New paint color on garage and door immediately to left of garage to match the base color of house whatever you choose it to be. New windows, new landscaping, remove tree that is too close to house, make entry focal point with color and door.

I like the window boxes, and maybe some simple shutters (3 vertical slats and two narrower horizontals) in black. Some hedges or greenery of some sort in front and definitely paint the trim, doors, and siding.
As for the brick, you can take some wood stain in two different colors and just paint it right on to a FEW of the bricks on the house, maybe 10 total. We recently flipped a house that was very dated and plain and these same changes did WONDERS to the look of the house.

Hedges and foundation plantings are so old-school these days, gdodd22. A mixture of perennials, evergreens, ornamental grasses and annuals are much more attractive and a lot less work.

I appreciate everyones ideas and Carolines sketch is great! Gdodd22, do you have a picture of the painted brick look you mentioned?

I suggest that everything that is wood be painted black, including your window trim. Front door a bright, contemporary color. Design a walkway from your drive to the front door and invest in outdoor lights.

Thanks Ryan. If I were you I'd keep it simple and stain the brick a deeper red.

A real classy look judyg

An after picture---sorry its not great. We've already sold and moved and the realtor took the pics off the web. If I can find a before pic for comparison I will.

Okay, you'll have to zoom. The previous post is the final picture. The two here are the home when we bought it two years ago, and then a middle phase which was better but not quite right. I hope you like it!
Also, thanks to Sweet Caroline for the advice, I'm no gardener, but I agree with you that hedges are old school. We are building our dream home and I need to figure my landscaping out!

I really like judyg's ideas. I have to say that removing the tree would be a mistake. It gives shade to the house and would take 20 years to get a tree that big again. Instead ring it with stone and fill it in with shade plants like hostas. Right now it looks odd because it is all alone. If you have room on your lawn add a three-clump birch farther out toward the curb, to the left of the big tree.

The tree not only stops the eye and disturbs the landscape design it is dangerously close to the house in case of storms, disease or old age. A general rule of thumb is not to have a major tree within the distance of its total height . Shade is not the major issue when most homes are air conditioned. Aristea I love the sage green trim against the yellow brick but can't get used to seeing a forest in the front landscape . I suppose that adding a lot of colorful woodland shrubs and plants might make it more attractive. I dislike the way the entrance to the house is set back and would like to see the two gables joined by a decorative wood arbor and columns to give the house balance.

I love Sweet Carolines idea - but would add a contemporary lined trellis to the front with some accent lighting for that stone walkway near the house - some tall grasses and it would be awesome!!

Sweet Caroline. My house is air-conditioned and a landscaper convinced me to take out the large tree in the front yard. My house faces west. big mistake. No....make that BIG MISTAKE.