I've seen in other mini-forum of DL and some explained you need the 'a' between the verb and object or whatsoever, I can't remember. The point is there's always 'a' and 'a' only, I guess
Not sure about that...but the further I go it seems like TO ME "ir a" is going somewhere specific, while "ir hacia" is going towards a direction. So I guess it is "Mi madre va hacia frente a su casa."