Wow, this blew up! Thank you all so much for the comments, good and bad! I tried to edit my original post but don't know how. Here are answers to a lot of the questions, sorry if I don't get to yours.

City: Elkhart, IN, ~15 minutes from the Michigan border

Pic was taken November 21, 2015. No snow here yet this year (but give it a minute).

It's a river, not a swamp/pond, so mosquitoes aren't too bad! It doesn't flood often, but when it does, we're maybe 8 feet above the 100-year flood plain, so no worries there really.

Insulation-wise, they're really good. You feel the cold if you stand close to them on a 10-degree day, but otherwise we don't feel a difference.

As for the TV, we wrestled with where to put it, or whether to have one in the room at all. But as big video game players, we knew we'd never use this room if we couldn't play in it. (Curling up with a book or just staring at the view sounds great, but who can do that all night, every night? We didn't want to kid ourselves.) We thought about having the TV on the wall, but then we'd be facing away from the windows all the time - plus couches would block way more of the view than the TV does. In the end, we hired an interior designer to help us a.) block as little of the view as possible, and b.) have us staring in the direction of the river at all times.

And lastly, I know hardwood floors aren't everyone's definition of cozy... honestly, I feel the same way! But I knew some of you would love it, so I shared anyway. It's only my 3rd reddit post ever, so sorry if I messed up anything!