It's like a transom that isn't matched with a door or window. When my parents built their house they deliberately left spaces like this between several rooms and glassed them in from both sides. They can be opened (I think some of the glass slides), and they display some of their glassware etc up there, but thanks to the glass there is no dust problem. Buying some tracks for sliding glass panels and installing them yourself might not be rocket science. Even easier might be to install something fixed. You would simply get long pieces of wood, maybe 1x2s (thinner might split when you nail or screw it), and attach strips of it off-centre on the ledge itself, up the sides of the opening, and across the top. Then put a panel of plywood, glass, or plexiglass against that frame, and install a similar set of strips against that panel to hold it in. You cold get as fancy as you wanted with painting or wallpapering the plywood, using coloured or stained/leaded glass, or what have you with plexiglass. Heck, it could be a piece of artwork. You could change it out from time to time. You'd still get dust on the ledge a bit, but one of those long-handled dusters would take care of that. I also like Dilly's suggestion of hanging a panel inside the opening or across it. You could actually just treat it like a window and explore various drapery-type options such as a valance or a high curtain even - a curtain from both sides would keep the dust out. Sheers would still let light through. All you would need to install would be a rod on each side. It all depends on whether you want the light coming through and whether you care if sound etc is transmitted (good point on that one, Dilly!). KarinL

Those do look like oak. However, if you replace them, the two main issues are: 1) if they are tongue and groove boards, it is going to be a hassle to remove them without doing damage to adjacent boards; and 2) getting a finish to match. Are those boards really rotted, or just discolored from water exposure? This post was edited by kudzu9 on Sat, Aug 16, 14 at 4:06

There are only a couple of supposedly reputable places that tell you to till. One is the Scott's website, but don't do it. If you'd like more explanation than morph gave we could go into it, but if that works with my seconding his motion, then fine. That's not what I expected to see about your watering. You may be the exception which disproves the rule. The watering rule is "deep and infrequent." Deep means water as long as it takes to get a full inch. Measure how long that takes with cat food or tuna cans place around the yard. Infrequent means no more often than once a week when the temps run in the 90s. No more than once every 2 weeks with temps in the 80s. Why is this important? There are a couple reasons. Deep watering will develop deep roots so those roots can obtain water from deeper in the soil. If you watered every day, for example, the roots would be only at the surface because they get water all the time. Deep roots are much more heat and drought tolerant. Secondly dry soil, which is what you would have most of the time if you're not watering every other day, will not support the germination of weed seeds. Weed seeds, just like grass seed, need nearly continual soil surface moisture for them to germinate and take root. If you deny those seeds the moisture they need, then you won't need herbicide. Frequent watering is why the crabgrass seed germinates first when you try to seed turf grass in the spring. Thirdly frequent watering can allow some fungal diseases to get started in your lawn. Infrequent watering almost completely shuts off the disease. Fourth, deep water penetration helps moderate the soil temperature and sets it up for deeper populations of beneficial microbes. They need the moisture and cooler temps to thrive. There are plenty of spoken and unspoken testimonials on the lawn forums as to the validity of deep and infrequent watering. The spoken ones come unsolicited from people writing in to thank the forum. Unspoken come in from people who learned the lesson and are writing to ask about some rare nuance with their lawn, and they're always careful to mention that they water deep and infrequently. A couple years ago I ran an experiment at a new house I bought in a small town on the edge of the Texas desert. I wanted to see how long I could go without watering if I allowed the grass to grow up tall. There is still one area of about 1,500 square feet that has not had irrigation water since October of 2011. Before California stole all the drought headlines, Texas was in a drought. Well, we're still in a drought, and that tall grass is doing just fine on the occasional rain. Just for reference the grass grew to 32 inches high. I don't recommend you do the same, but it demonstrates that tall grass and infrequent watering can work together to seriously reduce turf water usage. In fact my water board secretary called me to ask if I had moved out because I was using so little water. They suspected I was stealing water somehow and replaced my water meter. So take that for what it's worth - one case does not make a research study, but it worked well for me. All the gurus on the forums will tell you to water deep and infrequent. Hope this helps.

HKO HKO - this is my... 3rd or 4th post on this website. I didn't realize this website was manned by 'retired professionals donating their time to help the poor surfs building in the lower class sectors'. I had no idea the same 5 'retired' architects and designers would reply multiple times with insults about features of a house I'm building that I never asked advice for to begin with. I do NOT share their obsession with windows. I politely stated that on their first round of comments. And hey, I get it. I get on forums to help in my profession (web development). I certainly don't get on there offering to help someone get a script running and then totally rip apart the look of their website. Kind of goes back to "if you don't have anything nice to say...", eh? This post, for example, was about fishing for options for the cantilever. Not being a builder and trying to Google it is what did lead me to the term "EYEBROW PERGOLA" when really what I was reaching for was corbels or brackets/braces. What would have been nice was "Hey, did you consider dentil blocks if you want something to look at in that area?" When I met with one of the guys from the builder he sympathetically offered that and pointed out examples. Wonder why I'm a bit, ungrateful? I had one of the 'helpful retired professionals' here tell me because my husband and I both WANTED our laundry in the garage that "Any new house that has the laundry in a garage, is a poorly designed house. It’s not responding to what you need. " (Thanks, Sophie Wheeler for knowing what my husband and I need, without even meeting with us! You Rock!) I never asked about the bloody windows. And this post was back in May. Move on.