Thank you all so much for your very kind comments and for all of the "cheerleading" you've done for me! I appreciate the advice and encouragement more than you can possibly know. Covingtoncat - you asked about the lack of venting over our stove ... well, it's a problem! DH is the "chef" at our house and he tends to be a messy one. I'm sure there's gunk on the wall behind the stove (although maybe I'm lucky that my eyesight is poor so I don't readily see it!) -- the pot rack (not vintage, but it did come with the house - left by the previous owner) gets coated with greasy ick and needs frequent cleaning. I do wonder how the now-red wall will show up the gunk once I paint it white, but I still intend to do so. And maybe convince DH to be a little less splatter-prone when he cooks! Onedogedie - yes, the new window is upstairs, on the far right. (That's actually an attic vent on the side closest to the camera.) I still haven't been able to locate anyone who does vintage-style awnings in my area yet. Lots of companies do canvas or copper - but that's not what I have in mind. So - still keeping my eyes open and pondering that addition. I have now begun painting the lower cabinets white, and will change all of the red in the space to white. DH has remarked several times that even with the small amount I've painted so far, the room feels so much larger and open. I have to agree! I've given myself until the end of the summer to get this project completed, although I hope it doesn't take me that long. I'll post another photo update once all of the cabinets are finished.

Hi Jo. I think you are recalling 1929Spanish's thread about her hood and crown. I'll link it below for you. She has posted her nearly completed kitchen if you want to do a search (use the box at the bottom of page 1, not the top) for it to see how it turned out. Hope this thread helps, but please do post your pics in this thread for people to give you advice on your specific situation. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: The thread you remembered

Sorry, don't have any real photos yet, but I have an old drawing that at least gives perspective on what I'm trying to convey. Worth mentioning the hood in the picture is not right. Our hood is 36in wide on top as is the duct cover all the way to the ceiling. Bottom of hood is 54in. Also probably worth mentioning we have no desire to try to cram more upper cabinets in that space as we have 18ft of cabinets on the opposite wall. Ceilings are 9ft and not 100% sure of dims on crown, but it will be in the ~6in range to match the rest of the house. Cabinets shown are not correct height. They'll run nearly to ceiling and close the small gap with crown.

The door trim in my hall bathroom was cut to accommodate countertop. It looks perfectly fine to me (except I see a couple nail holes that need to be filled). Here it is from another angle. Your trim looks a little beat up so if you fix that and the wall I don't think it will look bad. What if the installer returns and notches the counter and the notching is off a bit? It wont look good either.