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.

Just make sure whatever you install is able to be opened from the inside for getting out in case of fire. If you are the only house on the block with bars, it often draws savvy thieves as they wonder what you have in your place. If most of the block has bars, put them on too. Because then the lazy thieves will not go after the easy pickings, your place. I've been in big urban where both were true, either one or two houses on the block had the bars and they were targeted; or everyone pretty much did and whoever didn't got lots of breakins. One house I rented that had bars, they had some funny latches the landlord had to show me how to work, so I could get out of the house if I needed to for fire. It was code, the latches.

Leather sofas can really dominate the room and can give an overall cold feeling. I would add some earthy elements, like a wood coffee table with glass or metal. Go to Restoration Hardware's website and look at their sofa room scenes. And I'm sorry I think the art is too harsh for the room. That's all your eye goes to in the room. too overpowering. I would look for something softer or maybe a cool mirror and I would add color to the room with pillows and some colorful lamps. I also think woven blinds would look great. They add warmth and give a finished look. The color of your window treatments should contrast your wall color a bit, not match it or else it starts to look generic and blah.. You have warm walls, warm floors and the woven blinds, like Hunter Douglas brand would pull it all together for you.

I have been struggling as a homeowner who is off on medical leave with watching a 3 day install by one of the 2 big box retailers on 2 59 x 24 vinyl Pella casement windows. I found the 50 foot roll of Pella Smart Flash in the garage after installation then realized they used the cheap red house wrap tape to seal the nailing fins then put the 4 inch cedar trim in and not have the proper caulk (so the cedar is not caulked 5 days after start of install and we have had thunderstorms every day but one it will rain 3 more days). I called em on it and got red tape is fine, then me demanding otherwise to "it was temporary we where going to rip all the 4 inch cedar trim boards we placed around the windows off". Mind you they cut back 12 inch Skirl cedar siding to get at the fins but then why where they going to caulk it if it was temporary. So they put the windows in and nailed em over the OSB not replacing the 4 inches of barrier when they cut thru the felt then placed the red tape over the fins and OSB). I think they should have set the saw shallower not to cut the felt? Do I need them to pull the windows out to put splice in some type of 4" barrier as I told them they should? They agreed pull the 4 inch trim off anyway to replace the "temporary" tape. Should I ask for new cedar trim boards as they will take em off with nail holes and possibly break? What about the rain getting under/in the uncaulked cedar trim(the cuts are tight thank goodness) its going to rain all week is it ok the uncaulked trim boards are getting steady rain for a almost a solid week? They showed up asking if they can use my ladder ok no longer, they did not have caulk asking me if I was going to caulk the second story windows(I am on crutches), having to reorder interior oak they did not have enough, did not have a vacuumn asked to use mine, and here i sit with windows as the rain pours down the west side of my house and windows not caulked waiting for my hip to heal. Thanks for the help! Just really disappointed in the whole job and one window does not even close easy at all I have to jack around with the crank, he said the trim was too tight he will cut it back.