Hey! We have a covered terrace off of our family room. It faces east. I was petrified of the room being dark, so our builder suggested skylights even though he thought it would be fine without them. We had them installed, and I do think they make the porch more "sunshiny." :) However, I think several other factors contribute to our kitchen, breakfast room, great room being light-filled much moreso than the skylights. First, even though our ceiling in the kitchen/great room is a standard 10' ceiling (no vault) the foyer which leads into the family is 2 story. It has a large window at the top, and our double front doors are 3/4 glass. Sunlight pours into the great room in the afternoon from them. Also, the study and formal dining room have cased openings that open into the back of the house. Finally, we have large windows in the breakfast room, kitchen, and my little office. These are south facing windows (and west, my office has windows on 2 walls.) plus, 3 glass doors to terrace. I think, looking at your plan, you'd be ok. Personally, I'd move that fireplace out of that corner and onto that left wall, then put in another set of doors or windows, but that is just a balance thing for me, probably not necessary for light. If you do get skylights, we haven't had any problem with them. The window cleaning company we use just charges them as another window. We could also easily access them ourselves from upstairs windows onto the porch roof. They really weren't that expensive, maybe $600 each? (or total, I can't remember, we have 2.) here are some pics: Back of house, showing terrace and roof Here is one skylight. Oh, and we painted the tongue and groove ceiling blue, which helps, too.

Mythak, I have much the same situation as you in that my proposed screened-porch roof will be above two windows, reducing light to the affected rooms. My contractor will install skylights in the roof above the two windows. I, like you, spent a year trying to figure out all the possibilities while keeping the cost down. I spent hours with graph paper just trying to see how my wicker furniture and tables and chairs could be arranged in this-sized or that-sized porch. Like you, I couldn't imagine how my roof line(s) could be accommodated. Once I talked to contractors, it became apparent most of my "dreaming" was a waste of time. Clearly, a 16' x 16' porch was the answer, making the furniture question moot. The roof line(s) problem wasn't a problem at all. Unless you're familiar with all the ins and outs of construction and code, I heartily recommend you call in contractors and get bids if you're still living without a screened porch and unsure about the location of it. I have never heard of a contractor charging for this service. (In the year since you posted, the housing-market collapsed, leaving many contractors without their usual workload--and very competitive.) Once I started talking to pros with informed answers, a great sense of relief came over me. The project became exciting, not stressful. Fear of the unknown is the worst, and ignorance is not bliss. In the meantime, you can prepare yourself to communicate with/understand contractors by using the internet to familiarize yourself with construction terminology and options you might have in the way of building materials, screening, etc. As one who lives in Minnesota, where the state bird is the mosquito, I would never take the suggestion of likesdoilies to place the porch on the back side of the deck. You do not want to have to carry food, drinks, etc. to and from the porch in the rain, leaving mosquitoes into the porch and sunroom whenever their doors are opened--rain or shine. And juggling the same while opening and closing two doors would be a nightmare. As for using clear polycarbonate sheeting over pergola beams as birgit was doing last April, no building inspector hereabouts would allow it. A contractor who knows your local building code might suggest you remove that particular idea from your "dream factory." Unless your deck is sub code/not substantial enough to underpin your porch, using it would be a huge money saver. And you've already got a door to it--knocking out an exterior wall just to access a new space is expensive even if the interior of the wall isn't brick. Skylights are far less expensive than starting to build from ground up. And remember, you have one side of your sunroom, with its four windows, to provide light to that room. Your roof line is a piece of cake compared with mine; unless I'm mistaken, the answer is a simple shed roof. I've had screened porches, three-sided sunrooms, gazebos, pegolas and patios in the many houses I've lived in during my 70+ years on Earth. I'm sure you, who have six months of mosquitoes as opposed to my three, would agree that nothing beats a screened porch and the sensation it gives of being out of doors--but without mosquitoes. Columbusgardener would, like me, use the deck as a subfloor for the screened porch but would want to have a patio built, too. I say, What for? I and, I suspect, you, would never use it. Perhaps columbusgardener has never experienced the joy of a screened porch. Good luck!

You've gotten good advice here. One fan will be plenty for your room. You might even consider adding a light to the fan to provide overhead lighting when needed instead of recessed lights. You could install switched outlets for lamps or wall sconces for your ambient lighting, which is nicer to relax with than recessed lights, unless you put them on dimmers. There would be money saved if you skip the recessed lights and dimmer switch. We rarely use our recessed lights to have accent lighting at night, or to watch television. The spaces between the furniture are too tight to walk through the room with a platter of food or to pull out a chair at the table. You already figured out that the French doors and step are inoperable against the back of the loveseat. How much are you able to extend the length of your room? With a fixed width the 1'4" behind the sofa(loveseat) is too small to walk through. Could you push it back against the wall? Your table area is too tight to pull out a chair with 2' and 2'4" on some sides. Is it possible to use a smaller table for four instead of six? Using a smaller round table with chairs at 2 o'clock, 4 o'clock, 6 o'clock and 8 o'clock may work instead of pushing them back against the walls. One or two club chairs angled close to the corners of the French doors might work instead of the loveseat at the entrance. You have done a great job drawing the room and measurements. I don't have a program to help you try out different furniture, but hope some sweet soul will come along to assist you. As it looks the room is not large enough to carry out two rooms of furniture, unless you can expand your length. It will be fun watching your progress. This will be a lovely addition to your home.

We had a screen porch when we moved in, one of the reasons for buying the house. I wish I had been able to spend a few days in the house before buying it for that reason, as it did increase the cost of the house compared to our neighbors, since it was "extra living space." We had a screen porch at the house we were leaving, so wanted one in our next house. Not all screen porches are created equally and be sure you have adequate circulation. The way our house was built/porch addition, the air was trapped and it was always hot. We used two floor fans and 2 ceiling fans and it was still hot and muggy (in the south). I had no idea there was that big difference in the location of porches and we ended up never using it, plus it blocked light to the interior which we so needed. A tornado one brisk spring did a great deal of damage to our porch, garden, roof, cars, etc. We decided when they tore the screen porch down, that we would not have a screen porch again at this house. I do love them when they work, but ours did not, so just make sure that all your weep holes and venting holes are not directed at you when you are outside, and that you have good air circulation. We added a pergola over what was our screen porch, left the concrete intact. We are able to have all-weather furniture and two swings and use it as often or more often than the cold screen porch in fall/winter, the hot screen porch in spring/summer. I do love screen porches but not all houses are located so that they work well. Just make sure of that before building. Having said all that,we built a small screen porch near our shop which is part of our house and we get great air circulation there and although it is not very large, only accommodates 4-5 people and the dog, we do enjoy it. I am saying, Just make sure the location of any screen porch has good air circulation and is not getting all the hot air from your attic in summer and cold air in winter.