Newbie help indoor shots

[Travis]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post to the forum. I am a dangerously new photographer with a D60. I left the point and shoot world because of lost moments due to shutter lag and blurry evening pictures.

The dog picture was my first shot after I got in the car in ripped the box open. While the background setting has little to be desired, I was astounded in what level of detail I was missing.

I need some help taking low light pictures. My living room is a bit of a challenge sporting dark walls, floors, furniture with relatively small windows.

In reviewing other critiques it would appear that I prefer underexposed pictures. I'm okay with that. I prefer warm indoor glow and try to stay clear of the flash whenever I can.

Sample 1 shows an attempt with no flash. F3.8 1/40 iso800 +2ev exp comp. This is just a grab shot but I am pleased with the general lighting level. My questions are:

1. The overexposure from the window is an obvious deal breaker. What should I doing to balance the darker inside with sunny outside?

2. Where should my focal point be on a picture of this style? The compression of this picture has revealed a bit of blur that is not so apparent on the true copy. Is this lack of focal point or the higher iso setting?

Sample 2 Is the cameras auto setting with flash f/3.5 1/60 iso 200 0.0exp comp

You can see the window issue is fixed, but I don't like what the flash does to the walls. The flash reflection off the dog and the leather furniture is also undesirable to me.

Any help you could provide me with shooting in this room would be appreciated. It should also be known that at this point I'm not into using any post production.

ps - i notice that the sum of all 3 of these pictures is just over 100k..... hope they are not over compressed