Barb5, I think you are right -- cleaning out the room is dredging up feelings that she did not expect. Compounding the issue is that none of her friends have to deal with this. They have larger homes, no younger siblings w/space needs, and are financially better off which makes this even more "unfair." I keep reassuring her that the rest of the house is exactly the same and will still feel and BE home, even if she's moved down the hall. I also said I will pay for her transportation home and she can come home any time she wants, no questions asked (within reason of course) so she knows we're here for her and this is her home. As for the timing, well we have talked about it for weeks and she didn't want to be surprised by any changes. She thought it would be harder on her to be uninvolved. Now that we're in the middle of it, I can see there'd be problems no matter how we approached it. From a practical standpoint, Sooner was better because DH is a hoarder. Every wall covered with magazine clippings, posters, etc, piles of books, notebooks, art supplies, dishes, etc. everywhere. I didn't know how I was going to get her organized and packed if we didn't strip it down. There's also a scheduling issue -- she's due at school Aug. 19, and since we're on vacation the first week of August and packing her up the second week the last two weeks of July are the best time (given my schedule and vacation schedules) to get it done. I've tried coming up with a compromise to ease her worries but my husband takes a firm line: it's not fair to keep the younger child crammed into his room once she's gone. She's had the bigger nicer room for 15 years (we lived elsewhere until she was 3) and it's now our son's turn. We've always repurposed space as the family's needs change, and that's what this is, in DHs opinion. He doesn't want to coddle her at our son's expense. Maybe I'm the coddler -- I'm feeling very torn here...

Hi florantha, I know exactly what you mean by lots of space but no space! That exactly describes my home. In fact, I don't really have a space for a desk right now because of that. I wish I had my computer so I could upload some pictures (I'm using my iPad right now), but I will just have to use words to describe my space for now: When you walk into my house, you walk right into my kitchen, which is 13ft x 12ft. So if you think of a square, the front door is on the bottom side at the far right. The right side is a wall, along which is the recessed pantry, and this wall stops at the end of the 12ft. There is a walkway in front of you, and the rest of the bottom side (to the left of the door) has the fridge and a short counter. The left-hand wall has that counter continuing from the corner, then a sink under a window, then a counter over the dishwasher, and then a wall oven with microwave and short cabinets over it. There is no fourth wall ahead of you - the tile just transitions to wood floor and there is a wood beam overhead to divide the rooms. So if you walk to the end of the tile, you are in the left half of a rectangular room, and our dining set is in the same room at your right. So, the dining room is a 15ft 7" by 24ft rectangle, and my current kitchen is like a square under the long left side of that rectangle. The dining set fits into the right-hand 12ft stretch of dining room, and the left-hand side (that my current kitchen opens onto) is useless empty space right now. So I'm pushing my kitchen straight backwards into that space, and my current kitchen will be the mudroom/entry. That was probably clear as mud, but it's the best I can do for now, sorry! The place where my wall oven and microwave are, will house a tall cabinet which will contain the stacked washer/dryer. The sink und the window will be replaced with a utility sink and keep the short counters at either side - I'm hoping to make that all soapstone. So the will be both top and bottom cabinets at either side of the sink (and under it), and I was thinking of having those cabinets and the tall one housing the W/D similar to the kitchen cabinets. The fridge and short counter, to the left of the front door, will be replaced by the coat stand. So that's where I'm agonizing over having the different stains. They would be right up again each other in that corner... Would it look terrible if they were different, as I described in my post above? I'll be putting in a long countertop between the two rooms to separate the mudroom from the kitchen, leaving a 4th walkway from the door straight to the kitchen, and adding an open shelf right under the ceiling beam as well, to separate the spaces. I figure that can be a handy folding area as necessary, or we can use the dining room table. I don't sort, really, and my pantry is big (7th x 2.5th) so if need be, I can shove the hamper in there out of sight when company comes. Hampers stay in rooms/closets until I do laundry, so I don't think it will be a big deal? And the ironing board can go in the pantry too, with one if those wall retainers which holds the iron up above. I never hang clothes and I suppose I could always use the coat hooks and a hnagerrs for rare occasions, too? Does this all make sense or have I created mass confusion by now?

