Stepping Down the Scale

Look at these pictures before and after the front porch was built:

In the first images, the new house next door has a front wall that looks tall and flat - not exactly inviting, maybe sort of imposing. Then the front porch roof is added, and the scale of that two-story-plus-attic gable wall is brought down to be more person friendly. Isn't that neat? Suddenly the building looks much more approachable and human scale. The single story part of the house on the left, where the kitchen, eating area, and mud room are located, does the same thing along the driveway side - stepping down the mass of the building from the high second story roof gently to the ground.