NBR - landscaping advice w/PIP

ArcticFox

Hope you guys don't mind.. I posted on the gardening board but I didn't really get help.. I'm getting desperate because we'll probably rip the stuff out soon and I have no clue what to do. 

Anyway when we bought our house, the plants hadn't been maintained. I tried to trim the plants with a hedge trimmer, and they look SO much better, but they are still in sad shape & scraggly (PIP below - the dark green hedge, and the 5 arborvitae on the right).  At this point I plan to rip them all out and start from scratch.  The branch you see at the top of the pic is a huge oak in the middle of the front yard, so I'm trying to make the house look a little less crowded.

 

We actually ripped out some half-dead azaleas along the house and replaced them with euonymous bushes (on the right, below)

 

I like the euonymous plants - green year round, low to the ground.  Any suggestions what to replace the arborvitae/evergreen with?  I plan on making a mulched bed like the euonymous are in (on the other side of the walkway where the evergreens are).

BTW we have a two story house, the porch goes along the length of the front, and next week we are getting tan/beige siding.  I will also neaten the bricks and the borders around the beds etc.   Thanks for any ideas!  Like I have no idea what to do.. hostas?  New "baby" cedars?  Like plants vs bushes?