I vote sloped, I think slopes are very porchy and charming.

I also like the idea of painting the exterior wall a darker color, as long as there is a natural transition, for example if the deck extends all across that side of the house, or if there is trim delineating where the deck starts.

PS, I also quite like the beams or supports extending across the ceiling of the porch and I think it would look charming and airy to keep those beams and put wood in between if that's not too complicated.

chispa- The deck ceiling is just a flat roof. Nothing above it, but when built it was pitched for water to run off from the house to the edge, but also from one side to the far end. So the far right corner is the lowest point of the whole ceiling which is 7'. So, to make it all straight with no slope for the ceiling only, it could only be 7' tall.

Robo, I agree with you about the beams, but if you enlarge the picture, you will see these horrible nail marks from sloppy work (husband building it in 100+ heat and humidity). I hate those. Otherwise, we could clean, paint and do like you said.

I found this picture that I like, but our ceiling is not pitched like that. I wouldn't mind this at all if this is what it is. But as you can see, ours is practically straight.

Because of multiple large dogs, there is no way we could have that light of a color on the floor. :) Ours is painted a charcoal gray/soft black.

Pool should be done in 2 months and I want to get this deck done so we're ready for pool parties!

• I'd do the slope because it would look perfectly even and the other will not.

Yaygal, thanks for your input but I am confused by it.:) Sloped will be sloped. They can build the T&G ceiling to be straight across all the way to the home exterior, but we will lose ceiling height because for it to be straight across, they will have to have the height of the ceiling be from the lowest point as it is now. My question isn't whether or not it can be straight across, its, will it look worse to only have a 7' height ceiling vs say 7' 6 which will slope to 7' at the lowest point. Does that explain it better? :)

I would leave it as is and not try to change the slope as higher is better on such a low ceiling. The only reason to change it is, if the slope if very apparent to anyone on the porch and it yields a sense like the whole porch is tilting or sinking. Is there anyway you can fix it so it doesn't slope side to side? Typically there are ways of handling runoff without actually tilting the whole roof.

Agree with leaving the height and slope alone. I would just try to dress up the plywood decking, posts, and rafters. Something like this:

That would be easier, and I like that look, but how do you dress up all those ugly nail marks from sloppy workmanship?

A little putty or spackle in the nail holes and paint is how I would do it. Are they nail holes or nailheads? Either way once they're painted they likely wouldn't be very noticeable.

Annie: I wish I had known about the slope left to right but its too late now. The only thing we can do, and we will with this new ceiling is to level the ceiling to be an even slope even if the actual roof is sloped differently. My husband does the work and I tell him what I want.. but I didn't know about the slope. Because of a tiled roof and an issue with tying in to existing roof, we had to tie in to the soffit or whatever that is called...:)

His friend that does renovations swears that painting will make it look great, but when this was first done, all those ugly nails showed and wood split and I have always hated it. DH said, you put the roof on in 100+ heat and see how perfect you do it! LOL

robo it is nails that have come through and the wood around it is splintered. I was thinking he could maybe face the beams with plywood or something to hide all the ugly.

Also, if we did a new ceiling, they will take it up to the exterior wall so it will all be the same instead of seeing the soffit or whatever that is called with the attic vents. I believe they said I would only lose 1 or 1.5 inch if I keep the slope. Which isn't bad, but I know visually, I will be losing the added space inbetween the beams.

Behrs has this paint that's thick for decking that will fill in gaps up to 1/4 inch. Maybe we should pressure wash and paint first with that to see how we like it and then if we don't, then we can add the new ceiling.

Thank you everyone for your help! Its done now we just need to fill and paint.