Sounds like a good project that will enhance the looks and value of your home! You should have your architect spec out all those engineering details in your plans, as your AHJ will want to see a copy of those anyway when you apply for your permit.
the new roof will need to have the weight placed on the exterior wall of your house,placed above the right side of the big living room window. house soffit will need to come down to accommodate new roof line and then soffit re built on out side of new porch. If you do a ridge roof beam you can have vaulted ceilings under the porch, otherwise you will have a flat ceiling under the porch...Thats for the advice.
I've already called to verify the setback and it is good as long. As a matter of fact I could go as far as 10 feet without having to apply for a variance, just figure a 7 foot deep porch would liook nice and not out of place. I don't really want it to look like a room addition as it will never be enclosed.
I am already planning on putting footings in for the supports. Just have to decide if I'm going to locate the footings only where the supports are of put in a footing around the perimeter of the slab to allow for a much more solid foundation. Cost will go up and it may be overkill so I'll talk to the building office when I draft up my plans.
The house connection makes sense and I was thinking I would tie into the house above the brick but below the roof line. Not sure how easy it is to see but there is about 8-10 inch trim board up there. Thats what I'm unsure of on the attachment but it sounds like I'll have to cut into it to see if it can support the weight and connection or add a post closer to the house on each end to help support the weight.
As far as the metal connectors and strapping. Hadn't even gotten to that stage of thinking yet so thanks for the reminder. I obviously don't want this thing to fall apart in from teh first wind gust that hits it.