Now that I have all the pieces I need to build the Newport, I decided to give it a test run without glue and amazingly, very little tape.  I am in love!  :D

As for the porch, I watched way too much HGTV over the weekend.  One show featured a curb appeal revamp of a red brick house with a large covered front porch including a seating area.  The Newport has a front porch but it's too narrow for any sort of comfy chair.  During the dry build, I took some scraps of wood, foam core board and some railing sections to build a quick and dirty front porch mockup.   These parts are in no way cut to fit together and it's missing the stairs and the second floor end post, but I rather like it!