Florida, Christmas Lights, and Yard oh my!

I woke up today with an intense desire to go to Florida. I have no idea why but its been consuming me all day! I was there a couple of years ago and didn't think there was anything that amazing about it, so I don't know why all of a sudden I just HAVE to go. Seriously, I have been looking up flights and hotels all morning. Realistically we have zero time for such a trip so I'm sure nothing will come of it.
Also, this weekend as we were taking down the Christmas lights (don't laugh, we KNOW that its February. Seriously people, we have NO free time) I realized that our front yard is in bad need of some sprucing up. It doesn't help that 2 of our neighbors have totally re-done their yards. Ours is looking pretty shabby in comparison. The people that we bought the house from planted a few things right before they put the house on the market and all of the plants have either died in the freezes or have grown into big monstrous things.

This weekend (in our free *har har* time) I want to rip out all the plants, extend the lawn, trim the tree, and put pavers under the windows and in front of the porch. Then Jerad can build some window boxes and I'll get some pretty pots to go in front of the porch. Any other ideas?

This is what the house looked like when we first bought it:
And this is it now (1 year 5 months later):
It was getting dark in these pics and half the Christmas lights are still up, but you can get the idea. This is the front of the house and I would like to remove all these plants and get pavers that match the walkway to put in front of the porch and a few rows under the windows:

This is the side fence that we will be replacing later this year with either a white, taller fence, or a stone fence. This is where I would like roses or some other plants:
I am thinking something like this for the window boxes, but with legs and stained a reddish color:

I need something simple that we can keep up with.
Then something like this in front of the porch on the new pavers:

Once the rains stop (and we come up with about $4000) we are tearing out the fence and replacing it. I was thinking we could plant roses in front of it?
These are other types of plants I like and will (supposedly) grow well in our area:






Any tips or suggestions would be greatly welcomed. Thanks!

Edit: After a few emails I'd just like to clarify that that little fence is not going to cost $4000, there is that fence and a big fence that goes all the way around our backyard, plus the rental house. Plus we need to build a retaining wall. Hope that clears it up:)