Cottage Flowers, I love your brick pathway. The bricks are a very nice color and the curves are generous. I have a brick sidewalk from my kitchen door out to the arbor in front of the house (I have an old farmhouse so the kitchen door is the only door). Mine is made from antique bricks which are a bit wider and taller than bricks made today. My walkway is 8 bricks wide and would be ideal at 10 bricks in width. One thing you could do rather than to add more bricks, since I know how pricey a long walkway like yours can be, would be to use mulch as a space saver along both sides. Put down like a foot of mulch and plant your flowers a foot back from that. That way when your plants grow and flop at their adult size you still will have plenty of room to walk along the pathway and visually the path will seem wider and not be a tripping hazard. I would also suggest that very early each spring that you use some Preen on your walkway and gently sweep or brush it into the cracks of your pathway. It will prevent weeds from growing up through the cracks which will save you HOURS in weeding time and chores (not to mention frustration). Be sure to add small trees and shrubs (even some that are evergreen) to back borders and along the fence and house so that you have interesting things to look out at during winter or when your flowers are not in full bloom. I'm assuming that this area will be seen from the street so when planning where your plantings will go you need to consider how they will view from the street as well as from the pathway. Your garden has great bones and I think you are off to a great start. Enjoy the process! MeMo

Shutters should appear to be operable, so they would need to be as wide as the window... so if closed, they would cover the window. So no shutters on your house. I agree with taking out the boxwood that have been butchered. If you take the bed all the way to the sidewalk, you need a pocket bed on the left side. Yes to learn more about pruning the Crepe Myrtle. Ever heard of Crepe Murder? It's a thing. LOL Honestly you don't even have to prune them. We had several over 30ft tall at our last house, but you don't want one too tall right next to the house. Having lived in the South all my life, I don't have a problem with the grass since we get rain. No idea where you live, but the grass looks healthy. Unless you want to spend every weekend gardening, or hire a gardener, I would not go to the extreme of removing the grass. If there room for a wooden bench on the front porch?

So what are you looking to change in the kitchen? That's one area that I think you need to really focus on as that is the 1st impression when walking into you lovely lighthouse and what will help you ask for more $$'s. Do you have a budget to gut it? As now would be the time to do this. As far as the furniture. Start with doing an inventory of what you like and then determine if it is comfortable and practical for yourselves and guest and how many guest it would accommodate. Like your dining table only has 4 seats. Will that number reflect the number of guest that will be able to stay in your place? If you can let's say sleep 10 you want to be able to seat closer to that number at the table. Looks like there are only 4 possible seats where the TV is. You want to optimize the space for renting. If you live in a 2nd home area, you may find good finds on Craigslist and Face Book Market Place which will help with your budget.

Wow, some really great insights and a lot for us to think about. Here is what my house currently looks like. As you can see, we are trying to keep the existing space as intact as possible. Maybe this drawing will help with some of the thought processes? As you can see the current layout is what it is, and I'm trying to work around it. Most of the houses in our area have our design. If I make it 'optimal' then we've invested in the house more then we would be able to recoup 10-15 years down the line. If I take the current living room/kitchen area and open space that (so we can open it up into the backyard), then I feel that it will be smaller of a space and that the master would be on the noisy street (vs keeping it in the back and quieter). But I am very grateful for and appreciate all of the suggestions. And yes, this new plan is from a real architect. :/