Thanks Gloria, I have had thoughts of a shoe rack like you described. It is good to hear that your hubby likes that style. Shoes are a bit of a problem in our home, we have tried hanging shoe (cloth) bags in wardrobes, boxes, storing them in an old 6 drawer dresser in the garage etc and I am running out of ideas, I did not know if there was another alternative that was working for some of you, I would love to hear them! Thanks :)

Thanks for the ideas! I can't mount cabinets there though due to the air return vent, it will have to be something freestanding that will allow the air to circulate and also could be moved out of the way when servicing the furnace or water heater. Unless I get really creative with the hack and redirect the air vent around and through a toekick, but I am feeling a bit of project burn-out right now at the tail end of this renovation and just want an easy quick solution :) Here's an old, not great photo of the area. The frame shown is the furnace/water heater closet. We are replacing the bifold door with 2 french doors solid core, so I can mount a shelf and hooks on those, and the new doors will muddle the sounds of the gas appliances better. Below the funny closet door is the return air vent for the furnace - in this photo is is hidden by this shoe rack we used temporarily when we first moved in. We later had a hall tree storage bench, and we did like keeping our shoes in it but they were all a jumble and not organized. We do have a hall closet as well, but it's mostly converted to a cat litter room - has a cat door in the door and the litter boxes are in there, but there is room to install something to organize shoes, like an ikea closet thing... just not sure if DH would bother opening the closet and putting away his shoes inside rather than dumping into a storage bench. We can certainly use the closet for out of season stuff, and only need a small amount of storage for 2 pairs of shoes each in the entry.

This could be a really hip place -- very 60s mid-century modern combined with a sort of Flintstones flat roof. You need a few short, fat palm trees (spindle palms!) and not much else for the garden. Just lots of editing. The giant bird of paradise is unfortunately located, in my opinion. Something like that is better in a side yard or back perimeter. Then some mid-century colors for the house -- pale turquoise? Ice cream pink? The yellow actually isn't bad, you can work with it. Clean lines, horizontal lines, slender columns -- no need to beef them up if you choose to embrace the cool mid-century look. Edit, edit, edit. Take things away, don't add anything until it's absolutely necessary. Okay, maybe some stacked rocks would be cool.... (not sure how to deal with the brick, but I will give it more thought). A ground cover that "swallows" the leaf debris would really help the general appearance.

Find a work person who can make a simple storage/window bench for you exactly to your specs. Consider shelves underneath the bench like this one, which has two levels of shelving. Or a lidded hinged bench. You might be able to spec a bench that aligns with outdoor chaise cushions, so you don't have to get an upholstered cushion made. Something with a drawer for each person with lovely cushion on top that coordinates with dining room. Drawers: Deep bench with baskets underneath for each person. Put a great indoor-outdoor rug in front of it to catch the outdoor grit. Etsy has many woodworkers who make benches on spec and ship them unassembled. This isn't from Etsy, but they do offer some styles like this. The trick is training the household to take shoes off on indoor-outdoor rug and walk shoes over to their bin/basket/drawer.