I'm in a rural area, so I have no authorities to answer to on building anything.

The main reason to not make it seperate from the house is that I'm going to have it right there at the house, so why not use it as part of the structure?

Then again, maybe building it freestanding would be easier than drilling all those holes in the foundation to mount the ledger. I'll check that!

Thanks for the comment. It may have just made my life easier.