I agree with Ken. You should look into the measures necessary to protect the roots of trees from construction damage. Something as seemingly innocuous as the contractors and workers habitually parking in an area can do permanent damage to a tree's roots. As Ken said, the tree won't die immediately, but may well die a couple of years down the road. There are things you can do to mitigate and limit damage, but you HAVE to institute them from the beginning, AND make it vary clear to your contractor that you insist on them. Setting up fences, laying down a HEAVY layer of mulch, these and other measures can help. It the fence isn't really sturdy, and doesn't include enough area around the trees, the ground can be compacted, to the detriment of the trees. Workers are easily able to say to themselves "it's only once, it doesn't count this time if I park my truck here", which may be true. The problem is, doing something once doesn't always stay with the once. It can become a habitual thing, and the damage is done. You do need to look at what is required to protect your trees, decide which trees you absolutely want to protect and act to protect them. I know from experience that 20' from a building site means nothing when the heavy machinery gets in. And, unless you are building your house on pillars and will have only one machine in there once to auger the holes, plus the concrete truck(s), there will be a LOT of earth moving done, and heavy machinery moving around. I just had a 24 x 36' garage built, on a slab. The footprint of the earth that was actually moved and graded is around 60 x 120', maybe more. Some parts got moved more than once, as the foundation was done and backfilling needed. Between the grading, 10 truckloads of fill, and 6 trucks of gravel and 3 loads of cement, there were a lot of heavy machines in and out. If you plan on a basement, there will be a LOT more earth moving involved, including the dirt that was dug out of the basement and put in a pile somewhere - or, it was piled into dumptrucks and taken away. Plan ahead.

You Clematis "Elsa Spath" is a pruning group2 whereas your Clematis "Wisley" has viticella in it's blood and is a pruning group 3..I would stick to planting pruning group 3s with Roses..."Wisley" would be stunning with Climbing Rosa "New Dawn"....and much easier task of pruning every year being a pruning group 3!!..If your weather is still cool and you will stay ontop of keeping them watered..you could plant them now...if not wait till fall...make sure and give both of them a couple handfuls of bonemeal in the planting hole and plant them about 2-4 inches deeper than the pots they come in..You can prune them half way back for good measure...and this will benefit them to help their roots get well established ..when planting..plant them at a slight 45 degree angle towards what you want them to grow on....Jeanne

I think the attempt at a colonial look just does not mesh with the organic modern look it also had. I know it was done often as well as with the Spanish look (stucco, beams, etc...), but I just don't care for it. I think you could bring it forward into a more 70s natural look. Keep the ceiling and the slate floor, and try to work in clean elements and curves. Using raised panel doors and those hinges just did not look great when new, so to recreate would be period appropriate, but a mistake. I think a retro modern kitchen and vibe would make the most sense. Like noted above, you can use regular cabs under a curved counter. I could see it looking groovy with vertical grain veneer cabs, some retro color accessories and modern art. You can do an older style in a fresh way. There is no need to be a slave to someone else's vision for it, whether the original owner/architect, or some future buyer. If you added curves to your pix from 15:42 today, that would be quite nice. I am not sure you should whitewash your wood, but it is not a bad option. I would hate to see it get painted though. The workmanship and lines of it are really nice and that would sully it. I don't see too many painted surfaces as working in your house. I can picture grass cloth wallpaper and maybe some white walls. Certainly, you should skip crown molding.... Some funky table lamps in chrome would fit in as would some plants and macrame. I'd try to go for an ahead of its time look from years ago....

For all intents and purposes, your range is definitely an "island" or "peninsula" range. The half-wall will help a bit, but the majority of the effluent will still be in the open. Regarding the wall, it should be at least 9" thick -- that's the bare minimum you should have behind any open range or cooktop. If those are stairs directly behind the range, then I would be very careful about skimping on ventilation -- people going up/coming down will have anything not caught by your hood in their faces -- think billowing steam from boiling water, smoke from any browning/frying, splattering grease, etc. I'm with you on no downdraft -- they're better than nothing at all, but not much better! (Experience speaking!) They only work for items right up next to the fan -and- shorter than the top of the fan by several inches! They're also loud! (See that item in the video above -- tiny and short! Did you also notice in the video that even at the highest speed not all the steam was captured - quite a bit escaped above the fan? If that were a typical pot -- say 8 quarts or 12 quarts, even more would escape!) Regarding the need for venting...there are two primary things that affect what you need for venting: the type of cooking you do and the type of cooking appliance. Cooking is the most important with appliance second. If you do any grilling, you will need a very effective and much larger/stronger hood. If you fry, stir fry, brown meat, etc., you will need a good hood If you just steam or boil water, you will need a good hood, but the fan may not have to be as strong. Gas, especially high BTUs, will need better venting b/c of fumes and higher heat "Regular" electric still has heat, but not the gas fumes Induction does not introduce added heat from the burners, but there is still heat from the food -- much less heat overall, though BTW...others are correct, it's more expensive to vent in an open space like your situation than when against the wall. The hood is more expensive b/c it has to be finished on all 4 sides Venting can often be more difficult -- having to go up, turn a corner, and go out an exterior wall (be careful about venting through the roof) You need a bigger and stronger hood b/c you have more and stronger air currents that will make capturing the FOGSS (fumes, odors, grease, steam, smoke) more difficult....plus anything missed will quickly spread throughout the home. The lack of cabinets flanking the hood and a back wall to help corral the FOGSS is also an issue. So, how to minimize the impact since you are dead set on having the range in that location. First suggestion: Would you be wiling to leave part of the wall up? Say the width of the range + 9" to 12"? That would give you a wall to help your hood work better and to cut down on the FOGSS spreading. The hood size won't be as big an issue as well. Keep in mind that you spend far less time standing in front of your range cooking than you think -- only about 10% of your time. The rest of the time is spent prepping at counters & sink next to or across from the range (about 70%). (The other 20% is spent cleaning up -- at the cleanup sink, wiping down table & counter, loading/unloading the DW, etc.) Sizing of Hood: Width...The hood should be at least 6" wider than your cooking surface. So, for a 30" range, the hood should be at least 36" wide. This provides an extra 3" on each side. FOGGS do not just rise, they also expand as they rise. Since you don't have cabinets and a wall stopping the expansion, your hood definitely needs to be wider. (I might even consider 12" wider since it's going to be so open.) If your hood were against a wall with cabs flanking the hood, then 6" wider would be sufficient. Depth (front to back)...The hood should be 27" deep for the same reason as the width above. If your hood were against the wall, then it would only need to be 24" deep. Height...you want the hood to be able to corral the FOGSS for expelling to the outside, so the taller the hood body is, the better. Fan...I would go for at least 600cfms. Note: You might need makeup air (MUA). Some municipalities are starting to require MUA. I know you don't want something so big, but if you really want the range in the open, then one of the consequences is the need for better/bigger venting.