You are right to worry about the garage door looking like a converted garage door. It will, and the reason is the placement of the framing. The header is considerably lower than the upper edges of the other openings in the facade, and there is nothing below the bottom edge of the door. The architecturally consistent thing to do (and it's not the cheapest way by a long shot) is to resize the opening to match the double windows to the left of the front doors, and installing a matching pair in the rebuilt wall. That means tearing out several courses of brick and replacing the structural elements inside the wall to support the narrower opening, adding the lower section of wall, reframing for the window, and filling in the brickwork. It's not easy to do, particularly when you will need to match the brick, but if you do it at the same time you build your addition, you'll have the trades already there to accomplish it. You already have a section of siding on the front of your house, and you could conceivably use the same siding to create the new window wall, but unless you are considering painting the house to make the old and new materials the same color (and that's a reasonable option), I think you will disrupt the balance of your front facade.

I can relate so well. Not building-but majorly, majorly remodeling plus adding..the house was gutted to the studs..it's like building I guess but sillier and more complicated.. I can't believe we put 2 years of our life into this thing. I can't believe we went for that gut and all..I will never, never even count all the numbers we spent, including two mortgages and a rental, yes? together-and if I will- I will never tell anybody the truth, and will try to forget it myself. I feel it's the worst money spent in my life..that just giving this money away to all the people who might need it, would make me so much happier. At certain stage, I wanted to blow up the house. I'm serious, lol. Actually wanted to blow up both of them-the one we still live in, and the one that's being remodeled-and just go somewhere far, far away from this monument to my stupidity. I can't tell you how many mistakes we've made. Well our GC too, lol. But us! One of the windows looks like a prison one because DH insisted the grids should be proportional not to the window itself, but to the window next to it, and I couldn't convince him. Well now he agrees)) The bathroom got so complicated they screw up the framing in every side and direction possible. Instead of redoing it from the beginning, they bought us another tub-smaller so it would fit lol. They tried to keep to the original idea-but it reminds me of a white and shiny coffin:) The fireplace is dangerously close to look like a s..tshow- infuriating, especially after we made a separate contract, to change the fireplace. Half backyard died or started looking real sad 'cause no water in the house for months, and hard as hell to water going back and forth 50 times with a bucket, and there is drought here in So Cal, so no, not enough. The amount of materials that got wasted..I don't want to go there even. The amount of time spent on all this is beyond everything I imagined going into this remodel. And yes, I found these forums only when all this craziness was slowly coming to its end:) Yep..the worst time is definitely close to the end of the build. We're almost done..I think March to June were the worst. I snapped on our GC! Me! I never snap on people! Unless they're family lol. And you feel like he's a family already. Or at least somebody really close to you. Like a cell mate)))) It too shall pass. Life will find a way. As it always does. And some things you-and me-we'll forget them. And some will stop bothering us. And some we'll redo or start to do later. And some will be told as a joke to friends and to family. This idiocy will turn out to be the place where we live. It will always have the idiotic part about it, but we'll stop being so dead serious and sad about it. We'll just continue with our lives. And hopefully-we'll enjoy sometimes too. Because there is the reason for this idiotic house. It was there when we went after it. It still hides there:) And each time I enter it, mad as Witch of West-it winks at me, and I become nicer:)

^In both plans immedialy above, you could change the swing on the front door so you have a better view at the entry. You could also put up a small wall, half or full, to get that foyer entry. Something interesting.

i am so sorry to hear about your situation...... designing and building things can be a stressful, expensive and time consuming effort. remember the architect, contractor and client have to work together to make sure we build cool stuff….. i assume you are very happy with the design and your contractor has developed a realistic cost estimate and schedule for the project. remember, its really important to keep the architect involved with the process. when the architect is not maintained during the build, often the design intent is not maintained throughout the process and changes are made that compromise the design. as far as gaining permits and the process…… sometimes that is a moving target and can be a mess. here is what you should do: call the super duper lead architect and ask him what you can do to streamline the process. ask if it would be possible for the project architect (who prepared the plans) and you can set up a zoom meeting to discuss. face to face, in a clam way, will go a long way to managing expectations. during that meeting, write down the tasks that need to be completed and an estimated timeline for each item. if this seems like a long timeline, then ask if they have any outside permit processing firm that they can engauge to streamline the process. after you handle the permit issue expectations, call the super duper lead guy again and discuss the process going forward on the project. a) discuss value engineering on the project if that is needed to adjust the cost of the project b) discuss construction administration services that the architect will be providing during the build process. make sure your contractor or whoever is running the project has weekly meetings with you, the architect and the construction superintendent. make sure every meeting has a agenda that is sent out before and a follow up email that shows what was decided and what open items are assigned to whoever is responsible. we do this and it helps move things along. remember the building process can burn up lots of resources very quickly and making decisions, resolving issue in a timely manner is very important. stay inspired ! doron dreksler spire architecture inc www.spirebuilt.com