I like the old distressed doors with the poles between the 2 that you have pictured. There are a lot of ideas, but I'm not sure if you want modern or what? In any case, you could modernize any of these ideas...including using new doors with cool bright shiny colors. Here is an idea using chairs. In addition, you could use the seats for hats or other accessories. Trunks and dressers are good things as well for diplaying in an open drawer and utilizing the top. You could use wardrobes and space them out and use a wooden dowel between them for hanging clothing. What kindof budget are you thinking?

Depending on the budget, you could hack a portion of the wall "closed welcome passage" and put up a wall horizontally by the main entrance (creating a passage way to the living area. The window there should be able to shine a bit of light into the house. Replacing the wall between the living area and garage with Large glass panels would also help brighten up the house. At the same time, will give your house the elite concept (of having a vehicle in the living area) http://homememo.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/kop-properties_sky-garage.jpeg Hope this helps. :)

A thick concrete wall can keep your house cool. Steel will make your house hot unless you insulated the walls well. Insulated walls don't work very well in a flood zone. When they get wet, you need to tear them apart. You will need concrete for the foundation most likely unless you are driving steel pylons. There is probably a combination of the two that will suit your needs best. It would be helpful to know what you want to achieve by using steel. There are advantages to both. Steel floors can be cantilevered further. It is easier to make bigger window openings. Floor and roof spans can be lighter and quicker to build with steel, but the roof will get hotter and therefore need good insulation and need to be well ventilated. These are just general assumptions of certain building practices so that you know what to ask people where you live. The practices and resources vary from place to place and building something for a specific purpose can change the benefits of one material or the other. My best guess is that you will probably want to use both.

steel, cement they are all the same. 12mm steel for four inch slab. you can also do filler slab with 8mm steel.