We're getting ready to close on this house and I'm getting that tight feeling in my stomach! Too many things that need to be done and just trying to figure out what to do first! I took some pictures at the inspections, so these are the prior owners furnishings.

This is the Family Room/sun room area. It's an interesting room in that it has this huge fireplace on one end, this crazy knotty pine paneling everywhere else and a sun room that overlooks a beautiful view of the golf course.

This house is very oddly decorated. It from the exterior and other rooms has a tad of a french country feel - lots of moldings, but then you walk into this room that is like a hunting lodge! If you look into the back hallway area you can see the molding on the staircase. I'm thinking of painting the trim a nice off white to lighten things up - but that's another project.

Question #1 - What to do with the paneling? Leave it, take it down and paint, or paint over it? I'm just not really loving the orangey knotty pine look to be honest. I like the ceiling and beams left natural, and I think you need that to go with the fireplace, but the rest of the walls just feel like I'm stuck in the 80's. A lot of people think we should get rid of the opening to the second floor area (there's a loft area of the guest room up there). I'm thinking that to do that I'd really need to remove the paneling and drywall in that opening. But,if I drywall that all up, I'm going to have a huge wall that I will then be posting here "What to do with this wall?" :-) I'm more inclined to paint the paneling since I'm thinking the board texture will at least give some interest on the wall??

Question #2 - Window treatments? The windows are actually nice - they have leaded window panes in the arches - it's just the windows are lower than I'd like. I would like to do panels to give the room some more warmth, but do you think they'd look like they were hung too low? Hang them level with the top of the arch? I think I need something on the rest of the window - blinds, shades, shutters - something!

The built in is going to be replaced so that's gone.