I need help with the front of my house. I hate the inset area of our front door due to the small amount of space. I would love to "beef up" the front entrance to make it more useable and appealing. I have a couple of ideas but don't know a thing about porches, etc and need advice. I need to have some kind of idea of what I want before trying to hire someone. Btw, what kind of person do I hire? Can you help me pick the best option?

Option 1:

Long front porch all the length of the house, 60'. I would like for it to be 8' wide decking so that we have access to our pipes if it becomes necessary. I would also like to have a roof connected to our existing roof which is a hip style roof with 3' overhangs. I have no idea of costs, but I am sure this is the most expensive of the options. If I go with this it would have to way out bang the others to make up for the costs. Does anyone know what price I am looking at roughly? I live near Baton Rouge, LA

Option 2:

An entry porch only reaching from window to window. It would be 15' X 8' in decking material. The roof would connect to the existing roof either with the same slope or one that you suggest. This would give me room for a big potted plant on either side of the door and still have minimal seating.

Option #3.

Courtyard with pergola. I am not sure if the pergola should connect to the house or not though. It is really the same as option #2 but with a pergola rather than a roof. I have a rough drawing of the courtyard but it isn't to scale.

So any ideas? Costs? Etc? I would love to have room for a couple of chairs or a bench at least to overlook our 1 acre front yard.

Our house

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Here is a link that might be useful: our home