pcmom omg we watch for snakes too and gators love the place were at though. I think that lamp and table is nice but still wont solve the problem when their in bed and blinds apparently aren't right blinds to allow that much light to come in. Before we built this house 4 months ago we lived in a high rise condo 8 floors up so we got some light coming in from the city so we had plantation shutters put in the 2 windows and no light got through those at all. We got the wide one this way if we wanted more light we opened them up either with the wide slats we had to opened up the blind on each side leaving it look like shutters inside. Those truly were the best light darkeners. I only agreed with Cynthia with the light weight screen as they can be moved easily to a corner when they want the view at desired times. PC MOM watch out for those snakes I worry about the little pygmy rattle snakes here in Fl scares me to death as they are small and my dogs are small

It's a shame that someone killed those two beautiful trees with improper pruning techniques / tree topping. If you plant any more trees, be sure to hire an ISA certified arborist that actually climbs up in the trees and knows how to thin out the branches rather than amputating them in the middle of the branch as was done to these trees. Do your research; the ISA arborists are harder to find. Most tree services do an unethical pruning that permanently maimed the tree, puts it into shock and then requires them to come back every year or so to trim the weak shoots that sprout from the middle of boughs. A proper pruning by a good arborist who makes the cuts himself will save you money - you'll only have to re-prune every 5-7 years. Cutting a bough in the middle creates an open wound the tree can't cover over, leaving it completely vulnerable to pests and disease. A real shame. Trees are our only protection against air pollution and are natural swamp coolers - and they keep temperatures down locally. http://www.treesaregood.org/portals/0/docs/treecare/WhyToppingHurts.pdf

Previous owners photo Celiawk, I agree with you about the corner fireplace, we never had one in the corner, and I thought it would be nice to have the fireplace, and the tv close to one another, but it is not turning out to be good; one wall is all windows, and the other walls are all open to the rest of the rooms, so, I guess we have to live with it.

Haha.. I have image photoshopped similar to that The blue is just a dream so please disregard. We immediately talked about putting a deck up there and over the garage when we moved in, but it's just not in our budget. We already added two bathrooms and gutted/redid a third. The 4 bedrooms were very small so we combined two and now there is a master suite where those two top windows are. We've opened up some space in the dining and kitchen and also added a deck in the backyard (backyard is only 10ft wide by 30 ft long or so), but it's a more cozy private space. We still have work to do in the kitchen plus the sunroom/front of the house and I don't think what's left or our budget will even cover that. Thank you for the photos and advice.