OK - So here are some photos, if these help. The first photo shows the drive-up view from the street at ground level, so not much roof showing. Really, not much roof showing from the street at all from any angle. The second photo shows the view from down the street looking back towards the house. The third photo is a 'head on' from our across the street neighbor's front door. The planned addition will be on the right side there, replacing the brick wall and brick garage with a structure similar to the one on the left in the same stone, but with more glass in the center. The right side is is where the roof pitch might be different, changing from 4:12 to 6:12. Between the two stone sections, the center area will be mainly glass and will have the front entry. And the fourth shot is a rendering of the proposed plan. The roofline in the rendering is shown at approximately 6:12 on the right, 4:12 on the left.

@chisue - The width across the front of the house is about 77ft and from the front of the terrace to the back of the keeping room extension is about 66ft. I don't think that will appear that massive, will it? OTOH, I do have a concern that two sides of the screened porch are formed by the walls of the house and that will make a rough surface to bump against. (I know screened porches don't fit the idiom, but I've lived for nearly 20 years in Houston, so I'm having my screened porch, dagnabbit!) I'd like to incorporate another, "plainer" material to lighten things up a bit, but will need some "hand-holding" from y'all to be able to get it right. @sweeby - I'd do anything to have it the lovely, soft cream of Hill Country limestone, but I know I just shouldn't do that in SC. We do tend to favor warmer colors, so I hear you. We were looking at samples on one stone vendors website and, independently, we admitted to each other that there were certain styles that made us feel "calm". Odd how we came up with the same word, but I think it is a good sign. PFFFTT!!! for being too "refined" for Houston. I'll always be a Jersey Girl, at heart. LOL!!! @archie_123 - Those are very characteristic of Houston-type designs and we'd give those a good looking over if we were building here. For Upstate SC, we're looking for something a little simpler to sit on our wooded lot. @mightanvil - you have the most inspirational photos caught at the "magic hour"! What sort of stone and grout would give us those kinds of looks? One of the things that really caught my eye in your pix is how the plain stone lintels make such an impact on the look. Is there a technique we could specify that would give us the "patchy" appearance of the buildings in the foreground of the last picture? Are the rustic and louvered shutters mixed on the same building or are those owned by different people with different tastes? Thanks to all of you for the inspiration and help. You have no idea how supportive y'all have been and how much it is appreciated. Jo Ann

Katieebs: A good design solves ALL design constraints so there's no having to choose between, for example, the plan and the exterior design as you are doing. Both would be accommodated. In lieu of copy and pasting the thing let me just point you here: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3178541/question-for-architectrunnerguy-or-others?n=24 Look at my post 11 posts down, not the one at the top with the colored drawing. Read the part about internet plans (spoiler: Very helpful) and the part about bags of $100 bills on the table. Sometimes I think I take the owners hard earned money more seriously than they do! I only point you there because since posting it, I've gotten some private notes, none of which I'll be doing the designing because they aren't local but all of which are looking to spend some six figure number of their hard earned money the best way possible in an endeavor in which there are no "do overs". Especially when that huge amount is weighed against the fee for a morning of conceptual design work by a creative thinker. So there has to be some interest there and may be you might too in getting someone creative that's local to look at improving the design. But good luck! EDIT: My crude red box was meant to illustrate a diagramitic concept (moving house FORWARD of garage), not moving those exact spaces IN the box forward while leaving the kitchen where it is. Sorry, that's me thinking conceptually!! No, the kitchen would relate to ALL other spaces the owner wishes. That's what separates great design from average design, both of which cost the same.

Agree with Virgil about context being everything, so without that, there's lots of guessing. We also have a house on a narrow lot (vintage 1919) and houses nearby, though not as close as in one of the photos above. We did take into account which windows line up with which of our neighbors. On one side, we used obscured glass in the bathroom window and the other window has a cellular shade that is always down. It still brings in a wonderful soft light. the other side of our house is downhill and we leave the dining room window shades halfway down to obscure the roof of the one-story house, but open up the view to the sky. My point is that you just want to make sure you've thought all that through so you are not surprised or disappointed. Our house is very light for this climate, but it might look odd on a floor plan to see where the windows are placed. I would like to see some sketches of your house with a gabled roof, though.