When I first got my house the front wasn't so bad, but the back was an absolute disaster. After priming the siding the previous owners never actually painted so the wood wasn't protected and was rotting in some places. It looked terrible, like a condemned haunted house.
Right after I bought the house in September 2007, I prioritized having the rotten wood replaced and painting the house before winter came so that there wouldn't be any more deterioration to the siding and trim. I continued my chosen house color scheme of pale yellow with white trim and dark teal accents. Also, that fall the kitchen window (bottom left) and my scrapbook window (top left) were replaced with new, large double casement windows which gave me a lot of light inside while also making things look more uniform from the outside. 
That was the extent of what I accomplished in the back of the house before I moved to Japan and I didn't do much else until the summer of 2010 when I had a large half circle patio put on the back of my house. With the patio in the back I also had to have the gutter reconfigured so that the downspout ran down the side of my house instead of the middle of the back. That summer I also built myself some patio furniture but I never got around to painting it or making cushions for it. Last summer I focused on the front of my house and my herb garden so I didn't do much in the back so right now it looks pretty much the same as summer 2010 back there.
Long term, I have some grand plans for the back. I want to add a planter bed around the patio and fill it will boxwood and annuals. That may need to wait for a bit, but this summer I definitely want to paint the concrete foundation around my house a pale grey and then paint my patio furniture white. I also want to finish up making the cushions for my furniture so that I have a comfortable lounging spot back there.
Do you have any plans this summer for the back of your house? Have you recently completed any big projects back there?