Landscaping....

We have big plans for our little house, both inside and outside.  As it's been getting nicer out we've been working more and more on the outside plans- talking about what we'd like to do, sowing grass seed where the above-ground pool used to be, clearing out under bushes, that sort of thing. 

By the end of the driveway we have two little fences and two giant rocks, one on either side.  When we moved in they looked like this:

Last summer my mother helped me clear them out and put some plants in.  Now they look like this:

Closer to the house we haven't done much except add some mulch and some pachysandra around the two red maples that flank the driveway (you can see one in the photo above).  We've cleared out under the bushes alongside the house and have trimmed back the rhododendron a bit but that's all we've done.  Here's the front now:

Plans are as follows: 

1. Paint house- we're thinking a grey-ish, green-ish, blue-ish color (very specific, I know!) with black trim.
   
2. Patch and paint brick stairs.
3. Move slate stepping stone path from backyard (used to go to the pool that's not there anymore) to the front.  Also reuse pavers in back in front of the stairs.
4. Add solar lights along the front path.
5. Replace lights on house.
   
6. Eventually install railings on the stairs!
7. Get bushes to grow into a more natural shape instead of with flattops.
8. Move stone edging out farther into the yard and fill in with plants.  There's a tree just to the left (out of this picture) and we'd like the stones to go around the rhodo and the tree to tie them into the bed more.
   
9. Move those little holly bushes that are in between the yew bushes and the stairs and put something taller there instead.

Hopefully, when all is said and done- it will look something like this:

I think that other than painting the house we should be able to do it fairly inexpensively by moving things from other parts of the yard and reusing some of the stuff we have like the slate path.

What do you think??