I am working with a client right now with a similar style home where the garage is the main focal point. I think it would be neat to experiment with some colors and maybe some inexpensive siding options for either the lower portion or the gables above the garage. Also, like you mentioned, adding some small retaining walls and creating a level or two would add some interest (depending or not on if you want a lot of front yard or none you could do some fun things with it. Post a few more photos and we can see what other ideas we can come up with.

Spend your money on landscaping -

The more mature trees, shrubs, and flowers you add to your yard, the less you will notice how plain the house itself is.

One thing that should be done is to have a sidewalk put in . Having to use the drive way to get to the door is not very welcoming. Add some more landcsaping further forward in the front and add some trees . Level the ground in front of the porch with some stone or brick planter and add some flowering perrenials. Your local garden center can help you with a plan if you can not afford a landscape designer. Find some larger lights - the ones there now are nice but seem a little too small. Landscape yard lighting is nice. Paint your front door a great bold color. That should always be it's own color. Find some bigger house numbers and put them over the garage door and take the tiny ones off the porch post .

Do you have a picture with the tree to the right side of your house? You could create a large planting bed over on that side.

Not sure how much money are you investing on the improvement, but the columns are a bit too small and the siding color looks really washed out.

I'd say a new color scheme for the house with a different color for the garage so it blends better with the house. I also agree with previous poster about the porch posts being a little skinny. Softening the front of the house with some boxwoods and hydrangeas would be pretty. I also think a flower box hanging on the front railing would be cute. You can do flowers in the spring and summer and little evergreens in the winter.

Congrats on your new house! If budget is tight, I have an idea. I would paint the foundation that's showing a dark color and then have some lattice (the kind that's already white) cut to the lenght of the foundation and attach it to the front of it.--so inexpensive! then plant 3 pretty evergreen shrubs in front of it and they will grow in a season or two. add a bright wreath or tin flower holder to the front door. you can buy --really cheap--grape vine--at a craft store. soak it in your bathtub over night so that you can unwind and bend it. wrap it around your porch railing--it curls and bends and looks so pretty for such little money. you might spend $15. then in the middle of the railing do a nice rectangular planter that hangs over and fill with bright flowers and something that trails down like ivy or creeping jenny. a bench in front of the windows with some pretty pillows and a nice doormat. that will get you started. good luck!!

When the garage door is the most prominent thing, it helps to have a beautiful garage door. I find that ones with some window in them just naturally feel more inviting. I'm adding a couple photos to show what I mean. Definitely add a walkway from the sidewalk leading to the front door and preferably not plain concrete. Bricks or flagstone are more attractive. Your front door needs to stand out, could be a brighter color to make it more of the focal point it should be. Most people have mentioned landscaping. You should work with a professional to design a landscaping plan. It will be worth every penny. Beautiful landscaping will also add value to your home, so don't skimp on it.

Changing the garage door is a good idea. Consider a pergola / arbor over the garage door. It will be a nice architectural element. I also agree with planting some larger trees to help ground the house. Larger columns on the front porch will put things in a more appropriate scale.

Wow - Thanks so much for all the great ideas! Our budget is tight right now, but it gives me lots of good ideas for the future. I think larger trees to ground the house is definitely something we have planned for the spring. The siding definitely needs a really good deep cleaning. Here is another picture that shows the right side more, and the foundation that I want to hide.

When your budget allows, opt for real wood shutters...they make a huge difference. Your garage lights should either be larger, or you could put a nice big coach lantern centered over the garage door.

Painting the garage door -- in this case, to match the shutters, since your budget is tight. There appears to be a grid pattern to the garage door; play around with the option of painting the squares blue, and hte grid white. That will make the door more noticeable, so you'll have to decide how noticeable you want the garage door to be.

I would vote for making the garage door less noticeable--

Wow, lots of great ideas, BUT this is your First home and everyone is on some kind of budget. I would suggest to start a scrapbook, you can do that on here with the ideabook of things that you like. This will be a cont. project, that will be fun, take pictures after every project and then in a couple of years you can look back at the transformation. Since you are on a budget, start with changing the front door color and some landscaping across the front. Changing out the light fixtures is pretty easy and will not cost a bundle either. Later on changing the garage door, changing out the siding, adding terraces would be nice and you could pick one project a year and have a fund for that. Good Luck!