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!

We have had these windows for about 5 years. Ours are the ones that slide up and down-like regular windows. I got the dark vinyl as our porch faces west. I can raise all to windows to the top, bottom or inbetween. We use our porch from mid March til mid November. We are in east Tennessee. It rarely gets to freezing on the porch-but plants won't winter over there either. We have one pane that the vinyl needs to be replaced as the dog hit it with him paw. It is only a small tear-so not in a hurry. The windows are a special order and ours took about 2-3 weeks to come in. Would I do it over--in a heartbeat! We have an attached deck--and rarely use it-bugs, heat and sun! Our dealer told us that the greatest majority of their porches are sold in Chicago! Good luck--and enjoy!

I would not use pressure treated, if it is the same thing they removed from the market because it had arsenic it. They removed that but they don't know yet what this one will do to humans. Check it out at the home improvement stores and see if they have to wear gloves when handling it. The one they used years ago also warped. Ask plenty of questions. I would use redwood if I could afford it.

Strip the shingles and do beadboard all the way from top to bottom - bet the maintenance would be much easier as well and it would all tie in as if the wainscoating was an extension of the large wall.