toc, You should carefully consider the skylight placement, spacing and alignment, so the overall effect is balanced, ordered and of course, best directs sunlight onto your plants. What I would attempt, is to space 4 units equally, so they align with second floor windows and open spaces between the brick supports. You could also consider grouping them into 2 separate groups - mulling 2 units together alongside a double rafter (for added support). There are optional standard flashing channels available for this purpose. The end result would align one group over the stairway/entrance and the other over the adjacent bay, centered on the opening below. It is a good idea to order operable skylight units to vent during warm weather. You might also consider incorporating a horizontal wood rail into the glazing assembly - perhaps aligned with tthe plant bench. Additionally, consider placing operable windows, such as awning units, along the lower portion of each glazed window opening - south and the east sides. This will allow natural convection to cool the space. It's your choice to decide whether to remove the east side bricks - although this may look more consistent with the front and function better as well. I just noticed a little deflection on the center brick column - seems as though the center area may be bowed out of plumb. This is something you really do need to check out - may be just lens distortion, but after enlarging that area - it appears there may be a potential problem. By removing the span of bricks between the columns, the problem (if it is indeed bowed) may be exacerbated. Of course additional support will be introduced, by building rigid wooden rails (horizontal) and stiles (vertical), required for the new windows to the east of the center column, and entrance door/side panels to the west of the column. Another point to consider, is how your family and guests use the front entrance in cold months. As you know, opening/closing the new doorway will allow heated air to escape and cold air to enter. One solution to this problem is to provide either a double door air lock (vestibule) perhaps 4 feet inside the new doorway - which enables users to close one door before opening another accessing the greenhouse area. Or, create a separate full depth hallway to the existing front door. Naturally, this plan reduces your sunroom space, considerable. Hope this helps.

pictures of what you are working with would be a help to us visual spacial folks :)

I have a screened covered porch in my current house. It is on the north side of the house, and faces north, east, and west. We rarely use it - the north side of any house is not going to be that sunny, because the house blocks the light. It is pleasant to hang out there, but we just don't gravitate to it. In the house we are building has a covered pavilion facing south, so it will get southern and eastern light primarily. The front of the house will block the western light. I think it will be ideal - the east part has a lot of trees so it will be filtered, and the southern light will be a nice constant all day long. One more thing - with our current screened porch on the north side, and our deck on the north side, we never needed to get an umbrella for shade as we never get strong light back there. If I were picking, I would do the porch on the east side.

I have no experience but spent some time researching and designing ideas. I think it would be pretty easy to heat in the winter using solar hot water. Maybe $200-400 in materials and no running cost. A tank or pond inside holds the water mass which heats up in the day and releases heat at night. Plus you can grow fish in the water. I've seen these used in the far north. We only have to get the temp up a little in winter so I think these are great. You can have plant tables and walkways over the top of the pond so there's no loss of floor space. City water goes into the pond and you water the plants from the pond. This helps keep the pond clean, fish healthy and the water is better for the plants. Some of the nurseries here use swamp coolers. They're they're pretty simple. One end wall is the media the water flows over and air is pulled thru with a big fan. I think they build it themselves. Work good. I think maybe more for raising humidity than lowering temp although the temp was lower when I've been in them.