It sounds like you like the idea of the glass hood because you feel it won't interfere with the kitchen's sight lines even though it will be over the island, am I right? Here's the thing though: glass canopy hoods show every speck of grease and splatter instantly, so though your sight lines might be better, your sight will be on grease-splattered glass canopy. That is, unless you will be cleaning it after every use, which perhaps you will. But really, you should be aware of that issue with a glass canopy hood, along with the issue you already know, that the capture area isn't so great, especially given the money you're spending. My $.02, I think a stainless steel island hood can have real WOW factor, and have everyone ooh and ah over it. As to the Futuro Futuro hood you mentioned, I am not a fan of flat hoods. The whole point of a hood is to capture grease and smoke before it goes throughout your kitchen, and your house. A hood that is curved does a much better job of capture, especially in an island setup. I wouldn't want to spend money on a hood that isn't effective, just to have something there. If you're going to spend the money, might as well get something that works well for your dollars. Just MHO.

I wouldn't count on either remaining only 10 ft. wide - 10 ft. wide for a tree is nothing (see the widths given for the trees in the C.S.U. tables I linked to earlier). If you are that restricted maybe you should be looking at shrubs. Also the planting site looks like it might be a little damp, the presence of the aspen would tend to reinforce this. So it might be damper than the cherry would like; in addition when purchasing flowering cherries you have to watch that the stock offered is not grafted on sweet cherry (Prunus avium) or you are likely to end up with suckering, heavy surface roots and delayed graft incompatibility. As I mentioned earlier deciduous trees are only going to provide much screening when in leaf, and the aspen wasn't even doing that when it was in leaf. But maybe you are only concerned about privacy enhancement during summer, when sitting etc. out in the yard. If instead you don't want to be able to see the neighbor's house whenever you look that way then you need to be planting evergreen trees or shrubs. Also a row or grouping of evergreen trees on the north side of the property - whichever one that is - is a good idea in cold climates because it blocks Arctic winds. This is actually recommended for sheltering the house and reducing heat loss, in addition to making adjacent outdoor spaces more pleasant to be in whenever there is a sharp wind blowing out of the North - be it winter, spring or fall.

Thanks. Jessica C. I have to agree with Sina that the grey-white wash wood floors are still selling, but not nearly as popular as they were a couple of years ago. Here is a grey floor with natural white oak under tone for your reference.

Personally, I'd get two sofas. This will allow for an end table and lamp to be placed in the corner. Also, people usually like arms to lean on when they sit. However, if you like the extra seating the sectional offers, I would decorate the curved void with a large floor vase or floor lamp.