Atlasvi, I can't get your picture open. What am I doing wrong?? I have an old Mac and sometimes it doesn't perform too well....I'd love to see it; does it open for you when you preview it? Sorry to be a pain, but I would love to see what your idea looks like, And Sweeby, so that's what you meant!! I had tried to picture all sorts of "rooflines" and yours is so beautifully simple. That is an interesting take on angles and I like it. Thanks for tackling that drawing so that I could see what you had in mind BTW, how do you DO that??? Ihave so much to learn about drawing programs. So no posts, huh? Amyks, thank you, and you are always welcome to come hang out at this one.... All of you, I'm overwhelmed that you would take time to give me your ideas. I was concerned that nobody would even care, and boy was I wrong. Thank you for your ideas, I am giving attention to every one of them. Thank you!!!

Hi all and thanks for the responses! I'm annoyed cause yesterday I wrote a response to each of you and I came today to find it never posted - aargh! antiquesilver - no worries! ;) sombreuil and slateberry - A friend told me he was concerned that anything too much like a real wall (e.g. wooden shutters, cool as they might be) might be considered a real wall and therefor might have different code restrictions/issues and also with how windy it sometimes gets up there, it might be too noisy. These vinyl mesh things I was looking at are known for being able to tolerate pretty high winds and they can be secured very tightly (taught), or so it appears, and also when taken down/rolled down they don't take up much room, I think; I want something that will avoid as much excess when folded down (not up) as possible just cause the excess would collect dust, rain water, etc. as well as take up more space so I want as thin a material as possible. Slateberry - those sunbrella shades look nice! I still worry there are too many things that could go wrong, having more parts (I could be wrong)...and also I'm trying to avoid the "room" look and am aiming for more of an outdoor pergola look. I think the more fancy and "indoorsy" the screen looks - of whatever material - the more potentially awkward it could look when only one side is left up (closed) and the rest open, if that makes sense (?). If I'm standing on my balcony as far as one can walk toward my neighbor's house, I'd say there are about maybe 15-18' of space between that spot and their windows. Our house is just a little higher and it's a VERY clear view from our french door windows and our bedroom and the balcony, to their bed! (I keep the blinds closed so much of the time because of this, and our room's really dark). Add to this the fact that they're honestly very unfriendly people and I feel psychologically as if I'm five feet from them. Moccasinlanding - My plan - if we actually do something like this - is to keep the screen up at all times that faces South (toward their bedroom) and to keep the other two sides down/open the rest of the time for the most part. If you step outside our french doors and onto the balcony, to our right is the West and to our left is the East. So it's a great, all-day sunny spot. Having no real typical pergola "ceiling" (no beams running across the top but just two horizontal beams on each side, connecting the tops of the pillars to the house), I imagine it wouldn't get much hotter that way and wouldn't require any sort of ventilation because - again - only one side (the South side, at that) would be screened. The screen is also a natural sun screen - not just privacy provider. I was thinking I'd like the screen (uses a hand crank) to to from the bottom, up. That way if it was a time of day when I wanted more sun from above and the screen was in the way, I could at least have it go up part way to have some privacy (more than without the screen anyway). Did any of you see the link to those screens? If I had an old-fashioned, sort of craftsman structure (consistent w/ our front porch's look), painted white, w/ corner square pillars and had those screens from that website or one like it, would/could that look like it goes w/ the rest of the house well enough do you think? Would it look better if all the screens were down most of the time and I'd only have the screen up when I wanted to use the balcony or let in more light into our room on occasion? How could I make it look better? Maybe if I kept the southern side's screen up, kept the two other sides down and then put some tall plants in there to call to mind more of a balcony garden which would take the focus off the one screen being up so much of the time? Thanks again everyone, very much! I'm going to try and put a picture or two of our house up so you can see what I'm talking about...

Sounds like we are not alone in this endeavor!! To remodeler matt agree about the overhang/landscape- I do like the ThermaTru doors, however, at least in our area, with sidelites, they run close to $2500. But, ThermaTru does a very beautiful fiberglass that mimicks wood so well!! All new construction in our area uses them. This is why there are so few ranches, 'cause they are all levelled and turned into mini-mansions - yes, I am not a fan of this. Simpson is another door that i like the look of, but it is wood, and also more expensive. Peachtree was bought by Weathershield, unfortunately, cannot find any doors to look at. Menards and Hines lumber can order both, but do not have any on display. In response to Marge - the mahogony door sounds amazing, but quite a challenge. The new front door we are putting in is in the space that is currently our front yard. As P.Carol pointed out, because ranches are so structurally simple, it is a challenge. I just think that the front door does make a statement, and we are also changing the brick - currently have painted white brick (a criminal act to paint brick in my opinion), so are rebricking the house, too. So we are looking for something that is attractive and understated, but gives character to a very simple ranch. We are leaning toward the "french door" look as you did - not full, either half or 3/4 window with muntins because all our windows have muntins, too. We are adding 14 feet from where the current front door stands, so perhaps lots of window will be ok?? Any more ranch owners out there?

Jean, in the rendering below, I matched the siding on your house to the swatches you just posted. I cannot, however, adjust for lighting, so It's critical to get samples and paint them at your site to see what they look like under your actual conditions. Good luck.