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.

They make some nice tweed looks..almost like an elegant styled berber. Lowes carries one in stock for about a buck a sq ft. Beaulieu and Shaw both carries them in their lineup.if not stocked by a retailer you will be 1.49 to a 1.59 ft I would say. Not cheap, but will out wear a normal grass for sure.

You could leave the landing alone, remove the stone treads, increase the height of the upper riser by about an inch and increase the height of the lowest riser by about 2". Each riser should be made the same height which will be a little more than 7" each. That would make the riser height much safer and more comfortable (exterior stairs should always have shorter risers and longer treads than interior stairs). This solution would require using something other than brick for the risers. I suggest using the same stone as the treads. IMO that would look better (red brick doesn't match the brown & tan walkway) and last longer.

Based on the photo you shared of the porch under construction, it looks like the beams were wrapped with fiber cement boards before the brick was finished. That is a common way to finish a beam. Brick could be installed with a steel lentil, but I can't say that I have seen that in a situation like this before. Generally the beam is painted the same color as the soffit, but you could do something different if you prefer. Mark is correct that you should check the construction documents to see if this was built according to the plans.