grandpa68,
Until you are comfortable with housing blocks and can easily form lots of fancy residences, I recommend not trying to form a manor block. However, if you have some fancy residences and plenty of unemployment (say, more than 10%), you might try evolving a few of the fancy residences to manors, by setting the bazaar(s) in their block to "Buy" luxury goods. Try to prevent a lot of fancy residences from evolving to manors at once, as that will cause a large drop in the workforce. Manors are 3x3, and when they form from 2x2 residences they will expand over bare ground, gardens, or lower-level houses. You can prevent manors from forming by blocking their expansion with a solid object (such as a small statue or well).
Ptah's temple complex is not related to forming manors. It increases the production rate of many industries (see the in-game help or the manual for details) and completely satisfies Ptah for up to 8000 people.
The tax rate is city-wide. A higher tax rate brings in more taxes, but people prefer lower taxes. You can compensate (somewhat) for a higher tax rate with a higher wage rate, but a high tax rate is only worthwhile if houses are evolved to a decent level. 9% is the default tax rate and is a reasonable starting point, but always pay attention to city sentiment. If city sentiment is at the highest level (idolize you) or good and rising, then you might try raising the tax rate. If city sentiment is bad or falling then you should lower the tax rate and/or raise the wage rate.
Shrines are quite useful. They have the highest desirability of a 1x1 object (more than a small statue or garden), but require damage protection. They help keep their god happy without using any workers, but do not give religion coverage to houses.
I don't know what you mean by people complaining about a granary. If you mean that a house won't evolve because a granary is nearby, then you may be able to compensate by adding desirable buildings. (The desirability of a tile is the sum of the desirability effects, positive and negative, of the nearby buildings.) Large statues are often good for a desirability boost--their effect extends for 5 tiles. (The effect of some desirable buildings, including temples and libraries, extends for 6 tiles.)
If a bazaar is close to the granaries and warehouse where its buyers obtain foods and goods, then the bazaar can support more houses. Therefore, it is often good to put the granary not too far from the bazaar(s) that will use it. If a housing block has a lot of houses then it may need multiple bazaars, especially if the granaries and warehouses that the bazaars use are some distance away. For a not-very-experienced player, I'd suggest setting all bazaars in a housing block to "Buy" all foods and goods that will be used. (I often have bazaars specialize in certain foods and goods, but the reasons for that are complex.)