My wife and I purchased our first home about a year ago. We love pretty much everything about the house, except the curb appeal. The house sits sideways in the lot, with the entrance right next to the driveway/garage. The garage and part of the house right next to the front door were an addition added many years ago, which has added to the weird front entrance. We're looking for anyway to make the front entrance for defined and add curb appeal

The front entrance has an existing wood "porch", which is really just decking about 1' off the ground. There is no railing except at the front where the steps are. I fully intend of tearing the entire decking out the first chance I get, but need some thoughts on what to replace it with.

I'm thinking about adding a concrete or paver stone walkway beginning right around where the stairs are now and leading to the front door and then a few stone steps into the house. The total width between the house and the garage door is about 68", which would give me room for a 48" walkway and then some type of landscaping divider between the driveway and new walkway, so there is some separation.

Any thoughts or other ideas? I'm looking to keep this relatively inexpensive. We've thought about re-doing the entire wood porch and adding a shed porch roof with columns running the length of the porch, but that is just too costly.

Thanks for the help!

Matt in Michigan.