scdeb424, You've probably asked one of the toughter questions for this forum, since it is so subjective. Your house sounds similar to ours and we put a covered front porch on 3 years ago. About the best I can do is tell you what we went through with our porch project. 1. First, do you want something that is more decorative than functional? Our decision on this was easy, since we wanted a functional porch - we don't have a deck out back of our house. From the few references we read, a functional porch should be at least 8 feet wide to accommodate furniture and not feel crowded when people are on it. I would have liked a 10 feet wide porch, but our lot was too small to make that look proportional to the rest of the house. (Maybe all you want is a covered entranceway that utilizes your existing stoop). 2. Next, we did not find all that much in books and magazines on the type of front porch we wanted, with the exception of this web site: http://www.vintagewoodworks.com/. There is a picture section with a couple of hundred pictures of porches that might give you some idea. So, what we did is start looking at houses around us that did have porches as we were out doing everyday driving - what did we like, not like, think we could incorporate into our design, and so forth. Once we started looking for porches, we were surprized how many there are out there. We did not find the "exact" porch that we wanted, but we did find a number with features we did like, so we could tell our contractor what we did want. 3. If you do decide on a "big" front porch, then the landscaping around it becomes almost as important (at least I thought so). I found a book in our local library that had a section on landscaping around front porches. We ended up incorporating some of the ideas from that section into our final project. 4. For us, landscaping also included putting in a new sidewalk - since our contractor had to tear out the old one. We incorporated the new sidewalk into the porch/landscape final look so that it all blended together nicely. 5. Use a good contractor experienced in front porch construction. Our contractor said he really wanted to do our front porch because this type of project really showed off his work. Most rear decks are so far removed from the road that it is just about impossible to show potential clients his usual work without getting permission from the owner to come onto their property. A front porch though, all he has to do is tell people to drive by. In addition, there are a lot of finishing details that a good contractor can suggest. For example, we were not sure what we wanted for the ceiling. Our contractor actually "surprised" us and used tongue-and-groove knotty cedar. The look is pretty stunning, and we get a lot of complements on it. Good luck with your project.

you would need an architect first. I would advise someone reputable and that has worked in the area and knows what your town codes/bi laws are, i.e, set backs from street, neighboring properties. But more importantly structure of the house, and a cohesive design to it.And then hire a G.C.

Hi everyone! We are looking at buying this home and doing a full renovation. We think the front could use some added curb appeal and I think adding a front porch with a change in pitch to the roof line is what it needs. But it has a brand new slate ($$$$$) roof and that is the part that terrifies me. We’ve done a major renovation before but never anything that interfered with a roof. Can anyone explain the process of doing this and how it will effect the existing roofing materials and what kind of costs we can expect regarding this? Here is a fancy sketch of what I envision.

If you incorporate the existing garage closest to the house as a porch, then, if you add your two car garage with its door(s) facing the same direction as the door of the house -- not the direction of the existing garage door(s) , you could also extend the right wall of that garage several feet in front of the existing garage and create a shelter/overhang over the existing garage doors that lead to the front porches -- the one created from the existing garage adjacent to the house that could be connected to the smaller portico at the front door of the house. Driving in, you'd not even see the remaining garage door behind the new 2-car garage. You could connect the two garages with a door. If you like the style of your home ... if you want to keep true to the original design of your home, contact an architect to design your porch and garage addition. Putting up just any porch roof or even a smaller portico roof might not turn out as well as it could.