Summerfield- I showed my husband the plan and he thinks it's wonderful! He thinks the wood storage idea is great and also likes the pergola. He can't believe how much it looks like the farmhouse, but so much better! LOL Is it okay if we make just a few changes? (I tried to show it on the plan.) His only concern is that the furniture is too close to the fireplace...which I told him, is the way I drew it :) Could we move the sectional down a bit, towards the entry? It could be a little shorter on the end seat, just enough to put your feet up, when sitting there. It would also be great to move down the TV console and the chair and ottoman. It's a big fireplace, and even with a screen, the furniture has to be at least 3' away. The good news...I have room to put the window seat next to the fireplace! There doesn't have to be a lot of room in front of it...since it's mostly for visiting nieces and nephews to use. That's why I took out the chair in front of the shelves and put the floor pillows...that's their toy area. I have a lot of Fisher Price and coloring books we keep on hand for the little ones. In the kitchen, I made the island just a little shorter, which let me move the chair and put a plant in the corner window. I also added a plant table under the window, with the window box and plants on either side. I really want a place to have some star jasmine and some smaller plants and that's a nice south corner. Thank you SO much for all your help! We really appreciate it and it's so amazing that you've brought our little farmhouse to life. Thanks again :)

Consider building building your patio the width of and in front of the roof line on the LEFT with a "greenhouse/sunroom" (clear or semiclear) roof that is above your upstairs windows but beneath your roofline. You could have a gentle slope to the roof to move rainwater away from the house but your patio roof would not need to be square or rectangle; instead, you could create the shape of five sides of an octagon. You could have a ridge in the center of the patio roof closest to the house -- a ridge parallel to the two sides of the patio roof that are at a right angle to the house -- sloping the patio roof to left and right of that ridge. Then you could use the end of the ridge farther from the house as a center point from which you could slope the roof in three directions forming the three other sides of the octagon shaped patio roof.

Can't you just put up more glass? if not, I'm sure the clear poly or acrylic type of material would work. they make them w/rivulets so the water will run if you're replacing it, why don't you just leave that 1/3rd open? do you get that much rain that you have to spend the money to have the small portion covered? (I have two similar patio covers but we hardly get any rain so I just have it covered w/the black garden fabric)

Thanks all! Agree @Woody Vaughan or Shaun Fogarty on the too many skylights problem with the shed roof. One question I have is whether we could do fewer but larger skylights. @Seabornman I like the idea of cleaner install and exposed rafters! @Patricia Colwell I understand the risks of darker living spaces - the back of the house faces south and is very very sunny. Our architect has reassured me that the skylights would make a big difference in maintaining good light internally. Here are a side elevation for each option - not sure there's much difference there. I should note in all of this that resale isn't an issue, also that we are in a high-cost area, but even post-reno our house will be one of the least expensive in the zip code. Which means we can't over-improve but also that the next owners (in 10-15+yrs) may well knock the whole thing down (as occasionally I think we should have!)