Q-What is just to the right of the wall oven today? A- To the right of the wall oven is the doorway into the dining room. I agree with buehl that the current place of the cooktop is terrible. It seems that anyone walking by could brush their arm against a flame. I'd want to do something about it right away. I was thinking about the original question of removing the wall oven and filling that space with a range + micro. These things popped into my mind: - I assume there is some type of 'wall' barrier to the right of the wall oven today, right? So, was your husband suggesting to retain the cabinet/wall structures that are currently around the wall ovens, and slipping in the range/micro combo between the two 'walls'? - If his idea was to retain those wall structures, then potentially the right hand oven 'wall' would be a safety barrier between anyone walking through that doorway and the new range. However, you would probably have to remove the left hand oven 'wall' so that you have a landing place to the left of the new range. And buehl pointed out the need for air flow. Is the wall oven gas now? If gas, do you know what logistics it takes to remove it? I think that if you were to take the stop gap measure to put a freestanding range/micro there, it might have to be electric. I don't know if you could safely have a gas freestanding range with cabinet-like walls around it. You'd have to consult the installation booklet for the electric range to find out how close it can be to any combustible material on the side. If it is a freestanding electric range, I believe that it can be right up against a combustible item (for example, cabinet wall or house wall--I'm going by my own freestanding range's booket). Buehl is probably right about the building code if the range is gas; however, for a job of removing a wall oven and putting in an electrical outlet into which you plug in a new freestanding range, I am wondering if you'd even have to get a permit and have an inspection of that new range. I mean, if the wall oven is gas, there might need to be a permit for a gas pipe person to disconnect the gas, and if there's not a suitable electric receptacle for the new range, then you'd need an electrician to install one, and he'd need to get a permit to install the circuit/line for that new receptacle. But after that work is done and it's an empty space with an electric receptacle, and you buy a range and put it in position, I doubt there's any building office requirement where you call an inspector to come and inspect where you plugged in the new range. I guess what I'm saying is that if there's some 'wall' to the right of the wall oven space that you can keep to protect people from walking through that doorway and into your burners, and if you remove the left hand 'wall' so you have a landing space to the left of the range and proper air flow, then I can see how your husband's idea might work. It would get...

Insulation for kitchen remodel Original house was built in 1939. It is a cape cod style. As best as we can figure the kitchen addition of 12x14 was done somewhere in the 1960's off the back of the house and hasn't been touched since. We are currently completely remodeling the kitchen, taking it down to the studs and redoing all the insulation, electric, plumbing, etc. as it's all been very poorly done. Long story short - we also decided to remove the ceiling and expose the rafters/trusses. Most all of the lumber is old rough cut lumber so the end result would be pretty cool looking. There is only about 3-4 feet of height difference from where the ceiling is to the peak so we aren't talking a huge difference in height but it will open up the whole feel of the room tremendously. So here's where my questions come in. I've already removed all the cellulose insulation and the cheap old nasty batten insulation they had above the ceiling. I had to do all this to expose all the wiring that was in there - open live wires, poor connections - it was horrible. I have no idea how this house hasn't burned down. Anyway - this 12x14 addition has 3 types of vents - there is a gable vent that faces east, a ridge vent, and also a round vent in the roof. There are no eave soffits on this house - so there is no ventilation from there. So am I correct in thinking that I need to seal all of these vents up? If yes - how would you do it? It seems to me that the 3 different vents are all working against each other. What I vision for my end result is putting rigid insulation up Between the trusses and then covering with old barn wood in between to stay with the old wood look. Would this work? Do I need a vapor barrier? I guess what I'm after is - is it ok to completely seal everything up? I want to do this right the first time so please ask any questions you need to. I'll be happy to take pics of anything you need. This is our first time ever opening up a ceiling like this so we are in new territory but we are very advanced DIYers.