do you have any drawings of how it will look when complete? If I were you, I'd go through the houzz photos, search for "exteriors ranch" or whatever style home you have. Create an ideabook of what you like, save pictures in it. You will find something you love if you look at enough pictures.

Hello there, When you are going for wooden and concrete texture, the decor you need to put must complement the interiors. If going for traditional and rustic finishes, athangudi tiles would really help for outdoor and indoors as well. They go seamlessly well with wooden textured tiiles/ wooden floors/ Try to add wooden rafters/ slats to sitouts and balconies to enhance a few aesthetics. If going for contemporary finish, try IPS (Indian Patent Stone) flooring for outdoors and indoors as well. These are basically concrete slabs with iron oxide paints on top and come in a wide array of colors including copper sulphate blue. If planning for cement tiles, try Bharat Floorings . They have been manufacturing concrete tiles for almost century. Blue with wooden, if used generously, lends a beach house/ marine theme to overall decor . If that's your preference, then do not hesitate for a moment. Regards, Aurum Ideas and Spaces Bhubaneswar

I have used both with good results. The main difference between Quartz and Granite are 1) price, 2) colour range. Granite generally works out cheaper, because you can buy the exact quantity you require. Quartz comes in large slabs of specific sizes- standard size being roughly 10'-0" x 4'6", so there tends to be more wastage if you don't plan the cutting well. But Quartz is pretty and comes in a wide range of colours and can be re-buffed at a later date. Quartz also comes in various thicknesses- the most commonly used being .75" to about 1.25". And especially when you use dark wood cabinets in a kitchen or bathroom, beige and white counter tops work very well. Some people go even with coloured counter tops like blue, orange, yellow. Natural stone in light colours tend to be porous and stain easily, so I prefer to go with pure black which is safe.

Why would you not want to use glass in those tall openings? It may be the main source of light for the interior of the building during the day. Unless you really can't bear so much sunlight or you are concerned about the lack of privacy at night. In which case you can use frosted glass instead of clear upto the top of the second slab level. Above that level you will get three vertical rectangular frames. You could commission stained glass panels for those. Alternatively, below the stained glass panels you could used wooden slats with gaps in between