Helen, the absolute simplest way is to buy a telescoping pole and a martin house. Now the cheap plastic one that you have to snap together is what I have and the birds seem to like it just fine. The $100 plus price on the others always put me off. I saw Wal-Mart has the plastic ones back near the garden center for around $30. It just sits on top of the pole. I just used plastic ties to fasten the pole to a fence post (corner of the garden...square wooden one.) You just push a button on a spring to collapse the pole. I was afraid to set the post in concrete.....thinking the minute I did, I would want it somewhere else. The plastic house seems flimsy but unless it falls crashing to the ground, it didn't seem that the weather didn't hurt it last year. The front snaps down for cleaning out old nests. Someday, I will probably invest in a better one. If you ever have these birds you will want them coming back! Do some online research before you buy; I am no expert by any means. I believe each manufacturer of the houses has their own telescoping poles to fit the bottom of the house. Good luck. Glenda

There is a dizzying amount of information on this Forum about hoods. I am trying to tone down my strong opinions on this subject, but in brief I find that VAH hoods are expensive, noisy, and underperforming versus other, better options. Here are two good threads to start with: Help with ventilation vent hoods and noise: the real scoop on VAH

It's hard to say w/out seeing the items. Will the vent appear to be an accessory of the oven? If so, I'd say black might be better. But, if you have a SS backsplash and the SS vent in had, it would probably look find to have the vent in SS too. Frankly, if almond looks plastic, the black will probably look plastic too. If it were me, I'd probably not sweat what could be "best" at this point and would go for getting it installed. You're not really "settling" since it is what you ordered initially. I think may be suffering from what many on GW get; some sort of "overthink fever"! Good luck!

Haha true. The side with the questionable substance is facing northeast. Ive lived here for three years. Does this indicate that I may have a mold issue in that part of the attic?