Ok, lots of stuff to respond to here, I’ll just start one part at a time. Regarding the screen porch; lavender_lass, we think you are right about moving its location. We had gone back and forth about its location before, but located it off the living room for various reasons. My parents have a house with a similar arrangement with an open deck off that location, and we love it. Also, we wanted to sit out there in the best spot with views on 3 sides. However, a screen porch is not an open deck. In the pic below, you can see the wall of windows on what will be the north wall in our house (this is from the video at the link above that shows a house with a very similar floorplan. We modified the design of this house for our site). Those windows make that room, and will show our best views. A screen porch would limit the windows (the second row would not be there), and block some of the view. More than one person (not just on gw) has said we should move it, and we agree, so it’s getting moved. (Don’t have drawings yet). On fireplaces vs woodstoves: Yeah, I do really seem to like the big stone fireplaces (they are also very typical in “cabin”, log, and timberframe houses, so there aren’t a lot of pics showing something different). However, we are both function over form people. We intend for this house to be extremely energy efficient. We will have a woodstove, but that does not mean it has to sit on its own like the bottom picture you used to compare (although I still think that looks cozy). I would like to have some sort of stone hearth. I really need to find the right inspiration pictures as I’m not sure about the design, but I do know I want a stone hearth with a fair amount of “presence”. I agree that our particular room really calls for it. (Again, see the existing living room pic in this post). As far as location, I think I still disagree with you. I like the woodstove in the middle of the house, its better if we actually needed to use it as a heat source if the power went out in the winter (again, rural area). I’m also still stuck on sitting facing west, and being able to see the fireplace, tv, and views from the couch.

I love the 80's Shed roof style home! We are in the middle of our own 80's modern renovation! One of the first things we did was to replace the tired asphalt shingle roof with a fresh black metal roof, painted the exterior in Sherwin-Williams Urban Bronze with Black trim, Replaced the existing garage door with a Cloplay Frosted glass panel door, added a Sapele wood courtyard entry fence and replaced the entire front entry opening with a massive glass panel and an asian inspired 48' wide front door. We have made a positive impact on our neighbors... they are amazed at the transformation!

Thinking about everything outdoors in a single thread is overwhelming. You might break it into separate threads starting with the front. In order for people to really understand your landscape prob lems, you've got to show complete scenes -- how your house looks in the setting of its surroundings. We should even be able to see what's happening in the neighbor's yards. The best way is to locate the camera in line with the center of the scene and then take slightly overlapping pictures that pan from one end to the other. If the house is tall, it might work out to hold the camera in the vertical format. Since it looks like the entrance is well off center of the house, you might also need to move the camera toward that end of the house (in line with door) and take a couple of additiional shots to make sure it's seen well. The wall in front of the wall in front of the wall should be removed. It sucks majorly.

FYI - gold and gray (what I see in your pics) is a very up to the minute color scheme If it aint broke.... However taking it more in a "lodge" direction would be good - take darker brown-greige-grays from the rocks for siding and/or trim only. When you say "charcoal" roof - be careful there. Get some samples of shingles and look at them very closely to see what colors are in the grain. What's called charcoal often has blue undertones that would clash, try to find something with brown in it. What's called "weathered wood" might be more harmonious with the natural brown-greiges of the stone but while still giving you a more grayed look than what is currently there. Agree that is a very appealing house, part of its appeal is the stone and how it fits so well in the natural setting.