Making Progress on Curb Appeal for the Front of the House

Whew!  It's only been nearly a year since I more or less settled on a slowly evolving plan to add some curb appeal to the front yard and front facade and "stoop" area, a plan that's been evolving over the past four-plus years!

Last year I made a big push and I ordered (and received) a bunch of items:  (1) new porch light (2) tall shutters to frame the picture window (3) new address plaque (4) new mail box.  As a reminder, this was what I started out with when I purchased the home in 2014 (listing photo, below):



One of the first things I did after I moved in (July 2014) was paint the old black mailbox fire-engine red, with possible plans to later paint the front door red as well (still to be done).  In 2015 I added planters to flank the front door and filled them with annuals:



And that was the way it stayed, more or less, except that the grasses started dying out and the small viburnums weren't doing well.  The flowering tree on the left (I don't know what kind it is, it gets covered in pink blossoms in the spring) and what I think is a purple leaf sand cherry on the right anchor the ends of the house, and are thriving.

In 2017 I decided to stop spending money annually to buy plants for the front porch planters and I bought two artificial topiaries through ebates online from the Home Shopping Network to flank the front door.   I also added a 57" tall white vinyl trellis from Home Depot to fill in the blank area between the two ranch style windows on the left. I finished things off with a new coir "Welcome" mat for the front door that I saw in HGTV magazine.  I found it at Steinmart for a great price.

I won't bore you with all the details about disappointments in trying to find a reliable handyman in 2018, making appointments only to have them cancelled, etc.  Suffice to say, it was not a fun time.  I have neither the tools nor the skills to do the sort of installs that were needed, and I was stuck!  Feeling so stuck, and wondering if I'd just wasted money buying items that were never going to be added to my house, I  didn't get around to painting my front door red like I wanted to, even though I bought the paint!  I had originally planned for everything to be finished by July 4 - 2018!  It didn't happen.

So here it is, nearly a year later.  And, finally, some progress!  On May 24, 2019 my new handyman arrived and did the installs of the items I bought last year, hooray!  I also added new plants under the picture window to replace the items that had died out over the last few years, leaving a large blank spot across the front of my house.  I added a second set of white planters I already had to the stairs and filled them with white "Pot Mums" that look like daisies.  More to do, but here are a few pics:

Of course bad photographer that I am, I didn't realize I was taking a picture of myself in the storm door, LOL!  Ignore the woman in the glass! 

You'll notice I have two address plaques.  The one underneath the light is actually inset into the brick facade on the house, there isn't anyway to (easily) remove it.  I thought that the new light fixture would mostly cover it and that's why I custom-ordered a new plaque and installed it to the left of the door. 

Still more to be done, but it's coming along - finally.  The next step will be getting that front door painted, and adding a cement stone border to line the garden beds.  I have the paint, I have the cement stone blocks - I just have to do it if it ever stops raining!  Five out of seven days, rain rain rain.  Including today, Memorial Day.  Ugh!