Debrak - she has a sister and I think has a very good relationship with her. She periodically comes up to visit. She also has a nephew but he is not ok. Lives in a group home. He certainly can't support her in any way. She's not speaking to me because of an incident with her dog. She can't lift the baby due to her back so plays with her on the floor. They both just LOVE each other and have great fun. But she has a big dog who is rambunctious and bounces around the floor while our infant is down there. I thought I saw him step on her, she told me I was wrong, I picked up the baby, she got mad at me. The thing is she is so hurt that I don't trust her to protect the baby, but if he didn't step on her he was within half an inch and I am just not comfortable with such a big bouncy dog landing within half an inch of our baby on the floor. Serious damage could be done if he accidentally stepped on her and he seems incapable of just sitting or going down while 'his Mom' plays with the baby. He gets clingy and has to be right next to her.... ie right on top of the baby. Anyway this isn't something I can back down on. I usually just brush off annoying things which happen, but not this. I offered to discuss it with her but apparently her feelings are so hurt that she's not yet ready. It's sad. : (

Our beagle ate a sponge. :) Not pretty. Very long time ago. The poodle we had after never ate anything nasty and never disrupted funerals, but he didn't like being alone either. They're pack animals, dogs are. :) The beagle would just hop the fence and run down the avenue. Hence the disrupted funerals full of all those nice people to scratch his ears, don't you know? Taller fence didn't help. He could climb, and we found him walking on the top one day, tightrope style. When you get your seating custom made, you can actually have it measured to fit your bodies (and any loved ones whom you wish to be especially comfy). You can also sit test it at various stages. You might want to get a designer to work with you on these. Often furniture makers will do whatever you want, but not design. A good designer can help you figure out the exact seat height, seat depth (i.e., whether you can reach your water without a cushion behind), firmness, fabrics, cant of the back, lumbar cushioning, etc., etc., and then keep on top of the maker to make sure it comes out right and you get your sit tests and all. If this is forever furniture that will get recovered when necessary, but otherwise stay there, it's worth it, even if it costs a little more. Re the style, it's okay to put well chosen casual with the formal shell. The inspiration pics you've shown, which I called "shabby chic" all mashed up, are like that. Think Hollywood glamour girl on the red carpet in Balenciaga and pigeon egg diamonds, with her hair down and beaded thongs. (Not egg beater hair and sneakers.) She looks done up for the occasion, but casual and relaxed, all at once. Same with the casual, comfy, kitchen furniture (i.e., where you're supposed to have casual and comfy) with your fancy formal cabinets and chandeliers. If you had much more formal furnishings you wouldn't have a kitchen feel at all, not even a tarted up, the cook calls in, kitchen where people don't cook. :) All a long winded way of saying (since I don't seem to have to make dinner today), that I like your plan. Same goes for other rooms that are more for living in than being formal in. Oh! Have you seen Redroze's kitchen? You must have. If not, go look at it. :) It's a much more modern style, and neutral color scheme, but, in some ways, I think a similar vibe. And wing chairs.

cs929, (AMS hope I'm not taking too much space with my posts! color discussion can lead me to that), the color is actually was mixed for some unknown to me designer for her clients in Malibu or something. Our cabinetmaker prepared 4 samples for us-any colors I wanted-I chose Elephant's Breath, Revere Pewter, all the warm grays I could think of. They all looked just great when they were laying gorizontally on some surface. The moment I turned them vertically-as they'd be installed vertically, right?-they all became too cold. They became grays. And I wanted color verging on taupe, very warm color. So the cabinermaker, seeing as I desperately look at them and finding them all wrong, told me he has some other grayish samples in his store. (He holds on to every sample in his shop, in case clients want to touch up/repaint same color) I found what, another ten doors? I asked permission to take them all home to look at them more. Permission was granted. I spent ten days dragging doors around and looking at them in different lights..)) My MIL who lived at the time with us looked at me like I'm a madwoman. Anyway. Only one color worked, out of all shebang. Only one was what I envisioned. And it didn't have a name since it was custom. So I called it after myself. It's varnish of course, lacquer-they have different formulas from paint, I mean they're made differently. We color matched it in regular paint store because I loved it so much, and it's become the color of our master bedroom as well. And there it somehow gets to be warmer, more brownish. I bet because of the different light. It's more moody too because not varnish anymore..it's more matte and deep plainly because of the different nature of material it's applied to. Many months after that I ordered a mirror painted in Kingsport Gray by Benjamin Moore(paint on papier mache applied to metal). And I thought to myself: hmm..that's pretty damn close..))

If it were my own home, I would have followed systems engineering process and analyzed the Hades out of the relevant subjects to be sure that what I ordered was all compatible, and then would have collected all components on site so final measurements could be made before ordering cabinets and placing electrical outlets. Perhaps needless to say, this has (and did have) the effect of greatly dragging out the reno. I would also have desperately tried to find a way to (a) use an exterior blower, and (b) find a place to put a silencer. And I would have to consider whether an 11 x 7 duct was too non-standard to contemplate. I have to assume for your home, eliasgrace, that your duct path is pretty fixed and there is no point in discussing variants. I think I would go with the squished 10-inch duct and then do the following: Tape all duct connections with approved tape See how well it works with more challenging plume generating cooking. Listen for how noisy it is Most importantly, not initially close up the access so that any vibration can be suppressed with techniques we can address later, and in any case, horizontal ducts should have a way to get into them if grease build up is detected, in this case possibly in noxious ways thru the cabinets. (Most of the time, residential grease not collected by the baffles is too sparse for grease drips out of the ducting, but plan ahead.) Some thinking about that now may save a lot of pain later.* You may wish to use a wood cover that is magnetically attached so it can be pulled off. If the blower is roof mounted, allowance should be made for having to upgrade it if flow rate is too low for full containment of the challenging plumes. If the blower is internal to the hood, then allowance for adding a roof blower is worth considering, although that could have electrical consequences. In spite of my comments above, I might be tempted to cut away the cabinets. However, this would change their structural strength without some additional structure that would have been much easier if added by the cabinet manufacturer. Replacing them would depend on their cost relative to the whole project. I'm not wearing your moccasins, so I fear that there is too little I know about all the details to assert that I know what's best. Last, let me note that your hood aperture is larger than my hood's 10 sq. ft. I use a 1500 CFM @ zero static pressure roof blower and 10-inch duct. It is adequate even without completed pressurized MUA (although it won't be if other exhaust fans are running so I still need it). Your actual specific flow rate (with all windows wide open) may turn out to be less than 90 CFM/sq. ft., and the impact on capture and containment will need to be closely observed. Fluid dynamics (applies to hood operation) is not linear or independent of the overall configuration, and general rules of thumb are merely ways of avoiding solving nearly intractable problems. What is your MUA approach? kas *Fantech makes some clamp unions that could perhaps simplify taking out a duct section.