Apologies for the delay in response, the past 4 weeks have been terrible for me. DH diagnosed with a sarcoma, favorite dog I've had since college nearly died of heart failure (fortunately meds and subsequent Addison's disease diagnosis and more meds have fixed him right up, at least for another year or so). So kitchen redesign went on backburner. And to add to the angst, we've experienced lots of engineering delays with the load bearing wall removal. I had to fight my contractor to go with column-free design, then wait for the PE to re-do everything the way I originaly asked. This is all going down AFTER they completely demo'ed the kitchen. Going on 4 weeks of bare studs. But now the huge, column free LVLs are going in, I need to be ready to order cabs the moment they are done! And happy to say that after the surgery to remove the tumor, biopsy revealed DH had a schwalloma and not a sarcoma, which is very good news. So, after long-winded story, back to layout. Overall concept stays the same but I've juggled a few things around. Bmorepanic - the fridge will now be a 27" all fridge column with hinges on the left. Sub Zero somewhat cantilevers in, so all we'll need is a 2" spacer to ensure plumb with wall and handle clearance. Intend to use the island as landing for stuff coming out of fridge. There is a very nice forested view out of the bay window over the primary sink, so we're leaving that in place. Fireplace is also fixed. We will play around with hearth room furniture once the kitchen is complete. I am actually very happy with where everything is now, thanks to everyone's suggestions, the one HUGE concern I have is symmetry around the door into the dining room. Due to the joist design from the kitchen that "juts" out past the dining room on the exterior wall, we can't widen the right side of the door between the two rooms without more expense. And potential functionality impact to DR. But at the same time I am not sure if the bigger space on the right side of the door with drive me crazy. I would give up landing space on either side of the range if I shorten the cabinet run to the left, which I would really like to avoid. Would the larger expanse of bare wall on the right side of the door be acceptable? One of those things that looks off in the schematics but in real life wouldn't be so noticeable? Or do I need to redesign the cabs on the RH side? Our cabs are completely custom, so anything is technically possible. Please excuse the disaster of finishes on my design program, all I am using it for is sizing / spacing. Thanks!

I don't know if you saw my response to your previous post, but we have almost exactly the same pool, size, equipment and pool cover that you have. The auto fill cost us $390, which included installation. Please double check the combination of an automatic pool cover with a salt water system. My pool builder highly advised against it because of corrosion problems. I called 2 pool cover companies and neither would warrant the pool cover with a salt system. I suggest you do a little research, as there have been reported problems. With the 10K cost of the pool cover you don't want to have problems 5 years from now from corrosion. I decided to not take the chance and nixed the salt system. :( We went with pre-cast stone coping in 24" x 16" x 3" with a bull nose finish. We love the way it looks. Keep in mind that the coping end with the pool cover will not be permanently grouted in case of the need to pull them up to for maintenance of the pool cover mechanics. The custom made brackets to hold the coping cost us $5K. Our pool builder prefabricated them in his shop. I have pictures of them if you'd like to see them let me know. We are looking to use a rope rolled in silcone and sand stuffed in between the coping pieces for a finished look. I think that it will look fine when its done. It's too cold out now to do it. The coping needs to stick out a minimum of 3" if you are going to have an undermounted track, which is what we have. It is a nice, clean installation and you really don't see the track much at all. We don't regret spending the extra $10k on the autocover & $5k for the custom brackets - we love it. We also love the in-floor cleaning system. There are several on these boards that say they are a waste of money. I disagree. Ours works great and I don't have any hoses or creepy crawly things running around and laying around the pool area. And the pool stays VERY clean. The costs of the Pentair Intellitouch i9 is high. We paid $2500 for the same model and that included a wireless remote as well as the indoor pad. We love it. Definately worth the money. And no, ours didn't include any decking. Price $80K. Amost apples to apples here. Also - small things not to forget: A drain in the pool cover vault. Ours ties into our storm drain. When planning your utility trenches plan for everything, electrical, gas, water, speaker wires, low voltage garden lighting and drainage. Once you cover it with your decking theres no going back to add something. Once you have a drawing of your plan - post it - you'll get lots of great feedback here. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Our Pool Photos

Thanks everyone for the thoughtful replies. To be more clear, if needed, the insert doesn't need this work to fit inside. It will fit no problem... The "surround" to cover-up the open space on the sides and above is the issue here. Typically these just go on top brick, or some other relatively flat material / surface. But, with large, non-uniform rocks such as these, placing the surround over would look very bad, probably most so from the side... The surround can also be cut to go inside the fireplace slightly such that it is flush to the exterior, as opposed to sitting on top of it.... That is / was the impetus here, to trim an inch or so each side, top to bottom, vertically as possible. With more of a rectangular shape, the surround could be cut to slip into this open space. I honestly didn't think anything I had would do it, although the Dremel SawMax with tile blade does work quite, just not deep enough of course... And yes, plenty dusty. My next thought was to somehow frame it (no cutting), adding two verticals on each side, not sure of the material, but something non-flammable, then filling-in the voids with mortar. Maybe that is what someone just above was saying. There's a large metal plate above, making for a nice flat surface on top of the openning, which is what I seek on the sides. I wonder if large piece of angle iron on each side would do the trick? Maybe weld it up on top... With the voids between the angle iron and rock, pack with matching mortar. Thoughts? Thanks much.

Thank you for your suggestions! strategery, to demolish the fireplace would be very costly and that's not in the budget. Plus, it's a functional fireplace and the only heat in that room - refacing it should be fine, I just don't know what to reface it with : -) tatts, I don't know what bluestone is but I'll google that! Beth H. great suggestions! I like the idea of something different, although with it being tiled from floor to ceiling, I'm gun shy about doing anything too busy and having to coordinate other furnishings to a bold design. I especially love the tile in your second photo. It looks like Tabarka Tile, which I'm in love with, but I figured out the square footage and the tile alone would be about $2K and I don't think I can stretch the budget that far. I love Fireclay also but the lead time on their tile is about 8 weeks and I don't have that long. I think the blue herringbone tile is a good look - I wouldn't do blue, probably something more muted, but do you think that look would be OK from floor to ceiling without being too busy?