Maureeninmd, We'd like to add an enclosed porch to our home eventually, and I have a house near me with a very attractive glassed-in porch. DH has our camera out of town, with him, so I can't take a pic to post. Basically, It has a series of 9 over 6 windows on 3 sides, with 1 window omitted and a door instead. The door is a very solid, older, wooden storm door that opens into the porch. They seem to have a screen panel and a glass panel for the door which they change with the seasons. The door itself has 1 largish raised panel at the botton, and the interchangable part takes up about 3/4 of the door height. Sorry if my description seems muddled. Good Luck

I had a feeling I would get comments on the shingles :) The roof is high on the list, I promise! I agree that the house would probably look best with the porch re-opened, but my house is tiny (1150 sq ft), and for now the porch serves as the cat's room (a place for her to get away from the dog.) Also, I live just off of the main street in my little town (minden, nv), which gets quite a bit of traffic, including trucks passing through. The traffic can be loud, so it's nice to have the porch windows as a buffer to the noise. Functionally speaking, I would like to have at least a couple of windows that open, but they do not all need to open. Light and the view are not really big issues. I still have the original (pink!) honeycomb shades that came with the house when I bought it. Even though they are 3/4 drawn I still have plenty of light. With the new windows I plan to replace the shades with something lighter, so I think regardless of the new window layout I'll have more light. Sorry I wasn't clear on the photos. The first two are the current windows, and the following are photoshopped ideas. And I have no idea what the style of my house is...don't know if it really has a style. It's very plain (no fancy molding details), it's shaped like a shoe box, it's pretty old for this area (1930), and I love it!

I have a slightly larger front vestibul, 3.3x8. It works well at insulating my front hall and as a coat closet but it does not at all function as a mud room... not more than one person can fit at a time. Sounds like you live in a cold region and if you do, by code, it is most likely the exit door needs to open in so it is not block by snow accumulation thus possibly hindering safe egress. Mine does not have a side window but has a glass door with an above transom for light. To the right of my door is a reach in coat closet and on the left I keep a desk for mail and under the desk is a shoe tray. I used to have a bench for boot removal above the try but the space lacks heat and is cramped so no one ever sat at the bench so the mail drop works best for us.

Whether you need permits depends on your city/county codes. How difficult it is to return to the original depends on how much framing was added. Start by removing the windows. The only way to find out how much framing was added is to remove the sheet rock. That should give you an idea of any framing added for sheet rock installation and/or how big the old screens were. To replace windows with screens means all the sheet rock has to be removed. Looks some was added to the old exterior. Most of the trim has to go. Not a really good DIY project unless you have some experience in demolition. To have it done may run a couple thousand dollars, and maybe that much more to refurbuish it.