How frustrating! I can't imagine where you even found brackets that were 5ft deep by 2ft high. I'm not surprised tho that they have metal inside since they were probably made to be true structural supports instead of merely decorative. Since that roof section seems to be staying in place just fine without bracket support, it looks like your brackets just need decorative. If so, you don't need any metal inside. I know you already paid for those brackets and I'm sure they weren't cheap. But, since you want your shutters to be operable, the only other option is to get/make brackets that will fit into the space you have available and that CAN be done. You just need to find someone with the skill to duplicate the style in wood but make it thinner. Are the brackets fairly simple in design or very complex (lots of scroll work)? Obviously, the more complex they are, the more it will cost you to get thinner duplicates made - but a really good millwork shop can duplicate just about anything. I've linked to one place in California that I'm pretty sure could make you whatever you want. Here is a link that might be useful: Blue Ox Millworks

Zeebee, having cleanup in the middle of food prep is my own horror, so I understand the problem. However, if you designated your cleanup essentially on the left wall/corner area, that would confine cleanup to the sink and area to its left. Prep would be from the sink on to its right. When I designed the kitchen in my new house, my two big priorities were plenty of work space and cleanup totally separated from it. Well, the kitchen isn't terribly large, but I have all that, prep on a spacious island and generous areas on both sides of the stove. It's great and I love it, but having had it I know I could be perfectly happy and do just as well with much less work space--just as long as it was well designed and I didn't have to push dirty dishes away to get at it. When I look at your current plan, I see an L counter that, properly set up, would work well for me. That 39" to the left of the stove is actually almost exactly the amount of space I work in daily here (the rest mostly just gets a drippy mixing bowl, busy spoon, or some such thing set on it so I have to wipe it down anyway). Regarding kitchen as hallway, I don't see it. What those doors do is create a view for the interior space, same as any large expanse of glass, plus provide the opportunity to open the house to the garden when you choose. I personally would want to be able to draw drapes or shutters, or whatever, when the weather's unappealing or you just want a cozily introverted space, and having learned from my mistakes would choose my window treatments as part of the design profess for my windows/doors. Your garden's going to be lovely. I'm a big gardener, but agree for sure, definitely no "cottage" garden for you. Been there, love it, but it is THE most challenging of all garden styles to keep really good looking all through the flowering season. I've spent years trying to get good enough to pull that trick off and had a lot of fun--but! At least I was in California. These days a temperate climate means 6 months of drear. Over the years, I've really come to love finely designed green gardens full of lovely foliage juxtaposed against handsome hardscape to provide structure and contrast. Occasional flowers throughout the seasons can provide variety but mainly just serve to set the main feature off. A garden like that can be gorgeous in all seasons, with and without floral accents, and when well designed also be the easiest to care for of all. The foliage also softens all the masonry and other construction around and adds privacy. It can also serve as a home for birds. We really enjoy watching the birds from our windows, and my gardens now will always be designed to attract them. In any case, beauty's a function of good design. It truly doesn't have to be heavy maintenance at all. In your case, I think you owe it to yourselves to create a beautiful view for your home so you can enjoy it both at the kitchen/dining level and from above. :)

Well, we do use the outlet for Christmas light. I am planning on painting it the color of the wall (cover and outlet both so it just "goes away"). The window is a double hung because from the outside it looks like the other windows on the 2nd floor. The house is called a "Victorian Farmhouse", so the windows across the front all look the same, you aren't supposed to think it has a 2 story foyer from the outside. Perhaps when we do replace it someday, we will choose a different style for there. Now you see why I'm interested in adding the faux window below it...too much wall space between the window and the door. This option will cost nothing, so I can try it out to see since I have that antique window in my family room hiding the hideous fireplace insert....I do like the idea of adding trim to the window, but none of the other windows in the house have this, but I guess it would match the door. There is just too much wall space in this foyer. I really want to add wood wainscott to the stairs and hall areas. But I have to take my dh into consideration...I think his bp is high enough! I'm also considering having some of our travel photos (upcoming European cruise) printed in b/w on canvas for the foyer--really large ones. This might help eat up some of the wall space. My dh keeps telling me to "just do a David Bromstad painting technique on canvas"--yeah right. thanks for the ideas.

E series are Eagle, and the biggest advantage as I understand it is the low up-charge for custom sizes vs. standard. I worked diligently with my Andersen dealer and on my own looking for standard size windows that would fit. For my money, and for the aesthetics, I'd go with Woodwright DH, or also consider the A Series DH especially if you prefer the more traditional spoon-lock hardware. The Woodwright is a much nicer looking window than the Eagle, and has wood trim covering the jamb. It has easy to use mechanisms for the tilt-out on the lower sash. Two little discrete clips live in the top of the jamb and slide down to press in the upper pins on the bottom sash allowing it to be tilted into the house. The upper sash has more typical surface mounted clips for you to access. Of course you can't see these when the sash is up. The A Series uses the spoon-lock to release the tilting sash with an invisible integrated system. The other difference is Woodwright is Fribrex exterior while the A Series is Fiberglass. What Marvin window are you looking at? The Ultimate? I liked the Ultimate as well - just didn't have the finer details of the Andersen and our house is 100 years old. Through negotiation I got our 17 A Series DH for less than the original quotes for E Series or Woodwright and less than a Marvin Integrity quote. All standard sizes. We're doing a full tear out so fitting perfectly sized custom inserts wasn't an issue for us.