A home is of course the people, the love, the sensation of ease after a long day, blah blah blah... (those are not dismissive blahs but, i believe, givens) we all know that first and for most a home is a repository for the things we love most. But to spin that into design, I think is much more difficult. What are the tangible ways that we manifest happiness and comfort? I think to do this we have to reference the senses one by one. First sight. We need the right lighting. We need to consider the aspect of the home, the windows, and then the artificial lighting and all the layers that entails, to truly delight the eye and not just allow the basic function, seeing. The most stunning and comforting things are the colours of our lives illuminated by the right fixture. Or our mood mirrored in the dim lamp light of a living room in the evening. Or a favourite art piece dramatically down lit. Colour is light. Then we need to have tactile things, soft, warm, comfortable. Maybe that might manifest in a plush rug or shaggy flokati, or as francoise47 said a rolled arm sofa. I personally like a pillow top mattress and piles and piles of pillows on my bed (even if they take a bit more time to remove and then replace just so). Euro style, king sized, decorative. Personally the sounds of human voices are my favourite sign of home. And not just the obvious (those of my family and friends) but also the chatter of the television or radio (and lots o' them) say home to me. I know so many people that have banished TV from their lives for various reasons. Not me, not ever. And what about the sound when the guests go home and the kids are in bed, that to me is also uniquely the silence of home. Smell of home: cut flowers, baking, the faint odour of a popular brand of lemon cleaner, mingling with vinegar. Even though I wouldn't want to wear that as perfume, I do have a sense of accomplishment/relaxation when that smell is in the air. It means clean, and I agree with PP a clean home is awesome. But this goes hand in with that other sense taste which of course is good food, but from a design perspective what about all the places we perch to eat it, long tables, island stools, cosy kitchen nooks... so homey. Think sliding into a comfy colourful banquet or eating at a harvest table, or just standing round the island with a bowl of cereal. Just my $20 (a bit more then 2cents)

I really loved the more formal grey drapes in your mock up..so pretty. .I would not hang grommet drapes in your traditional dining room..unless you are going more casual Pottery Barn look..but are you doing antique gold rod with those gold grommets? Lots to think about.

I'm not recommending this, but offering a suggestion on how to reduce size of materials. I learned this when I was doing a lot of drapery work. Here goes...if you need to reduce the size of something, don't take the total reduction off one end or one side. Split the required amount in half and reduce two sides or top and bottom. Doing it that way, it's not as visually obvious that you have made a reduction. So in your case, you need a 3" reduction. Take 1.5 inches off the top and 1.5 inches off the bottom. This only works if you aren't damaging the structural integrity of the thing you are cutting. The best solution is the one put forth by Hallet & co but in a pinch, go to Habitat Reuse in Greensboro https://habitatgreensboro.org/restore/, get a used door and give cutting it a try. If you get a used door, then I would line up the existing hinges to your frame's existing hinge cutouts (assuming there is a frame you can use) and then cut off your amounts top and bottom to work with the existing hinges.

I think it's a cute house, esp for a lake house. Looks like the photos were in the winter or fall maybe last year? Keeping the outdoor areas clear of debris will help a lot. If this were my vacation home and I didn't want to put much $ into improvements, I would install string lights in the rafters or ceiling of the car port. You can get LED sets that use very little power. It would light up the carport day and night and I always think they feel a bit festive. When I was looking for pics, this showed up and it's an LED net of lights that could be installed and look very tidy. Maybe a couple of them if you didn't want to do string lights I'd install them so they didn't look like party lights but more neatly, maybe so you can't see the bulbs hanging down from outside the carport.