I am glad you are having fun, and enjoying the changes you have made. I love that your DH has become interested, and the little ones as well! In the end, decorating is really about making your house a home that you love. I am still not happy with the bookcase between the windows - I think the wall feels heavy, and walking in from the foyer, you walk into the side of the bookcase. But what is important is that YOU are happy, and often things feel different in real life from how they appear on our monitors. What I would change, tho, is the arrangement on the other wall. I would pull the console and tv over to the right, but keep them a couple of inches inside the edge of the wall. Move the chair to the corner, angled, with the lamp behind it. It will tuck nicely there, (tho don't bury it deep in the corner, leave it pulled out a little) rather than sticking out over the end of the wall as it does now. Plus, if you were to put the fun round ottoman between that chair the cute kid's chair, it would make a nice connection between the colors, and act almost like a side table. Of course, once you start moving art, adding lighting, etc. the room will feel more finished. But I think you have already created a warmer, more welcoming, more open space to enjoy!

one concern with a few thoughts of putting the t v up high is that it won't be comfortable viewing..ours is up only with the bottom of the t v 40" above the floor and honestly it is a bit high even that low..you do have to raise up your chin a few inches to view it (well i'm only 5/2 but anyway..i would like it lower..myself.. i have been in homes where they are on the wall or above the fireplace and they do cause me to get a crook in my neck to watch them..and some people have to lie down to watch them if they are high..if you like lying down that's ok..but i don't..i prefer to sit. sit where you are comfortable now before moving anything and see what height is a comfortable viewing height for you..as far as window glare..you can always have drapes that you can pull when you are watching if there is a glare and open up if there is not..but with windows on all sides like you have..there is likely to be a glare at some time during the day in all areas..you can buy a non glare screen..i have non glare on myh flat screen..and it works just fine there is never any glare problem. all the ideas are really great.. i think dividing it into two seating areas is a really great idea.. i was also wondering what is behind the bookcase? it appears to be a nice cozy room..maybe that should be your t v viewing room?? with t v against the book case? and maybe you should have fireplace and view viewing in the living room?? also you could probably have a small t v in the kitchen if you really feel the need to see it from the kitchen? take something the size of the t v you plan to buy and move it around and see where it actually feels the most comfortable for your height

Love the bed. Is that from Crate and Barrel? (If so, I was eyeing that for years before my significant other voted for wood instead of upholstered.) I think you could go either dark stained furniture for some contrast or you could go with something light to keep the overall color scheme very neutral and light. It really depends on what you want the overall room to look like. I personally love dramatic dark wood with lighter paint and upholstery, but what have now also looks very neutral and soothing. I am always for additional storage in a master bedroom. If I had a seating area to eliminate to expand my closet, I would. I would not eliminate storage or lose a window in order to have a seating area. Your proposed layout seems to take up quite a bit of floor space. Will there even be enough space to walk past the bed to access the proposed sitting area and closet door?

Thank you again for all your help, everyone. These are great ideas! I have a whole different concept now. My computer crashed completely. I'm having so much computer trouble neither one of us can get any new photos in but here's an old one already in the computer. This is one of the terraces which go up at each side of the flat space in the middle. We've since stained the wood a very dark brown, and replanted the terraces with brightly-colored perennials, and ornamental grasses, which are doing well. The concrete has been replaced with a more natural stone-like look. There is about 20 feet of space between the patio floor and the top edge of the rocky slope; that area has woolly thyme groundcover and low perennials with stepping stones. On the right-hand side we have a very large bowl fountain with two Asian-style herons standing in grasses near it (all taken in for the winter now). porkandham, bleigh, teacats: I didn't think of putting colorful plants on the deck that can be seen from the road. I love the notion of railing planters. They'll have to be very well secured because of the wind, but I think this will be an amazing help. And I think one large metal art piece will be just the thing for that empty spot on the wall, teacats. We're both art lovers. It will be fun looking for just the right piece. jterrilyn, we hope we won't need a new roof for another decade or so! lynxe,cyn, lolauren, oakleyoak, teacats -- I hope the second photo helps. I get your point about staggered heights and placement on the slope looking better than a solid mass of one plant. We don't want to plant anything very tall because the view is the major attraction, but we could plant several large shrubs in a natural-looking pattern. We had the slope shot with wildflowers when we first built the house, but for a variety of reasons they didn't make it. We have irrigation to the slope that we're not using now, so we can reinstitute that. annz, you're right. Because of the wind a row of pots won't work. I love the idea of a retaining wall "bench", but the outer edge seems to be holding fine, and now that the flat space is all planted people sitting on the wall would probably step on the plants getting there from the patio. livewire, cyn, judith, we did have a structural engineer and the County okay the deck. That was when it only had 4x4's. We changed it to 6x6's for the aesthetics, and it really should be okay now, I think. The deck is 24x12. jane, what a gorgeous yard! I love it. We can't replicate that here, as the climate just isn't right, but thank you for the gorgeous photos. I had to laugh at the deer going swimming in your pool. Nobody here has pools, so they don't get that upscale experience! suzanne, we have bears and mountain lions here, so we'd rather not make it even easier for them to get to the deck. Bad enough we have racoons climbing the posts all the time. We're just a bit too low for aspens to do well here; we have some in the front yard, and they're not very happy. madeyna, we thought about cross supports earlier, but it would obstruct the view. So, thanks to you all, we've been able to look at this freshly, and here's the plan: We're going to plant a tree above the right-hand terrace (as you look at the house in the photo view) so that it will appear to be at the corner of the house. It won't be where the view will be obstructed much. On the left side we'll do a similar placement with a large evergreen shrub so that the tree and shrub don't "match", but harmonize. We're going to get some substantial planters which will hang on the deck railing and be planted with colorful annuals. On the slope instead of that green blanket of junipers I was imagining we'll plant a more natural landscape with a few large scattered shrubs, using a drip system and leaving the rock as is. This won't be expensive, as we have the irrigation still in place that we used for the wildflowers which didn't make it and can easily convert the spray to drip. We'll either block in the posts to make them more substantial-looking or perhaps plant a climbing vine on one of them for color. Everyone, thank you again! All of this will be doable, not expensive, and will make us happy with the way our back yard looks. And thanks also for your concerns about erosion and the safety of the deck; I think we have that handled, but I very much appreciate your caring enough to point out potential problems. Now I can't wait until spring!