I live in Appalachian Ohio in mine country, and in some parts of our county you need a rider for mines on your home owner's policy. I have to have one at a property I own in town since that section was built over old mines. I also have an old coal bank on my rural property. It was mined privately by an individual, by pick and I'd expect it not to have conventional looking excavating, either. There may be no rhyme or reason why this wasn't just filled in and a piece of wood thrown over it and left to rot. It could be anything, actually including an old dug well or spring or rain water cistern where the bricks had been removed and used for landscaping or something, lol. That's almost the exact measurements for my spring cache basin near the house.

I spent the evening pondering the canned light idea and have nixed it. Both Chibimimi and Aimeekm's responses pretty much echo my thoughts because the stairwell is seen from the entry and the living room and when coming down, it would be nice to have something pretty there, so thank you. Smalloldhouse!. Thank you for the pics!. I love it and I'm surprised the larger sized one fits so perfectly! I had a room painted with a very very light apricot once. In some lighting it looked off white but in sunlight, it glowed and I love love loved it! I love the picture wall too :c)

Since it's an apartment and you just moved in, I'm guessing that you don't have anywhere to move this stuff to get it out of the way. How about a sketch of the room with the location of windows and doors shown on it. Then let us know the size of the furniture that you want to keep in the room. Do you want both sofas in the room, and able to watch TV from both of them? Is the room open to the dining room where the white table is? We need to know where to leave a traffic path, and where the doors lead to. If the TV location can't be changed, I don't think you have much choice other than the way you have the 2 sofas now. (Or is it a sofa, chair and love seat? Hard to tell in the picture.) Anything else in the room needs to be on the other side away from the TV. Just not sure what all that is.

@booty bums See here to respond to the questions you bring up. @Seabornman That's exactly true here, too (another NE state) on the solar. Just so folks who aren't familiar understand how this works. It's called "net metering". I live in one of the darkest states in the country, but the sunnier months produce excess electricity. This goes on the grid, and I get credits for it that I use in the winter. As I mentioned, I have NO heat bill. I actually have no electric bill year round. My house is all-electric. This also means the electric company doesn't have to buy (expensive) electricity; instead, it can use the excess electricity coming from folks' solar panels. This keeps prices down for everyone on the grid. IMO Most anyone with a home would want to check to see if there's net metering in their state. You might pay off solar panels way faster than you think. For instance, are you paying $500/month for heating or cooling as many people do around here? Also, if you can't do solar panels (maybe your house is in the shade), in some states there's community solar. You buy into it. The panels around here are in old meadows and landfills, generally out of sight. I'm guessing excess energy from any alternative source could be uploaded to the grid. I had thought of using a windmill in winter! But I'm not sure how my electric company handles this. IMO every state should have the net metering option or get them legislated ASAP. Soon solar (or another alternative energy source) will be essential for selling a house. ****** Incidentally, my state also audits the "tightness" in your home. There are extra incentives that go along with this. ***** Footnote: while the netZero set up in my home might sound complex, it's actually very simple. Just clever. Basically: 10" thick walls, energy-saving materials like double-paned windows, solar, shed roof, CERV, heat pump. Habitat for Humanity is building houses like this around here; it is LESS EXPENSIVE than what they otherwise build.