Thanks everyone for your input. The kitchen is not going to be modern per se, but not traditional either. One kitchen I really liked was labeled "transitional". I want things simple and clean but warm--nothing fussy, but not too sleek either. My DH calls me difficult-perhaps he's right. It's a good thing he doesn't read this forum. hollylh-thanks for the advice about the dark granite. It's certainly something I keep debating We will be having a large island and I'm considering putting a lighter granite on that surface. The problem is that I'm not finding a lighter granite that "speaks to me" that isn't a gazillion bucks. While everytime I'm at the granite place I steer towards the ubatuba, verde butterfly, verde peacock--love those dark greens. I did see a golden oak granite in some magazines that I liked-- I may have to investigate further. I also am thinking about using solartubes (kinda like skylights, only not) to bring natural light in--will have to talk with the builder about that. If anyone has any experience with these please chime in gibby3000--you probably gave me the best advice in your "gut feeling" comment. In my head I'd always pictured a stainless hood, but really liked the idea of tying the kitchen/great room together so I started thinking--and that always leads me to trouble. I went back to five of the 15+ kitchen design books/magazines I've saved and every kitchen I really liked had a stainless hood. In particular there was an arts and crafts style kitchen with medium toned cherry cabinets and floors and dark perimeter granite and "my stove" with a gigantic stainless hood. I actually went "Oooh I really like that" in my head before I realized what I was looking at--a kitchen with the feel and overall color palate I want for my kitchen. The great/terrible thing about cultivating ideas with others is you end up with something much greater than you could have on your own, but you have to remember to listen to yourself too, even if you have to back up a bit and figure that out--thanks for the reminder. One more decision decided!!! Laura

Here's a link to a website that explains the difference. 430 vs 304 Stainless Steel

The pragmatic solution is caulking or installing a molding. The precise solution would be to scribe to the wall and ask a metal fabricator to cut your chimney precisely to those dimensions. I don't see how that would work for your existing chimney. So, most likely, they'd have to build a new one for you from scratch. That's going to be expensive, and there is a lot of potential for things to not quite work out. The other thing you could try would be to slightly recess the hood into the sheetrock. That requires some careful work when you patch up the sheetrock afterwards. Do you have a level 5 finish on the walls? Can't quite tell from the photos. That would make it even harder, as imperfections would be extremely noticeable.

I'm assuming you're talking your cornice moulding between the wall & ceiling & not crown of cabinetry? "The vent does not fit flush with the ceiling" Are you saying that your ceiling is not level and that the shroud doesn't touch in all places because of that? The installer can trim the shroud with tin snips if that is the case. Obviously, care is required to not butcher that. IMPO I wouldn't use the shoe moulding. You could build a bulkhead/box, to match the wall, over the hood. Then have the hood shroud run up to that & carry your cornice around that box. This doesn't have to be a large thing. It can be the same height as the complete cornice (skirting & crown) & same depth as the shroud (or slightly deeper).