Curiously, if I delete compiled.php from bootstrap/cache and remove all traces of:

		"php artisan clear-compiled",
		"php artisan optimize"

From my composer.json, it works just fine. Not optimal though, anybody have any ideas? Here is my composer.json without the edits:

{
	"name": "someapp/laravel-boilerplate",
	"description": "laravel Boilerplate CMS",
	"keywords": ["framework", "laravel", "boilerplate"],
	"license": "MIT",
	"type": "project",
	"require": {
		"laravel/framework": "5.1.*",
        "illuminate/html" : "5.*",
        "mcamara/laravel-localization": "1.0.*",
        "laravel/socialite" : "~2.0",
        "twbs/bootstrap": "3.*",
        "twbs/bootstrap-sass": "3.*",
        "fortawesome/font-awesome": "4.*",
        "hieu-le/active": "~2.0"
	},
	"require-dev": {
        "phpunit/phpunit": "~4.0"
	},
	"autoload": {
		"classmap": [
			"database"
		],
		"psr-4": {
			"App\\": "app/"
		},
        "files": [
        	"app/carbonate.php",
            "app/helpers.php",
            "app/helpers/envconfig.php"
        ]
	},
	"autoload-dev": {
		"classmap": [
		"tests/TestCase.php"
		]
	},
	"scripts": {
		"post-install-cmd": [
			"php artisan clear-compiled",
			"php artisan optimize"
		],
        "pre-update-cmd": [
            "php artisan clear-compiled",
            "php artisan optimize"
        ],
		"post-update-cmd": [
			"php artisan optimize"
		],
		"post-create-project-cmd": [
			"php -r \"copy('.env.example', '.env');\"",
			"php artisan key:generate"
		]
	},
	"config": {
		"preferred-install": "dist"
	}
}

Not sure why it is acting odd.

I posted the code I use to extend Laravel's application for custom paths at https://github.com/TerrePorter/LaravelFrameworkLoader

For your code, it would be something like this in the bootloader\app file

$app = new Wpb\Laravel_Framework_Loader\Application (
    [
        'base' => realpath(__DIR__.'/../'), 
        'public' => realpath(__DIR__.''/webroot''),
        'storage' => \Helpers\Envconfig::getEnvConfig('storage.main_path')
    ]
);

Hope that helps.

Sure did, thanks a million!