A picture is worth a thousand words. The Solatube Brand (upper right corner) is the original SOLATUBE and has patents on the best technology (lining of tube and fresnel lens in the dome). This means you get MORE light, a BETTER COLOR of light AND even more HOURS of light. See for yourself. Any other brand is an odd color and less daylight. As a general rule, box stores don't always have the best quality so you want to ask yourself what you want in your roof and home? It's worth the few extra dollars to find your local SOLATUBE dealer. You'll love it! Even on cloudy days! This post was edited by DawnMc on Wed, Dec 31, 14 at 16:25

We have skylights in 3 bathrooms that have 9 foot ceilings and we love them. You do have to dry wall the sides up the skylight, but that doesn't really bother us. We love the amount of light they let in. My SIL has solatubes, and I would say that one of the advantages of the skylight is that one decent sized skylight lets in a lot more natural light than 1 solatube. So, you may have to have multiple solatubes to achieve the light you want. Good luck!

I have an interior bathroom, too, that I was thinking of using a light tube in. We have dear friends who installed one in the LR ceiling of their newly built home, so I have seen one in real life. I thought the light was a little cold. Nevertheless, I still want one. I would steer away from putting one in the closet. I think it would promote fading of your clothes. I had a series of private emails with a GW member who had used lots of light tubes in his/her home in various places. S/he absolutely loved them! One comment stuck with me. S/he said the carpenter who was installing them referred to the lens on the roof as "snot balls." Gross? Yes! Accurate? Probably.

I definitely agree that changing the color of the front door so that it did not match the shutters would help it stand out more, then add a larger light fixture. If it were my house, I'd probably change the whole door assembly to a set of french doors with divided lights to match the windows rather than the single door with sidelights. From there, it's really all about budget. On the lower end, a pathway and plantings would certainly help. On the higher end, a deck or patio would make a huge impact. I'd also consider creating a pergola over the new seating area that would tie the two prominent parts of the house together and visually bring the front door area out. Something like this would be look nice with your home. The beams could either run in the direction shown or run from top of garage wall to top of the opposite wall. I think that would be nice visually and create a really welcoming spot for you and your guests to hang out.