My only advice would be to take a drive around your local city's downtown surroundings and check out the "infill" construction going on. A lot of eye candy to be had and since narrow lot size isn't a new dilemma, you have many traditional and modern facades to choose from . Do you have architectural standards to adhere to, like how tall the home can be? I would also advise to take a look at modern modular homes since many narrow lot or infill construction looks very similar at an outside appearance.

If you've got the budget for it, you could look into alternative garage door hardware to disguise the garage door. This is what we did on our Little Creek Residence ( http://eggfarkarch.com/little-creek-residence). Sorry, there are no good photos of the door in action, yet. The closed door is on the right side of the left/middle photo. Here's the hardware we used - it takes a lot of care and attention to detail to pull it off: http://www.bifold.com/door_think.php

Hi Jen, no matter what you do, the garage will dominate the front elevation. You could try to disguise it a bit by blending the garage door material with the siding.

Thanks for the suggestions and advice, I really appreciate it!