Can we see a drawing of what you're proposing. I'm sorry but I lost you on your description.

Thanks, cp. This is probably about as helpful as a box of rocks, but here goes...

This is basically a double porch. I've seen them attached inset from the house corners but usually symmetrically, i.e. 8 ' in from both front and back corners.

We're leaving the middle section of the bottom porch level open so we can have cover for unloading from vehicles into the mudroom. We don't have a garage.

We're removing the current screen porch because we never use it. It's too small, it's a pain to carry food etc downstairs, our best views are from the second floor.

I'll attach a birdseye view drawing to show the offset.

looking down, lol

One reason I thought maybe this maybe might be okay is because the porch/house void would mirror the existing entry void in the house, as you looked at the front.

I'm wondering if there would be a way to extend the roof over the porch instead of that secondary roof.

cp, I think one issue is the roof pitch of our main roof. I think the porch requires a much flatter slope - 3:12. I probably did not draw the porch roof correctly. It's going to have to be a shed on that side.

MamaG, you are the best! Thanks so much for weighing in and for your visual. I do always wonder why we live here at this time of year. It's like being trapped in a dystopian novel series.

I love that you left our mini doxies. You should have changed them to something more impressive, like Sheperds. Or Wolfhounds

We're going to add stone around the house base and the entry will have the sided half walls not just the column. And landscaping.

Thank you again. I feel better that you think it's okay.

Decorate for the dogs you have, not the dogs you wish you had.

----very muddled Magnaverde quote ;)

I think your pups are great!

Yes it could still be flatter but come out from the main roof. I'm concerned about what will happen between the house roof and the porch roof in terms of water runoff etc but I'm no expert.

This isn't your house, but could something like this be done?

Note how it comes off the main roof but it is a different pitch.
Here's another one but this one creates a gable so probably wouldn't work

Barn, do you live in OH? I do, and the grey skies just won’t let up this year. You should be prepared for the loss of light that second story will cost you to your first floor. Are you planning to replace those second floor windows with doors to access the upper level?

cp, I've admired that house in your first photo for so long. The contractor and DH are hashing out the roof issues and at our last meeting terms and concepts were flying around over my head. I'm picturing something kinda like your second photo from the few concepts I could grasp.

eam, we live in western WI. and the light issue is a good one, thanks. It's one reason I was hoping to setback the porch from the west living room windows. But we have windows on all four walls with no blocking interior walls in a narrow space, so we're hoping that shielding that west wall will actually cool the house. I pull the west curtains and blinds now in the summer.

We were planning on changing those windows into a door but then realized it would be about seven feet from the back patio door porch entrance, we'd have to thread past the table to use it, and since the window space is larger than a patio door, it would either have to be custom or we'd be repairing that wall.

barncatz- This is a fun project! I'm curious about why a porch vs. more house?

I like it wrapping around to the steps. The roof would be similar to this, no, but what does that do to your ceiling height on the top level?

The gently sloping roof seems to be called a shed roof. How much snow do you get? We're in MA and had roofs in the work collapse due to horrendous snow a few years back.

OB2B, the house has a "garage" but we finished the interior, inc. wiring, drywall, over five years of weekends and the garage was storage, then was too small for our vehicles. Our second priority over the next couple years became building the barn, pasture fencing, and a hay shed so we could move here full time. We parked outside but the horses were all set!

When our adult daughter visits, she uses a blow up mattress in the office, and we love the interior spaces as is. Our living room is basically a sunroom in the summer.

Several years ago, we met with an architect, drew detached garages with walkways, attached garages with living space above. We priced them and mulled priorities and here we are.

We get a lot of snow, you're right, the porch roof will have to accomodate the snow slide off the gable roof above it. I gather it would be much harder to tear part of the existing roof off to extend it, as cp thought about, than to slide a new roof right under it. Plus, our main roof is corregated asphalt and DH wants metal over the porch. It will be more like the left porch but picture the porch roof attaching to the house right under the gable overhang, not an extension. I gather. Our first thoughts were indeed something like on the right.

What do you think about the setback idea to clear the l.r. windows?

Here's another one, but with the 'porch' space enclosed. The next owners can do that when we're dead and gone. The lower left corner of the main space is a bit like ours, too.

Hi barncatz, thank you for the additional information, it sounds like a wonderful place to live! I would love to see more pictures of the views and your horses.

"It will be more like the left porch but picture the porch roof attaching to the house right under the gable overhang, not an extension."

Did you mean the left porch you show, in the picture below? That looks very nice!

Regarding the setback, I don't see why not - but I'd suggest continuing to search for pictures (I am horrible at visualizing things, but if I can see something, I can then start to deconstruct it). Here's a mock up using mama_goose's expert photo-shoppping and the porch you show above. It might be fun to tie in color with the trim on your large window on the right.

ob2b, sorry, just saw your post. Here's a photo of the house from one of the pastures, and a partial sunset view from the to-be-built porch.

The house was designed with a roofed porch extending off the house's lower left corner. The 'front' door is inside that porch. We're taking off that roof and demoing any porch floor outside the house footprint. We will have shingled kneewalls bordering that recessed corner, with an opening lined up with the door and steps down to grade. We'd also like to add a shed roof over the two gable windows. In for a penny, in for a "let's ruin our summer with construction!"

And this is the porch design I just found. I did keep looking for examples. I love the shingled kneewalls and wrapped posts on this porch, which is what I had wanted for our corner. It's offset next to a corner window and I think it looks fine. We were also planning on hog paneling, since our back fence is that, and they also used them. Full sun, so...climbing roses!

Thanks for circling back. I'm like you, when I found the photo, I was thrilled.