Thanks for your thoughts Hollysprings. We did look into renovating/adding on to our current house. The house is 85 years old and it would be nearly as much to renovate it (including the price we paid for the house and lot) as it would be to build a new house. We have been doing a lot of work on this house and anticipate we can sell it for nearly the price we paid for the lot and house together (minus the cost of the renovations we did). We really want a full, finished basement, high ceilings and we don't want to deal with the quirks of an older house, even a renovated one. If we tried to tear this house down, the ARB would come after us with pitchforks. It really is a lovely house, but it just isn't the house for us. Even with all the restrictions, we feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to build from scratch in such a great location. Back to your suggestions, I am almost certain we can get a variance if we need one to put the driveway right on the property line, but I think ground level improvements are permitted anyway. We could also put an easement on the driveway of this house and have a shared driveway or put ours right next to that one if we really wanted to, but the location of that garage means we would lose a good amount of courtyard space so we could back out (I have actually tried this with my car by driving in my yard). I am reluctant to try to share and I loathe backing out onto the street. I can live with it if necessary, but I really don't want to do that for the rest of my life. Right now, my husband parks in the parking lot anyway because our cars won't fit in the 20x20 garage. I could reverse the L, but we can't put a privacy fence between our house and our neighbors. We could have a 4', 50% open wood fence, but even that might be a fight with the city. I am not much for maintaining a lot of plants, though I am hoping to put garden beds along the 8' setback on the south side of the house. We currently have a 4' hedge acting like a fence on the parking lot side and it is a pain to maintain. I am nearly certain the ARB would not approve any building over the driveway, but we could have a car port there if we really wanted one. I am pretty sure we can fit three bedrooms over the front if it is 26x36. That is as much space as we have for all our bedrooms now and it is more than enough for our two girls, a small guest room and one bath. I have also thought about putting a gate in the back of the fence. The challenge will be that the church has some kind of agreement with the city that makes the parking lot public during non-church hours, so it won't just be up to the church. We have kicked around the idea of putting an motorized gate and asking the church just to move one parking block so we can go in and out if there isn't a car parked there. We will probably have a gate back there in any case because it will make unloading furniture much easier than dragging it through the front entry of the house. I doodled a few more plans today and I keep coming back to the 1st floor master as the cause of our layout problem. I guess we are going to have to decide if we are really committed to being on the first floor. It is funny, we have almost everything we need now in an 1800 sq ft house but when we add an extra 700 sq ft, I can't get everything to fit!

As I mentioned on the other thread, we looked at thermally broken aluminum but ended up with Milgard fiberglass because we could get black inside and out. Also wanted to note that you don't have to have the same coating on every window to meet the codes (although you wouldn' want to change on the same wall.) We had a spreadsheet with the square footage of each window and the performance of each coating and tweaked it considerably to get the average to meet the code, which is what is required. It's a little odd because the code seems to assume we are in an air-conditioning climate, so solar gain is considered a bad thing, whereas we were trying to get some solar gain on our south side. (think we ended up with 3 different coatings on different window orientations.) Good luck! (There were some additional specs with the Milgards that you'd want to take into account if you go in that direction. I'd have to look them up.)

Consider that before paver companies got so creative, it began with a simple brick shape and only a couple of colors. The colors are usually not pure, but mottled as part of the manufacturing process. (Cannot tell from the mfg. literature if this is the case here.) There are innumerable attractive, time-tested patterns that can be constructed with the standard brick shape: basketweave, herringbone, running bond, modified basketweave, stacked bond & probably more. I doubt that anyone who installed paving from these simple options was unhappy with the result. Personally, I prefer these 'old school' options. They always looks nice and stand the test of time, while many of the new color ranges and patterns that have been developed since, look unpleasant from the day they are installed! The one's with sharply contrasting colors in the mix look blotchy and garish to me. The one's with high texture can be difficult to walk on, if ever someone would show up in heels for the patio party. Barefooters might not care for them either. The 'Miami' model, with its uniformly wavy edge and perfectly rounded corners, looks like a fakey facsimile to me. I don't care much for the one they call 'Cobblestone.' 'Old Canada' seems OK in the picture, if the color is not too wild. But you cannot go wrong with the 4" x 8" brick. Another one I've found to look very good is the 4" x 4" square in running bond configuration. An important fact to keep in mind with paving is that light colors reflect the sun and can be absolutely blinding. It's almost always the case that darker is better. I would stick with grey, charcoal or red. I would also forget about white cement. It's for those who love a purer color, but generally, this is not an improvement outdoors. Usually, white cement costs more, too. Whatever you do, you can only get so far in narrowing choices via online or print materials. When you get it honed down to two or three possibilities, you must go to the paver yard and get samples. It is the only way to know if you're going to be satisfied with the end result. Get a half dozen of each sample so that you can mock up enough to give an idea of the result. Look at it on site from a distance in order to get the best feel for how it will look with its surroundings.

I know double doors seem to lend a grand feeling, but I picture them more on a castle or a church. One front door would look better in my opinion, a style that compliments your home. Agree with comments on simplifying for a more cohesive look. I always wonder, how many times people actually open both of these entry doors. Possibly just at move in time? Not to mention, would they be weak points for break ins along with all the glass?