updating our Home.

We moved into our home about a year ago now *a little less*. We have always loved the look of our home but we thought it needed a little POP... the pine in front was taking over the beauty of our home and also blocking the view when we tried to back out of the driveway.
We LOVED the pine as many animals lived in it and the songs from the birds are so beautiful to hear..The last straw tho was, when my dh was unloading some rocks out of our van, one rolled under the tree and he was sprayed at by a skunk... he wasnt sprayed, but the smell was over powering so, we decided instead of cutting it down to cut it up... the birds and such would still have a place to live.. but, the skunks could find a dwelling place elswhere.....
Also, the older gentlemen who had owned the house before us had a real knack for matching.. he did an excellent job of matching all the paint all over the house PERFECT (I am talking on the outside) so much so that it wasnt until about 3 weeks ago that I even noticed we had shutters on our front windows ... how sad is that? but they blended in with the brick wonderfully..
Here is a before picture.. you can see how well they matched. You can hardly notice them
Here is our after.. the color I chose was like a buttercream... I loved it on the door but....
now the shutters REALLY pop....I am getting used to it.. I think I will like it more once I have my window beds in.... I think its just the shock of not "having any" to having them now...

Our next project is to get rid of the two shrubs next to the porch... all of the bushes in the front are small ones and those two do NOT match and stick out.. we are going to dig them up and put a couple smaller ones that match in the bed... also, I want window beds for under the two smaller windows in front!