Darn, messed up the link....I'll try again.

Here is a link that might be useful:

In my parents neighborhood, It is common to have a side porch.
The neighborhhood is in a historic district and the homes were built between the 1900 and 1930's. The homes are Georgian, Colonial, Colonial Dutch etc. If you home is any of these styles, it will look fine.

lkplatow Your house is beautiful.

I love side porches! In many of the older neighborhoods with beautiful traditional homes in our area, a side porch must have been a requirement. It's unusual for them not to have one. The side porches are usually recessed a few feet from the front of the house and extend out for 15' or so.
Originally the porches were screened to "catch the breeze." Now, with air conditioning, many of them are glassed in. Whether glassed or screened, the porches afford wonderful landscape views on three sides. We'll have a 10' wide screen porch on the side of our new home---just wide enough to accomodate the 5' porch swing my uncle made for me 25 years ago. If you have a screen porch, you must add a porch swing!
lkplatow, I love your porch. It's a great size.

WE LIVE on our screened porch all summer. It's in the angle between our breakfast room and DR. Be sure yours is going to be big enough for whatever furnishings you want to use out there: table & chairs, sofa, club chairs, *swing*, whatever. I'd like 12 X 15 better.

Be aware that a porch on the south or west sides gets pretty hot by afternoon. East is good. North is good. Ours has a cathedral ceiling with two skylights in the east angle; that keeps interior spaces from feeling gloomy in the winter months.

I'll be the voice of dissent. I like side porches that are an integral part of the design of a home. I very much dislike side porches that distract from the home (mostly homes that add a side porch at a later time), and I never think that a screened in porch should be part of the front elevation of a home. It is far too casual for most homes. With that being said, I understand your reasons for wanting the space, and they are very sensible. Make sure that you get design help...sometimes these seemingly small changes add up to BIG aesthetic changes. Pay close attention to roof pitches. I don't mean to step on any toes. I just have a different perspective.

Our new lakeside home will have a screened porch on the side. It's part of the roof line to the rest of the house, so I love the way ot looks. I think if you intergrate it
into your design, it won't look like an afterthought even if it's on the side.

Attached pic is a view from the lake looking at our house.
Screened porch is on the right. (There will also be a covered deck under the overhang along the back.)

By recessing the screened porch, it can be tucked into the landscaping making it nearly invisible from the front while also providing privacy.
A homeowner in my subdivision requested permission to add a screened porch to the rear of the house, but it would still have been visible from the street. The Architectural Review Committee granted approval only after additional landscaping to conceal the porch was made part of the proposal. And, you are right, dixiedoodle, the roofline created a major conflict between committee and homeowner.

Here is a porch added to a 100 year old gambrel colonial on a cliff.

Thank you all so much. It looks like the side porch is a go! I will be sure to integrate it with the roofline to have it look like it wasn't an afterthought. Can't wait!

Another vote on north or east side. I have a side porch now on the southwest side and I can use it for about a week in the spring and a week in the fall. The rest of the time its too dang hot. My old house had one on the north side and I lived there.