You need to do what you like. I will comment on screening in your deck though. The window over my kitchen sink looks into a screened in porch. I would not want to have the view from my living room to be a screened in porch because the interior of a screened porch just isn't a great view (at least ours--I have zero decorating talent), but that is me, not you. And I live out in the country, so the interior of my screen in porch competes with a wooded view--if I lived in town, I might appreciate the extra privacy of having the screened in porch between me and the neighbors. But if you did add some windows in the southeast corner (you could do a window seat to tie the windows in with your built ins), then your only view from the great room wouldn't be the screened in porch. Screens will reduce the amount of sunlight that gets to your great room and screened in porches get dirty too--snow, pollen and dust all get in through the screens-- but enclosing the porch with windows would solve those problems. Our last two houses were dark. Our last house was a sort of passive solar where most of the windows faced south and east and it was a dark house--but it also had a wood ceiling in the great room and lots of wood in the bathrooms and that contributed to the darkness too. We over compensated in our new house--every room has at least 5 windows (and windows on two walls) and the great room has 12 windows. The kitchen does have a window that looks into a screened in porch and a full light french door that goes into a screened in porch, but the eating area has a triple slider to make up for that. However, the part of the kitchen that has windows into the porch is the only part of our house that feels dark (but just a little dark) and it is on the west side of the house so having the porch there has its good points too. Our first house was a classic four square with a sun porch on the front so the living room's "windows" were french doors that opened into the sunporch and then windows on each end of the living room---it was a dark room. You can fix dark rooms with good lighting. However, if you want to be able to use rooms during the day time without turning on the lights, then that is another issue but sun tunnels could help fix that as could sky lights. I rambled too. I'm sure your house will be fine as it is too--you have lots of big windows that will bring in light and you can decorate to make the rooms feel lighter too. Good luck!

Palimpsest, thanks for the response. I did a lot of incubating about your suggestion. I decided that I would indeed put full-length panels each side of the window. I had a piece of fabric that was paid for--had been purchased for the adjacent kitchen but rejected (too much rectangular stuff going on to compete with "shaker" cabs). There is barely enough fabric so don't look too closely on the back side at the false hem, etc. Local store had clearance sale on mahogany red curtain rod so I figured God was sending me in this direction. Rings were a lucky find at Tuesday Morning--they dropped the curtain so it just grazes the floor. Not sure if we're going to keep this 1830s furniture piece or sell it, but for now, it's going to stay right here, my "plunk spot" for stuff entering or leaving the room. Front door will be painted to match the woodwork, once the weather warms up. I still want to put a lacy or filmy or handkerchief lineny inner curtain over the window. Readers may have seen the Kitchens forum posting about decorating with old tablecloths on Take a Risk Day, but if you haven't, here's the link, much of it very silly stuff. Imagine that pointy white lace curtain here. (references to arrows and points in the postings deal with feng shui thread going on at that same time) Here is a link that might be useful: taking a risk in decor--cut up a tablecloth?

TODDINMN, the strategy I was thinking pretty much aligns with yours. I think leaving the base cabinets in place would be possible (has to be as we are definitely not tearing out our beautifully installed granite countertops for this project) but how would you install the jack studs and cripple studs without removing the exterior wall from top plate to sill plate? I guess it goes without saying that framing without disturbing the base cabinets and countertop would entail siding and tar paper removal all the way from the top plate to the sill, right? Tar paper installation and hardie plank siding installation is pretty straightforward. The main concern is removal and reinstallation of the siding so that seams don't match up. Any tricks or tips? IKBUM, holy batman thank you very much for the idea! , Despite all that staring at the kitchen and brainstorming for longer than anyone normal person would, the idea never occurred to me.

I personally don't like two-story panels, they usually look skimpy. If you aren't worried about light control and furniture fading, I would leave the uppers bare and put nice full panels on the lowest windows. If you need to cover the upper windows, I would do blinds on everything. You can control the blinds on the upper window with a remote.