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.

Cubes where the room is not wider or longer in at least one direction than the ceiling is high are not particularly comfortable, similar to how large rooms with low ceilings are not particularly comfortable. In a cube, the room tends to start feeling shaft like, where a large room with a low ceiling often seems to sag or press down in the center. Also, cubes are static and rectangles are not. It might be better if the ceiling was 15-16 if 24 is the largest dimension of the room. Peaks are a little different. I lived in an apartment where the original parlor floors were essentially a golden rectangle. They had been lofted at one end (about 1/3 of the space) and it made the high ceiling in the remaining area kind of elevator shaft-like. The apartments that maintained the original proportions were more comfortable spaces. Of the above pictures Mutiny and Rufty seem fine because of the length of the room and the ability to experience the height from the opposite end of the room in some sort of perspective. I actually find the Shades Creek kitchen proportions unpleasant. It makes a good picture but I don't think I would like working in that kitchen. I am curious as to how many people with 8-9 foot ceilings vacuum or clean them on a regular basis. I am not sure the extra height makes rooms extra dirty? That said I had to clean my 14 foot LR with elaborate plaster cornices with an extention pole with brushes on it...I purposely did not have any lighting in that ceiling. I think the people who bought the apartment from my buyer put in recessed cans. (Not right in a 1830s house and very hard to change. A ten foot ladder is much harder to manage than an 8 foot ladder).

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We are updating our wood deck to composite and am interested in opinions and experiences with composite decking products.