Let there be light

Not sure if I have mentioned it but the vacant block on the left of our house is finally getting a house. The owners are about 5 years younger than us and have no kids. They are building a 2 storey house. Phew! It all sounds great. They showed us their plans and they have a copy of ours.

One issue we are dealing with at the moment is their garage. They would like it to be next to our house and less than the required 1 meter from our habitable (lounge/kitchen) window. In order for this to be ok, we have signed off on the deal. However because we will be losing a fair bit of light they have agreed to pay us $1000 to install a skylight. I am sure it will cost a lot more than that to get one I'd like but hey, we don't want to start off on the wrong foot with our nice new neighbours.

So we have been googling ideas. I'd love electric opening ones but they are super expensive.
I'd love more than one. I'd love three, but again money is an issue. Here are some that I think could look good with our flat ceiling.






I really like the centered ones over the island bench with lights hanging off them. I wonder if we could do that. Also I would put some moudling around it to make it more of a feature instead of just a hole in the ceiling. I haven't forgotten about the window splashback either. That will give some more nautral light over the sink.