amberm, we faced the same rules regarding facing our home to a side street-must face it to the address street. fortunately our plan was equally suited to facing to the address street. we live about as far south as you can get in southeast texas, so facing the house at an angle to the street which also happened to be due north was a good thing. the house has 12 ft wide back porch which faces south and southeast, garage is to the west, shading the west side of the house. 10 ft wide front porch extends almost the width of the house facing a lake the great room is almost all windows towards the south, but covered by the screened porch so heat gain is not bad (solar screens were installed on the wrap porch today and i was so happy to see they hardly cut down on the light in the house at all) porch overlooks 25 large live oaks and looking under them - while seated on the back porch, you see only rolling fields as far as you can see master bedroom and bath have windows to the south and east so we have nice morning sunlight also one of my favorite things prevailing southeasterly breezes so sitting on the back porch is wonderful we chose our plans almost 18 years ago and were so happy to find a site so suited to them (didn't purchase them until after we bought the land)

Polly, if you place that black sign on the lawn next to your dark brick steps, it will be very hard for anyone to see. The black color combined with your dark brick doesn’t stand out at all. You want the numbers to be visible from your street and that placard on the lawn isn’t going to work.

That’s a tough one, especially when so many friends and family gift us framed photos that don’t always necessarily go with our decor. I like uniformity, and what I’ve done is take photos I like and scan them and convert to B&W. Years ago I bought black IKEA frames and cropped and printed the family and friends photos in squares and framed them to my liking, and created a row of framed photos in my dining area, opposite my art gallery wall. I think it looks “intentional,” and I get oohs and ahhs from family who have gifted their photos to me. Then, you can regift photos back to friends & family in the gifted frames, if you like. Or donate the frames. I’m just particular!

Unfortunately the office in the bedroom is for my husband as he is currently working from home indefinitely and needs the privacy for phone calls and Zoom/Skype meetings. I was planning to have my desk somewhere in the main part of the house as I work at home occasionally, I still go in the office. Our house is 3 Bedrooms, Kitchen, small Casual Family Room in front of kitchen, and large open room (formal dining/living room) in the front entrance that is open concept. unfortunately there are no nooks, basement, or attics in the house which is why our space is limited. Each of the 3 bedrooms has a purpose: Master Bedroom that has limited space, Husbands office and he needs the privacy for phone calls, and the current guest room which will be utilized as a nursery/kids room in near future. The garage has both our cars already and we live in the desert where it gets over 100 degrees. So a gym in the garage is not an option.