Thanks for all the suggestions and advice. I love Bald Cypress so I think I'm leaning towards that but I'll have to look into Black Gum and Princeton Elms and see if they're sold around here. I guess Princeton are resistant to dutch elm disease? Nevermind I see in your link it says they are.They both look like awesome trees. I considered oak but I thought they were a denser shade. If there are any oak recommendations though let me know. We had 2 huge Pin Oaks growing up and I don't remember seeing any surface roots and one was very close to the driveway. Ken, we will definitely be removing the Bradford Pear too. We've already removed one from the front yard. We had 2 Bradford Pears and a Silver Maple when we moved in. Lucky. We didn't know anything about trees then or what they were or we would have replaced them immediately. This post was edited by ajMilo on Mon, Jul 1, 13 at 19:01

I love top-down bottom-up roman shades that I just got for my bedroom and master bath. I just moved to a condo complex with neighboring buildings so privacy is important especially in bedroom. But natural light is too. The TDBU option gives you best of both worlds. I keep TD until dressed in morning and sometimes even put the TD at night so I wake up to some daylight. However, its not a budget option! At least the hunter douglas ones that I got. Most of the shades mount on the "ceiling" of the window opening, so there is usually a little more mounting opportunity than the side jambs. The specs of each shade will give you the exact clearance you need. Graywings' picture of the outside mount is very helpful. It also reminds me that it measuring to the nth degree on an outside mount is not so critical as an inside mount. You have more fudge factor on height and on width which is important in DIY mode. Outside mount profile may be more of a concern based on the view in the particular room. Looking head on at the window won't matter much. At my last place I had wood blinds outside mounted and you entered the room from the side of that window. I wasn't crazy about the profile gap, but I didn't stress over it. I'll see if I can find a picture. [update: Actually on further reflection, what bothered me was the gap created from the curtain rod and drapes that had to extend past the blinds valance. but only an issue from the side view. something to think about.] Here I reluctantly spent the big bucks for the TDBU Roman Shades for Hunter Douglas for the bedroom/bath, but I have other rooms and will probably buy online for those, so I am interested in what responses you get on that part. This post was edited by wendyb on Fri, Jan 3, 14 at 12:30

I am looking for something similar. I currently have vertical blinds in my family room covering a large sliding glass door. I like the function of the vertical blinds (complete privacy if needed, can adjust the light coming in, etc) but I'm not crazy about the look. I was looking online and found the copied article below on the Hunter Douglas website. I haven't used their product in the past but thought the info might be helpful. If you come up with a good idea, please share it as I am not very decorating savvy! article follows... What do I do with my sliding glass, patio doors if I don't care for vertical blinds? Are there other options for door blinds? If you want horizontal door blinds or shades, I always suggest splitting the shades into the number of panels of glass that you have. If you have a sliding (access side) door and a stationary door then use a two-on-one headrail configuration. This way you can operate the access-side shade or blind independently of the stationary one. This is great for when you have a lot of traffic (say during a cookout) through the sliding door. On a hot summer day you might just opt to raise the access-side shade or blind and leave the stationary side down for protection against a hot sun. With the access side up you can go in and out very easily. If I were to recommend a particular Hunter Douglas product for this application, I would use a Silhouette® window shading, with the Signature S-Vane  the fabric-covered vanes are suspended between sheer fabric casings and they rotate, allowing you to control your light and privacy. Other popular horizontal products include aluminum blinds, wood blinds, honeycomb and pleated shades, and woven woods. If you like the vertical look but don't want a vertical door blind then we have our Luminette® Privacy Sheers and our Duette® VertiGlide honeycomb shades. These are both exceptional products and even though they have vertical lines, you will never confuse them for a vertical blind. Luminette Privacy Sheers are also available with our sleek, remote control PowerGlide® system.

Hello again @Beverly . Oh, I hadn't noticed that you specified film for only the bottom windows. I know I haven't thought it through completely; I'd need to live with it for a while. Still..., It's night and an axe murderer creeps up to my window, and presses his hooked nose against it while his foul breath casts sickly steam upon the window. However, with his bloodshot eye pressed close, he can just make out my innocent figure preparing healthy snacks for a charity benefit. However, from this distance I can't see him at all in the dark. This is a rear kitchen door. If it had blinds or fabric, no-one could see anyone through the window at first, but at a knock I could approach and push the fabric aside, or flip the blinds, to see the Publisher's Clearinghouse winners deputation in bow ties or heels carrying an enlarged check for ten million dollars. I'd gleefully throw the door open, and they'd then cast aside their masks and unsheathe their axes... I need to think this through.