Just revisited this post.
..We closed on our home in Feb and spent a week there enjoying the view!

The Lanai ended up being 10'8" deep and 31 ft long. We have 2 large sliders opening onto it, a 9ft and a 12 ft. So the entire LR/DR wall is basically open to the Lanai.

The 1 ft that Design "gave" us to work with helped so much. We did steal 1 ft from the LR/DR and put that in the Lanai so it is really a very comfortable outdoor space.

Because of the 20 ft of glass on that wall, the inside area seems very spacious too. We are very pleased with the way this worked out.

We noticed a neighbor with the same view has put in a beautiful stacked flagstone block sort of patio with the half walls. It is beautiful, nice place to grill and entertain.....giving us lots of great ideas stirring around in our heads....

Thanks for all of your experienced ideas and suggestions! We want this to be our last house and we wanted to get it right! So far so good!!

Now we just need to wrap up our lives in Utah and get down there to start our lives as "Frogs". That one week at closing just got us more excited about the move!

Thanks again Friends!!

We have an 8' lanai and it it just too small for most furniture. Being on a corner lot we can not expand to the rear and the side for some reason has a 33' set back (not 20') and our side yard is huge... so we are pretty much out of luck. We decided to do a 19x28 patio with a raised wall. For some strange reason that is allowed but you can not put a screen to enclose it because that makes it permanent.... What? Who comes up with this stuff?

I know where you are coming from. A side lot with a 33' setback makes no sense to me. Why are some 20' and some 33'? Most side lots have plenty of room for a pool or lanai expansion but isn't allowed???? Doesn't make sense to me either. I'm surprised they allowed you to go out 19' with a patio. We were told only a few feet further out from the setback for a patio. Our setback is 33' and the side of our house is 43' so we could only go 10' wide for a structure (birdcage) that attaches to the house. I agree, who makes up these rules?