Don't need hood to vent cooking fumes. Need wall to go up to 11 feet with decorative mantle or maybe build out to frame the cabinets on either side of the stove. Right now have big empty concrete wall from top of stove at thirty six inch height up to 11 feet where roof line is then up to 16 feet at peak as it is a hip roof.

sarcholos does this one help? If you look at the 2nd pic - you can kind of see the orig mantle/surround/ firebox was nearly flush to a plaster wall- however look at the framing - this thing was 2x4's lag bolted and would have required a significant amt of demo (remember plaster!) as well as repair - thank goodness for the great idea from one of the carpenters who rec just framing out that section of the LR wall - it worked quite well it juts out about 5" - I can locate more pics if needed Wry - I think the stone lentils & hearth were around $800, then tile guy & carpenters - unfortunately I don't have a breakdown, as we did an entire interior reno - they were paid on time & material - but I'll try my best to recreate Carpenters were $50/hr - so, lets say it took 1/2 day btwn demo, dry wall, installing new mantle (which they had to add a piece to) - tile guy not sure I'll guess he was additional $300 - maybe around $500 for labor + $800 for stone - is my best estimate - Hope that helps Curious - do you know what is under the paint on the surround? what is the hearth material -?

Do you think they will they fade even if the UV is blocked? I will have to do some research on this (but I'll likely use an off-white anyways - more worried about it disintegrating than fading). It would be way easier and cheaper if I could just use a heavy cotton or poly fabric. I'm kind of leaning away from the Sunbrella - not sure I'm ready for waxing and so forth. My machine is sturdy, but it's not industrial or anything. My plan is to basically do a roman shade only running horizontal instead of vertical. The way the rafters are built, I couldn't do a roman to fit in between. And the roof is 10 feet so I don't think it will feel too low going across. Instead of plastic loops and ropes, I'm going to use metal key rings and aircraft cable but the idea will generally be the same as the link you posted. Sheesh - 40 yards of chiffon? Wedding dress?! Now you have me scared! I think this should be fairly doable. Just lots of long straight seams (I will try flat felled). The key is that the room is long and fairly empty so I can lay out everything on the floor. At home I never have enough room to layout fabric properly. Here is a link to instructions I'll be using. I'm going to refine a few things, but the general principal will be the same Retractable Pergola Cover DIY I will definitely head over to sailrite. I was wondering where on earth I'd buy outdoor thread. Thanks again everyone for your great suggestions. I tried talking it over with my DH and he just rolls his eyes - you guys are much more helpful.

Sure, and they all have memories and stories. Many years ago, I worked on one of Christopher Alexander's houses in the Berkeley hills. He used a lot of graduate student grunt labor. His team would take months to make even the most trivial decisions, with endless discussions. IIRC that house took five years to finish, and the couple who commissioned it got divorced before it was done. I once lived down the street from a pair of Thomas Gordon Smith post-modern numbers (the Tuscan and Laurentian), kind of a snarky send up of the typical suburban snout house. They were painted in a sort of Pompeii meets Miami Vice color scheme, with a neoclassical column in the middle of their wide garage doors, to break up the span. Sadly, one house was eventually repainted in boring colors, and some quirky exterior details removed. I never saw the insides, which were painted in huge classical style murals. When I first got married we went to England and saw the Colefax and Fowler building, the one with the Wyatt/Wyattville yellow drawing room. It's up on the second floor, via a dark, narrow, twisty flight of stairs papered with what look to be bad baroque paintings, but may be theatrical backdrops. The room itself isn't as wide or tall as it looks in pictures, and the arc of the ceiling is quite shallow. When I saw it, all the Nancy Lancaster furniture was gone, it was full of lamps. The paint work was a little obscured by nicotine and wood smoke, but you could still see the complicated oil glazing-- there are tiny pin point flecks of many colors in the glaze, which give an almost pearly effect. I think Fowler deliberately allowed the painters to use dirty brushes!