CONGRATULATIONS on your new home! Exciting, I know. Remember this rule, and yes it is a rule: The WIDER the slat , the BETTER the view. If you would like to see the view of outside better, buy the 2-1/2". There is just a slight difference, but I assure you, you would see the difference if you had the 2 blinds/sizes held up next to each other. I just ordered new faux wood blinds (and faux is a very good choice; I have had both). I wanted the 2-1/2" slat but I also wanted the decorator's cloth tape, but alas, the fabricators STILL don't make cloth tapes to accommodate the blinds with 2-1/2" slats. If cloth tape is not an issue, I recommend the 2-1/2" slat. Whether I have a view or not, I like seeing more light and nature. Hope this helps

Just to clarify, the first two pictures are of the office space attached to the master bedroom, where you go from the bedroom to this sink area to this toilet/tub space to the office space. And, the following is the picture of the loft. This space is not attached to a bedroom. Instead, when you go up the stairs, the stairs splits in two directions: to the left is the loft and to the right is a hallway that takes you to the second bedroom and the master bedroom. Its kinda small, and obviously was not originally intended to serve as a bedroom. You could fit in a small bed, as you can see in the picture and probably not a lot beyond that. But, there's room for a closet once you tear out the built in bookshelves and use that space for the closet. And, to further illustrate how bad the layout is, the vertical blinds are covering up a sliding glass door. A sliding glass door for a loft on the second floor, with nothing beyond that. No deck, nothing. So, somebody could carelessly open that door and fall outside to the ground. I was talking to one of the neighbors, who are original owners and bought their unit while it was being developed, and they were telling me that the complex was developed during a really strong market. Seems that the developers figured they didn't have to worry about coming up with a good layout, and that they could just slap something together and buyers would come anyways. The best thing about these complexes are the views, and the units didn't have windows to take advantage of these views until buyers moved in and later on added the windows themselves.

My experience in selling our house in Oct 2009 was atypical for our area ( nothing was selling in out area or neighborhood, but I think will relate to your situation. The house was built in 1990. I have not read all of the responses but here goes. We painted the entire house to a neutral walls and white trim because it needed it. We did not paint the brick FP. We removed the wall paper in the FR but left the wainscot and folk wallpaper in the Kitchen and Bfst nook. Realtor had a cow and said house would never sell, but this still looked great. Maybe not HGTV but I was tried of taking wallpaper down... We replaced all of the carpet- bedrooms, finished lower level and FR- with a neutral flat more commercial berber from HD. Because it needed it and looked worn. This was cheap with free install. We had already moved out of the house and the upstairs had no furniture but all the windows all had white wide slat wood blinds. The living room had my Persian area rug and the piano. The dining room had a garage sale round dining table with a floor length canvas drop cloth for the table cloth and four black dining chairs. Oh and an ivy plant in the center. The family room had my old sofa with a white slipcover and my old leather ottoman with a copper tray on it. Oh yeah and two throw pillows. I changed out the kitchen knobs. I spray painted the light fixtures bronze, these were cheap shiny brass. Our house was spotless. Inside and outside and empty except for the mentioned items. The realtor listed it on a Friday night and it was sold by 7pm Sat night to the first people who looked at it Sat am. For asking price. Within 5% of two comps. We became friends with the buyers as we built a house on our adjoining property and they said they chose our house because it was newly painted and had new carpet so they didn't have to do that. They loved the wallpaper in the kitchen but immediately changed out the kitchen knobs. They wanted to buy my "dining set"... This house was under $500.000 and we spent under $3,000 to do the carpet and I did the painting. I will say that if the house was a more expensive and more upscale neighborhood, I would still have emptied and minimally staged. Nobody is buying your décor and even if you have to pack up and put everything into storage and live like Spartans I would do that at least. When we started cleaning it became apparent that the paint and carpet needed to be done. Once a house is emptied unless its newly painted even if clean it still can look grungy IMO. Sometimes people give a painting cash allowance at closing - that might suffice for some buyers. Most of the staging/updating I believe if for a certain price point. You know to help buyers choose between several closely comparable properties. If your home is appealing to a certain demographic because of a higher price then wouldn't those buyers want to pick their own flooring, paint colors fixtures etc?

" ... but it is also potentially boring." But that's why there are other places in the yard and they require different things instead of a continuation of the singular screen. BTW, a screen has the duty of a wall. It visually and physically separates side-by-side areas. It is not a ceiling, floor or opening. (Later, it will become a ceiling, too, but that's not the reason for its implementation.) I don't think the question of the exact word it's called -- a "garden" or a "landscape" -- makes much difference in what solutions work best, though it may indicate how people feel about their outdoor space. In the USA almost no one refers to their outdoor space as a landscape, but call it the front or back yard. The people who are plant lovers may call it a garden. But just as often as not, if one is really into plants (as many people here are) they tend to sacrifice appearance for plant acquisition, collecting and hoarding. I must confess I have no idea what "showing feelings for plants" would look like. To me, all the materials that are used in assembling a landscape ... are materials. Yet that hardly makes me (or many others) immune to appreciating their beauty when well put together and especially, for the plants when they age well. I don't think the crabs are going to be any smaller than Amelanchier. 3 large shrubs (grown in the tree form) would screen the back neighbor's house. ... Lilac, beautybush, certain Viburnums, Burning bush ... that sort of thing.