WindowsonWashington, thank you for your helpful response. I will check out the 3M film but wonder if it will have the clarity of the two products I have already checked out. Many do a good job for less $$$, but I want the film to let in almost as much light as the window without any film. This is a difficult mission to fulfill and the two samples I have meet this criteria. I'll let you know how 3M compares to the competition I'm putting it up against. When you refer to the large custom vinyl windows, are you referring to mine, to the huge ones by seeking sun, or to both of us? Also, I don't understand how any window film could cause a window failure. SeekingSun, the post was edited as I forgot to add that I will certainly keep you posted how my search progresses. I don't want another winter in a house with covered windows for half the day so want to make a purchase as soon as possible after doing my due diligence. This post was edited by Texasgal47 on Tue, Aug 13, 13 at 0:12

I am not quite sure how big the skylight window is but I would use a motorized skylight shade. Here is an example - Motorized skylight shade on blinds.com There are a ton of companies that make the motorized shade so you can pick any material. I would use a cellular shade that was blackout in the skylight. With motorization, you can open and close the treatment as you need. For the window wall, I would also look at motorized shades. The question would be an aesthetic question - Do you want the shades to be on individual windows or do you want one long treatment on each vertical window grouping. Individual motorized shades would probably be nice because you could operate each window separately. Most of the motorization controls are built my Somfy. For the type of window treatment, cellular shades offer some thermal insulation, double cell is better than single cell. I am not sure if you want black out shades for these windows. Motorized shades options from blinds.com for example. One other options is to put the window treatments on the outside of the windows if your exterior permits. Take a look at Bandalux for some ideas. Good luck in your search!

Yes we need to open the windows a lot there is no A/C (coastal town, ocean breezes!). We can't have blinds with cords of any sort due to toddler safety and as it turns out there are no cordless blind options I can find in 93" and greater widths. So curtains it is! Good point about the air flow, too! I like a double rod with sheers underneath (there are neighbors behind) and room darkening on top for the bedrooms. Now the question is to have them be just the height of the windows (i.e. Hang rod just over window top and have curtain cone to sill) or visually lengthen by hanging the rods at the ceiling and having curtains go to the floor. I generally prefer that look and will do that in the living room (just sheers) but in the bedrooms we may need to place furniture under the windows, in which case shorter curtains would make sense, but may look odd? hamamalis, we just replaced these windows with dual pane low e in the same size (after photos taken). The living room windows face the street this is a city house so no sweeping views here! Reframing walls is very expensive here due to labor costs so enlarging the windows didn't seem worth it. I would have added a window to the right of the fireplace to balance things, but the cost was high. We have a large glass wall and patio slider in the dining area which leads to our side yard, so that's our best view/ outdoor interaction. Eventually we may add a French door to the backyard at the end of the hallway which currently terminates in a linen closet - for more light and connection with the backyard.

@the Wiese Company: Yes, i looked at those since I just bought some for my upstairs office (blinds.com), which has the same new windows installed (albeit only half the width of the kitchen window). Unfortunately, with the trim around the window, the mounting bracket for the blinds are too thick to get a good looking inside mount. Do you have any recommendations on where to buy these with thinner mounting brackets? @luckyblueye: I’m thinking exactly of the reason that Anglophilia posted after you why I’m hesitant of curtains, even though they’re washable, but how often do I really want to wash curtains? @Anglophilia: I’m not a huge fan of awning. Especially for that part of the deck since it is pretty narrow (and not the main part we hang out on), so besides the sun/privacy it would have no use outside. But it’s a good thought otherwise! @Sara Sitardites: I like the idea of shutters, but not really the price tag... :) do you have a recommendation on where to buy them? Also, similar thing as with honeycomb blinds above, there is not much space within the window “box” for installation because of the trim. Did you run into a problem there? Thanks everybody!