The bedding is a miss especially with for 4yr olds. They won't get it. Solid color with art would be fabulous. It will take them into their teens. Ya want something fun find sheets with cartoon sea animals. Over all nothing says child thus far let alone young child.

Personally, I wouldn't get carried away with this? It's a summer home. I wouldn't put a lot of money into it? We have a vacation house, and my grandkids spend little time in the bedrooms. I put some fairy lights on the beds for the kids; they thought I hung the moon! For the most part, they are outside, swimming, hanging with cousins, etc, etc....

I don't know how much work you want to do here, but the facade, lacking windows, is very forbidding, and the door appears very narrow and "squinched," even more so by the exceedingly narrow approach and steps. Hard to say for sure without seeing the entire front of the house, but I'd really consider at a minimum, widening the path to the steps, widening the steps to a porch at least 6 ft wide (perhaps wider) and perhaps 4 feet deep. Again, without seeing entire house, don't know whether a shed roof for the porch or a peaked root would be more appropriate.

Go to a good locally owned nursery with the pictures you posted here. They should be very helpful with suggestions if you go at a slower (business-wise) time of the day such as early morning. Some things will be better planted fall, such as irises, so some flowering annuals will get you through this summer. It looks as if you are in a beautiful area.

Embrace the polished chrome. It's classic and it will grow on you long after your friend's love affair with mismatched gold and worn black die an ignominious death.

Railings are not the issue in this room.

Perhaps an adjustment to priorities in this room.

The railings appear to coordinate with the details of your home including the traditionally detailed fireplace. You could paint the railings to match the fireplace, but I'm not sure I would spend the time or money to do it.

The family room layout is chaotic. The scale of the seating is so too large for this room. I know it's comfortable but there are still recliner sofas out there that are slightly smaller than an elephant.

In the meantime, to make some sense of this chaos I suggest this revised layout. Your TV will work better in the opposite corner on the diagonal. Then the seating should be across from the face of the TV. Naturally, the seating will appear immense in the room because it is, but if you change out one of the sofas for two recliners, that will open the area up visually.

I tried to illustrate the revision on your photo. You have too many accessories in the room. Stop buying stuff.

First, and from the "awkward" thread you need to delete......

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6445699/awkward-living-room

Delete that thread, please?

Now........

You have this issue..

The built in is too high, the rug is too small as is the tv.

The whole thing, needs to be lowered,,,,,,and you need to stop trying to add stuff to every possible blank surface.

The fireplace issue........get a contractor, fur it out after you knock off the mantel and supports, and drywall over the brick, Paint the raised hearth.,or re clad in a big tile. Paint it all wall/white no color, add a new wood mantel. LIMIT clutter

and balance the off center. That's going to be the least expensive, barring total removal . Get a new fire screen, bigger, cleaner,,

Lessssssssss stuff. A lot less stuff.: ).

Also? ADD pictures of all the room, every angle. stand back....You are showing two ends. Seems to be a lot missing.

Adding a drawing is yet more helpful, and feet and inches for everything ON that drawing. Walls, windows, openings....where they lead as well.

We recently had a thread with people complaining about HOAs, but here is a perfect example of why some people like them!

Are the neighbors always this messy? And is that boat/trailer (?) always parked there?

If you have neighbors that regularly leave their junk in the front yard, that is always going to bring your house down, so weigh your improvements against the whole neighborhood to make sure you aren't overspending.