I like Porch #1. (A copy of Porch #1 on a wider footprint than your current porch...another 12'' or so added width on both sides of the door & sidelights.) Extending a long porch along the front of your house will shade the windows...depending on where you live, that could be good or bad?

Thanks everyone! I believe I will go with wood posts only. Annie, we have the material onsite for 8inch square, but I'm going to look into going maybe 10 inches or more on the posts. I agree they must be substantial with that roof line. Daisychain01, I'm not sure on the color yet. We will wait until this summer before painting. I think we will definitely go lighter than darker. My asphalt roof is very prominent on the sides of the home with Brown, grey and green in it. It's going to be trickey trying to come up with a color. Any suggestions would be welcomed. I'm not sure what we will do with the porch floor yet. I don't like the maintenance of wood, but I sure love the beauty of it. My home faces south, but with the generous overhang, I beleive it will be protected more than the one I have now. Kswl2, I purchased the metal roof from Bruce and Dana. The color is Charcoal. I also loved their Forest Green, Blue and Red colors. Thanks again everyone! I will post a photo when we get further along.

I agree with Dingo about sun exposure. H. arborescens doesn't much like full or western sun, though it wants some sun to bloom really well, so it should be fine in the exposure you described above. H. paniculata in my garden is fine in full day sun, though farther south it benefits from some shade, but with the bright shade involved here, it still should bloom and grow well with morning sun. I have a friend with Bobos in part shade, part sun and they look happy. One difference between the two is that H. arborscens suckers some, so for my Annabelle, I have to remove suckers once or twice a year (ususally fall and then in spring for the ones I missed) if I don't want it to overtake the surrounding shrubs. I don't know if all H. arborescens are quite as vigorous as Annabelle. H. paniculata doesn't sucker so in my garden is less work. I had an injured knee that made much garden work difficult to impossible for about three years, and here's my Annabelle, unchecked for all that time, but if kept maintained it is a lovely plant.(windowsill sits at 4' to give you height.) I would look at the summer color and fall color of various H. paniculatas and H. arborescens in your size range along with the shape and density of the flower heads and how upright the branches are. Only you can decide which appeals to you the most. They should all bloom well for you.

Iesp, to truly work out all the issues in front of you .... you must have a base plan. We've been dealing with aspects of the problem not knowing EXACTLY where the parking, driveway and obstructions along the way, are, if any. We don't know the exact elevation difference (to the inch) from the front porch deck to a fixed, relevant point near the parking destination. One could make estimated guesses about what could be done, but they could be wrong because, at this point, the base information is vague. I feel quite certain, though, that the solution to a pleasant walk from the parking area to house is going to involve regrading with some specific goals in mind. Presently, the steps are concentrated at two areas: the porch and at the bank. The steps at the porch seem reasonably acceptable. But the steps at the bank are too many to create a pleasant experience. Ideally, you'd want to have banks of few steps (usually 2-4) separated by runs of a few feet. The runs, instead of being perfectly level, would be "slopes" so that they're also instrumental in lowering the elevation as the walk travels on toward the lower destination. It is the combination of steps and sloped walk that allows one to have the overall best walk experience ... not too far ... not too steep ... no wasted energy. (I put "slopes" in quote marks because they cannot be perceived as slopes. They must be subtle enough that they pose no danger or difficulty. Yet they must be doing some grade change work.) We haven't seen the porch yet. For the sake of argument I'm going to guess there are 4 steps there. At the bank there are six legitimate steps. With a total of ten steps and a total drop of 11' (averaging the estimate) .... it's a hugely unpleasant walk!! I would consider seeing if the parking area can be raised a bit. Every amount that the overall 11' elevation difference can be shrunk helps a lot. It's a lot easier to step on a gas pedal and get the car to do the work, than it is to get out and hoof up a bigger hill. It wouldn't make sense to lower the elevation near the house/porch/steps. But it would make sense to begin reducing it earlier than it presently begins (at the bank). I don't think there is a reason you must keep all of the plateau that the house rests on. If you walked a few feet from the porch and then stepped down 18" and kept repeating this scenario, the overall walk would be much friendlier. You could pull this off with an elevation drop of, for example, 2.5' for 10' or so of run. Since the overall run looks to be easily greater than 40', it should be no problem to get from the porch to the parking in a very pleasant way. BTW, an 8" step riser is HUGE. You'd want it to be more like 6". Bouncing back to a covering-over-the-porch issue, without a MAJOR architectural remodel I don't see a permanent porch roof as a possibility. But it might be possible to have an independent awning, not attached to the roof in any way, that covered the porch as an independent "roof." Two forms I could see exploring are the pyramid and shed roof shape. It would be something one would have custom made by an awning manufacturer. Since they may have already dealt with your exact problem, I would contact a local outfit and inquire if they have solutions already in mind that would work for you. It won't be seen from the back side so the fact that it wouldn't be architecturally kosher from that view wouldn't matter.