We have a 2000 sq ft trilevel home in a rural neighborhood. We love the location but want more room and to update the look. We plan to put a large front porch and an 800 sq ft addition off the back, middle.

We need help deciding WHAT SORT OF ROOF LINE (gable,shed, other?) we should/can use on a new front porch(see pictures).

I really like the clean, crisp lines of craftsman homes, with some mixed materials on the outside/siding. We've talked about shake, stucco, stone, board batten, etc!

In addition, I really like the farmhouse style, which would fit in nicely with our location.

I'd love some suggestions or ideas on what we could do with the exterior new pieces. Will it be too busy with three gables across the front of the house? Could a shed roof (maybe metal) look nice and farmhousy? Or is our house just too "tri level" 70s to pull that look off? Maybe the craftsman styling would be easier to fit into the current house structure?

I've thought of trying SketchUp, but the learning curves is big on that one!

Thanks so much for any ideas!