turned down by HOA & approved by village

Help! Built home in new community-prior to signing contract we were told by builder sales manager (who, of course now remembers my family, even my son's name but can't remember specific most important conversation we had)that we could build addition(dormer) over garage of our two story home with attached garage--she pointed out in HOA ccr-"THe height of buildings and structures containing dwelling units shall not be increased above the height when initially constructed." which we all understood as you can't make a two-story a three-story-so we closed the deal. Now of course since the builder turned over HOA to a board--the board turned down our plans to build dormer using same Article that was shown to us by sales manager saying we could add on.--village officials say they have the authority and in the declarations-it states "None of the covenants, conditions, restrictions or provisions of the Declaration are intended to supersed or prevail over the ordinances of general or specific applicability of the Village...."--contacted builder v.p. and he said if we have the permit-go ahead and build---the builder never intended to prevent homeowners from adding on to homes just not to make a two story --a three story and so forth.. but of course when i asked him to provide a letter-he handed it to their attorney and said he couldn't get further involved since the association had already been turned over. I've also been advised that the Village of -------- has adopted the International Residential Code as its official standard for the construction of homes and building additions. The IRC has a section called "Definitions." The definition in the IRC of "building height" is: "The vertical distance from grade plane to the average height of the highest roof surface." To arbitrarily declare the roof of the attached garage as the height of the building disregards the IRC. If the garage is attached, it is not a separate building. Because the association's ruling does not follow the IRC, it is ignoring a village ordinance. The village would almost certainly take your side in any lawsuit.---do i have a chance? I've tried to work with the board but the hoa lawyer says "...the restriction is not subject to interpretation, nor is the Board permitted to grant a variation contrary to the intent of the restriction." Help! We bought this specific model because of the ability both in aesthetics and practicality to do the dormer. We're stuck--with high rates and great neighbors we absolutely do not want to sell--with a new baby coming we NEED the space. The board,village, builder and our neighbors all love the plans--but bottom line where do we stand?