not be expensive. I would not put in a permanent system, just one easily placed and changed by you as you see what works best for you. You do not want to spend time hand watering roses, especially with young children.

May I advise you to leave the front of house fence as is. It keeps the children from riding their scooters, bikes, etc. off of the front cement and injuring themselves.

In front of your fence may I suggest a bed of roses two bushes deep.

The back bushes' heights should be no taller than the fence at their maturity, so bushes that mature at about 4' H (and there are scads of them), would work perfectly. I would aim at fragrant bloomed roses, starting with Double Delight and Fragrant Cloud, then going on in your selections from these two outstandingly fragrant rose bush.

I would not grow climbers on your fence because of your children's safety coming first. A climber on the fence would have growth at a 6 yr. old child's eye level, not to say its potential to snag any adult that passes by it to closely. An occasional stray stem from a non-climbing roses bloom poking through the fence will be of little concern, IMHO.

In front of the 4'H roses shorter bushes such as: Bolero, Easy Spirit, Double Easy Orange, True Bloom True Love, etc., will finish of the bed wonderfully.

I would not go deeper than two bushes so that while caring for your rose bushes (pruning, digging, dead heading, fertilizing, etc.,...), you will be able to access the roses from the front of the bed with minimally having to walk into the bed. This keeps soil compaction down, and prevents you from getting nasty jabs and cuts from the rose thorns.

A rose bed in front of your fence would enable you to enjoy the roses' blooms while relaxing, seated in front of your house, but also delight in their fragrance wafting through the air to you.

Since you are in the Bay Area, Zone 9b, I presume that you can maintain a spray free rose bed, common rose diseases like black spot, cercospora, downy mildew are not reported to occur there. Rust and powdery mildew may be an issue there. Insect damage as from aphids, and mite attacks can be organically addressed as needed. You should be able to maintain a spray free or limited organic spray rose garden. Think of the children first.

Hope you got some pointers that help you in your undertaking there. I am sure that whatever you do it will be lovely to see, and an enhancement to your property.

I agree with Sabrina-some curves would definitely be in order! Trees would make a great addition,aesthetically but also practically,providing much-needed shade.

I would not put bay laurel trees along side your house. They get to be absolutely enormous -- tall and very wide. Our neighbor has a row of them alongside their driveway and the trees (now about 40 years old) are easily 30 feet tall and 10 feet wide, and need constant pruning. They also drop leaves year round and are quite messy. And they create lots of seedling trees all over the neighborhood when their seeds get spread by the wind; I am constantly pulling baby bay trees out of my landscaping. A real nuisance tree, in my opinion. The only plus: owls like to roost in them at night, as do smaller birds like white-crowned sparrows, because they are so dense and provide good cover for them from the weather.