First, a warning -- I have never lived in a house that needed make-up air. Not even close. Double-pane glass makes little sense for us since all the heat goes around the sashes in our Victorian. My experience with MUA is related to commercial systems. What follows is an opinion about the kinds of things that would make me consider MUA. Unless you have a Code requirement for make-up air, you have a fireplace you use when cooking (I seem to remember that you are South Bay?), have a "naturally" vented gas appliance in "connected space" (no always-closed doors between the hood and the appliance), or have a "tight" house (recent, energy-efficient construction, most likely), I would skip MUA. Even if you do need MUA, the difference in the maximum hood flow probably wouldn't significantly influence the the cost of the MUA system, which I would think was primarily labor driven. If not significantly more expensive, and you can run at least an 8" duct (preferably a 10"), I'd go with 900 CFM for two reasons: * You have it when you need it -- guests over, and the kitchen fills with smoke... * A 900 CFM blower at 600 CFM may be noticeably quieter than a 600 CFM blower at 600 CFM The 24" will serve you well. Enjoy your new range!

Azmom, you do not have your email enabled on your profile. Therefore, I am unable to respond directly to your request for assistance. I will respond here, so that others may have the benefit of the information as well. First of all, for your island, it will not be used at all unless you do have a water source on it. The primary prep zone in any kitchen is between water and fire and adjacent to the storage. That's the tiny corner between your sink and the range. UNLESS you put a prep sink on the island. When you do that, and it doesn't have to be anything larger than 14", that transforms the island into the primary prep space with you facing out towards those who are seated there rather than you standing with your face in the corner and your back to the guests. The square shape that Holly suggested could work and adds additional storage. I think the important takeaway from that is to have the "working " portion of the aisle facing the fridge and cooking surface. That minimizes your walking all over the kitchen to prepare a meal. A larger kitchen isn't a better kitchen, unless it's designed to be. Putting an island in the middle of a kitchen makes it less efficient, not more efficient---unless that island is in the right spot, with the right orientation, and has a water source on it. A large chunky island looks appropriate to the space,and I think the square works (especially with some nice chunky legs to make it more of a "table") but you could just make the island narrower and oriented left to right instead of top to bottom. Here is one tweak to Holly's plan that I might make if you are OK with walking further in your prep, but only if you are willing to use a counter depth refrigerator or a built in one. Refrigerators belong on the perimeter of the kitchen space so that they can be accessed by those coming into the space without crossing your prep space. It's the busiest spot in the kitchen, and you have to have enough room for everyone to have that access. Whether or not you want to swap the wall oven with the fridge will depend on how often you use the wall oven for cooking. If you frequently sear something and then put it in the oven to finish, the range suggestion would be a good one. Or have the range be on the same run as the cooktop with the fridge across the aisle. If you are more into getting out fresh veggies and preparing them for a meal, then leaving Holly's plan alone might be the best layot for you. Either depends on having the prep sink there so that you actually use the island. Without a prep sink on the island, you're creating more work, more steps, and you'll default to just prepping in the corner.

Your ceiling isn't level. Your measurements before you ever began the project should have showed you that there was a problem with that. (There usually is.) A "fudge" should have been planned into the design. Where is your contractor in this picture? Why didn't he explain to you that there would be an obvious difference in the gaps because the ceiling had an issue? And why weren't shorter cabinets planned for from the beginning to hide this issue better? With 8' ceilings, you NEVER do 42" cabinets "to the ceiling", even in new construction because the ceilings are never flat. If you had done 39" tall cabinets, you would have had room for a 3" piece of solid stock between the cabinets and ceiling and then a small crown or even just inside corner molding could "float" that height difference where it was less noticeable. Or if you had chosen 36" cabinets, you could have had room for 6" combination molding that could have hidden the height difference. Or even doing plain 30" cabinets with no molding wouldn't have accented the ceiling sag as much as what was designed.

Go pebble vs plaster. Plaster pools especially darker color ones mottle. You will sign on your contract stating the plasterer has no control over it. It will happen end of story. Pebble pools eliminate all of that. They stay true to their color and remove 90% of the paster issues. When choosing a color the door of the plaster or pebbles is not the color you will end up with. The water and your pools surroundings change the final color. Even the exact surface color in one yard to the other will look different even if it was next door. As an example tan makes the water look green. Every pool Co has their favorite med blue with some lagoon name to it. You can add abalone shells to give a nice sparkle to it. When choosing tiles the larger the tile the less grout which means less failure. Smaller tiles might be needed if there are tight radiuses. Most important is to actually see a pool co's work. Make sure written in that contract the OWNER will be there during the process and to inspect the final work. Ask for THEIR recommendation for a Co to maintain the pool for the first year. This way they cant blame failure on YOU!! Pool Cos are notorious for using day laborers and handing out Co shirts on the job site. You will then find out why somebody with a 5th grade education shouldn't be doing the work or a well educated plaster person in the country legally. I don't care how nice they are if they don't understand what a quality job is how do you expect them to do one?