Well well, look what came back to life! I have one chimney pot that was at my favorite local nursery. It was huge! Since I got it BH (before hosta), it is sitting off in a corner, but now will come in handy like Gesila says, to raise the viewing area. IF I can manage to get it on the dolly to its preferred location. I have two tall square clay flower pots turned upside down, and hosta in containers sitting on top of those. Even empty, those pots are heavy to move. Another source for old chimney pots would be an architectural salvage yard. They have everything. My wrought iron security door (removed and given away) is about to come home and might be used for climbing vines. It could be placed against a solid plain (bare) wall, and fixed to look like a gate in the wall where there is none. Gesila, how tall is your chain link fence? can you plant vines on it? Down here (and in Tuscany where I saw it first) I am putting star jasmine, evergreen in our zone, and it is already beginning to cover our 7 foot high chain link fence. It will be gorgeous once it fills in.

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions, ya'll. The raccoons actually come down the trees into the fenced dog yard when they don't want to walk around the fence. Or, they try to walk on top of the fence, it's chainlink! Or, they drop like paratroopers onto the roof, but they only do thatin the middle of the night, when I'm finally in that really good deep sleep. One night they landed on the roof and ran back and forth over the bedroom, the big dogs running back and forth under the window barking. What gets me is that the garbage cans are on the other end of the house and they can easily go around the fence to get to the food and water. I think they enjoy the chaos. I think it's some sort of raccoon gang ritual, they can't join the club if they don't successfully finish a mission. They crack me up when they move the garbage cans. The cans have locking lids so they can't get into them, but they used to knock them over. I've trained them not to tip them over. I used a dog training method where you put 10-15 pennies in a soda can and rubber band some plastic wrap on top, them set the cans on whatever you want to train the animals not to get on. When they try to get on the trashcans they knock off the soda cans and it makes a big racket. It only took a couple of nights and they stopped knocking the garbage over. It worked soo well that they learned how to move the trashcans without making the soda cans fall over. I tried the soda can thing on the container where I keep the dog and cat food. But this box is only about 18 inches tall and those 'coon figured out how to pick up the soda cans and set them down on the floor without dropping too many. They amaze me. We had lights on motion sensors, but they very quickly learned not to run away from the lights. A funny thing happened one night - My mother-in-law was having diner with us and this happened right outside the dining room window.) One of 'em landed on top of a wide metal cabinet and BAM the light came on, and he tried to scramble away but couldn't get any traction so his little claws just clanged and scrambled to the left and then to the right, and then he tried to jump straight up but flipped off the back instead. It was like the lights came on and the darned 'coon started tap dancing. Now she jokes about how I train raccoons as well dogs. Another funny happened when we were getting the house ready to move into. (The previous tennents only went outside to throw bags of trash in the yard, so the raccoons where used to feasting.) I was here cleaning late one night all alone and went out to have a smoke. Well, a couple minutes after I sat down on the porch some huge creature jumped up on the railing near my head. Well, I screamed and it screamed and I ran for the door and it fell off the porch. That was my first night alone in this house and my first experience with these raccoons. It took us a while to figure out why the raccoons would come to the house when we would go out on the porch. Like I said earlier, the prev tenants only came on the porch to throw bags of garbage into the yard. They did this for years. I guess the raccoons associated the opening of the porch door with food. Some kind of Pavlovian response, huh? So you see, we moved into their neighborhood, it's just taking us a while to learn all the new rules. **Hey Wild4wildlife, I worked at a vet hospital before we moved here, and it's true that deer can jump 6 foot privacy fence. Many times we'd get called out to a client's property because deer would jump the fence. The deer would either have a broken leg from getting caught on the fence OR the deer would be confused on how to get back out of the yard. The strangest was a doe that had gotten into a 2nd story corn crib, without a ladder. The only way she could've gotten up there was by getting on top of a truck and jumping the remaining 4-5 feet into the open door. You know, I thought I left all these wildlife shenanagens behind when I moved out of the country and into the suburbs. Ya'll take care

I'm glad you were able to get the cap off and you may already be planning a fix, but you seem to have a pretty dangerous situation. For some reason, you're producing a great deal of creosote. This is an invitation to a chimney fire, not to mention potentially blocking the exit for fumes and carbon monoxide from the furnace. If two appliances on one flue is a violation of state and local code, you're also providing your insuance company with a ready made excuse for refusing to pay for any damages that may result from the setup.

Hi all, Thanks for the replies! Circuspeanut, Those are lovely hoods. The smallest is 36" though. And while my range is 30" and i know (from GW) it's desirable to have a hood that is wider than the cooktop, I think I need to stay at 30" for the hood. Besides, i'm just not that good a cook. Two burners at a time is my normal limit. With three going on special occasions, I'm pretty much in over my head! Cleo, yes I did think about shifting the range to the right, but I'm really afraid that downsizing the pots&pans drawer will be bad. MY KD and I were really careful about the amount, type and location of storage needed especially with no uppers) and the super susan is already spoken for! Your mantle hood is lovely BTW. Thanks for the picture. It does help me visualize. Buehl, I haven't seen one like that. That's kind of why I was considering a glass canopy hood. I thought that maybe if the stainless "chimney" part was too modern, maybe I could have my contractor box it in and paint it? If anyone has a picture or link to the hood type Beuhl mentions i'd love to see it. Favabeans - I could do that but then DH would probably kill me and I wouldn't get to enjoy my finally remodeled kitchen! LOL! The range is the only thing that's staying. PO's bought it just before we purchased the house. It' a dacor duel fuel, "pro style", in stainless. It has taken me a full two years to figure out how to use three of the oven modes, there are still two that I haven't a clue how to use. The newest models are probably way smarter than I am!