Designing Our House's Exterior (in my dreams)

This is what I do when we have absolutely no budget, but I am desperate to work on improving the house. I used to have to do this all in my head, or with magazine clippings, or my very poor sketches. Now I have the wonder of the internet and my own little blog to work things out! If I could just find the time to learn a bit of Photoshop or Google Sketch, I'd really go to town!
This is my recent doodling on Crestview Door's website. If you compare it to the earlier one I did last winter, you may notice that I sized the door better and did a lot of whacking back of the front shrubbery. In fact, the juniper bush on the right is no more; just trying to open up the porch a bit more. I also started taking off some of the badly peeling paint on the chimney in a fit of energy one day when the guys had a ladder going up to the roof. Anyone have a sandblaster and would like to finish it for me??

One of the first things I'd like to do to the front is add a sort of shutter. I know we can do this ourselves, because we did it before, and I don't think it would cost much. Later, a new paint scheme, restoring the brick chimney and possibly reworking the approach to the front door (which is now from the right side, via the driveway). Here are some ideas I've collected, and I need your opinions! I think fresh eyes will definitely help me. As you can see, I'm leaning toward having a door with diamond lites someday.
The first "shutter" idea that I saw that I thought would be good for our house was this:

Or a version like this privacy screen:

We really need new gate on each side, and I love these:


So, should the shutters carry on the diamond motif, or is this just getting to the point of overload? Should I think of mixing shapes (door, window detail, gates)?


Go ahead, jump right in with your opinion and tell me what to do! It's all fantasy at this point anyway!