You have to decide what your top priority is. That will answer your question.

We've been dealing with this issue with our architect (still in the planning stages). Our priority is outdoor living/dining. We eat most of our meals outside when the weather is warm enough, so having a covered patio is important to be able to do so when it's sprinkling or raining lightly--that would eliminate your first and fourth options, as we want our outdoor dining table completely covered.

Our floor plan has the second story bedroom windows overlooking the backyard--they're low enough that we wouldn't be able to raise the patio roof enough to make a difference, eliminating your second option. So for us, we went with adding skylights (with adjustable shades) to the covered porch.

If your priority is natural light and view, go with no patio cover. If your priority is outdoor living, go with a full patio cover.

In your posted plan - cover the patio and not the deck. the Patio covering will obstruct light only into 2 service rooms and not impact your larger windows. It will mean that you have to walk "outside" and then back inside - and down a step or 2 depending on your lot - but maybe a compromise?

I'd hate to put the covered area - skylights or not - in front of the entirety of your large windows.

I am neither a pro nor an expert, but raising the roof strikes me as a good option.

What part of the country are you in? Which direction will the house face?

If you are concerned about natural light in your interior, everything depends on the orientation of your house on your site.

You will have to tell us the direction of north on your plan so that we can assess light on the east, south, and west sides.

These windows will face South/Southeast. We are located in the Appalachian Mtns of East Tennessee.

Mark: Yes, we hired an architect originally, but they were charging $15,000 dollars for plans. When we realized that we were able to buy this plan for less than $1,000, we let the architect go, and started this journey. We love the plan, and it fits perfectly with our sloped, wooded lot with views of the mountains. We just want to tweak where the outdoor living space is.

"These windows will face south/southeast..."

Well...it's unclear which windows in the house you are talking about...but...if the windows in question are located in the major public spaces of the house I would never put a covered porch outside those windows. Never.

Why?

Because that is the direction of the best and longest lasting natural light all year long. It will fill your interior with natural light.

Locate your usable outdoor space, especially covered porches elsewhere.

You'll be glad you did.

Sorry! The sliding glass doors that are off from the dining area. In the images, there are four narrow panels (this is a 10x8 span) -- we're going to change those four panels to two large panels. But if you're standing at the kitchen sink, which is located on the island and looking directly ahead, you will look out of these doors/windows and be facing South. (I included an additional photo below to help with orientation.)

I'm leaning toward deleting the cover on that portion of the porch. In the end, the view out that sliding glass door, is one of two in the entire house. (One is in the living room with the three large windows across the front facade and looking out over the mountains, and the other is off of the kitchen.) From the kitchen, we will be able to look out over mossy boulders and a white oak tree that our state's forester said is at least 200 years old. (This is one of the reasons we chose to orient the house this way.) So, we have lots of other portions of the house's exterior where we can position a covered porch. Our lot is 16 acres, so space is not an issue.

Hmm, tough dilemma but here's my two cents worth. Being familiar with your location (I live not too far from there in southern KY), I think that unless you have a screened porch, outdoor dining will not be as pleasant as you might think, especially on a wooded lot being more prone to mosquitoes and Asian lady beetles. Therefore, I would either eliminate the porch in front of the dining windows or make it a screened porch with skylights. I vote eliminate it.

we Have a raised slate patio off the dining area. Instead of enclosing it, we left it open to let more light in the house and keep the view more open. Our builder put high electrical hookups on the exterior wall in case we ever want to add retractable awnings. I expect that if there are bugs, we’ll probably be eating inside most of the time. Outside dining is better though for messy meals, like steamed crabs! We can just hose down the patio.