I would recommend going throught the attic as a last resort. Ours vents on our steep roof and maintainence is a nightmare!!!! We have to call someone to come out to clean our vent line since the roof is such a steep pitch. We've had trouble with the flaps sticking up and birds getting in the vent line = ewww! = maintenaince call. Put chicken wire over vent to prevent birds = clogged vent = wet clothes = another maintenaince call. This is our current status. This has just been our experience. I'm sure (I hope) there are others that have sucessfully vented through roof. The fans you mention I believe are for those that have a longer vent run and need the extra push to get the air out. Depending on your attic height you may or may not need one. We didn't. Another option is what davey3000 has, a condensing dryer. They do not vent outside and the moisture from cloths collects in a pan or can set up to drain into a floor drain. These appear to be a bit less efficent energy wise but are gentler on clothing. Bosch makes a nice condensing dryer. Good luck in the final stage of your house!! Anyway my 2cents worth.

gordonr, If there's nothing else I've learned during the course of my renovations, I've learned that everything ends up being more complicated than you expect. Once you open up the ceiling or the wall, there always seems to be something in the way of what you want to do. A floor joist where the tub drain needed to be, pipes where I wanted recessed lights to go, and now the recessed light over the tub is where it would make sense to run the duct. I can hardly wait to get to the kitchen renovation! I spoke with a rep in Miele's technical service group yesterday. Initially he was telling me he thought what I wanted to do entailed too long a stretch of duct - that it would reduce the performance of the dryer. I told him I expected that it would not be optimal performance, but what I was trying to determine was whether it would reduce it to the extent that a condenser dryer would have the same performance. He didn't seem to understand what I was getting at, so I gave an example: If the vented model has 15% better performance than the condenser model and the venting I'm doing reduces performance by 15%, then the condenser model would be generally equivalent, but if the vented dryer's performance is 50% greater, the same 15% reduction in performance would still mean the vented dryer was a better choice. I asked if he could give me any information about how much better the vented dryer's performance was than the condenser model and how much the venting I was considering would reduce the vented dryer's performance. At that point, he said he wanted to talk with one of the senior technical reps and put me on hold. When he came back, he told me that the dryer was rated for up to 60 feet (which I already knew) and that I should be fine with what I was planning on doing. He also told me that the sr. rep had indicated that having a condenser dryer in a closet could be problematic because it puts off a lot more heat than a vented dryer - you'd need a lot more air circulation into the closet with a condenser dryer. The closet I'll be putting the w/d into is 68" wide by 29" deep, so the extra heat and air circulation need may not have been as much of an issue for me as it might be for others with a more confined space. One learning that I took away from this: if you start to get the sense that the technical or customer service person you're talking to may not be as knowledgeable as you'd like, ask to talk with a senior rep. Like anywhere else, initial phone calls will be answered by more junior staff who will route the more complicated issues to more experienced staff. I've decided to go with a vented dryer, and now just need to decide between the Miele and the Asko. I'll let everyone know which one I end up with. Jan

Thanks for the info. :) I am worried that lint will fall down and accumulate in the elbow, but I guess that I would just make it a point to clean the ducting a couple of times a year. Would I have to go on the roof to clean the outlet as well? It's not a huge problem, since it's only 1 level, but I am getting older (that breaking-a-hip issue...).

Robinhome, you mentioned last Thursday you did not want to go too green, but on my monitor silken pine looks like a very pale green. It is so hard to tell on monitors the true hue - or maybe you changed your mind on that line of thinking because it is so pale . In your color samples does it look different than on line ? So, if you have chosen that (silken pine - very pretty ) then for your cabinetry you would want something with more of a green hue, if not painting them white - is that right ?