I would suggest other wichurana ramblers such as Leontine Gervaise, Alberic Barbier or even Albertine. I grow a good few ramblers and climbers in very tight spaces - although they will cover a fair amount of wall (and go round the corner - they have cane flexibility) they can be kept quite tight to the wall - almost 2 dimensional. The hardiness may be a factor but on a south facing wall, I have found the wichuranas to be fairly tough roses, Failing that, I will also second Nahema as a rather lovely, well behaved rose but there probably is a hardiness factor to consider there. If you were not desperately bothered about rebloom, take a look at the ayreshire ramblers (yes, I know they can get huge) but you will not find any rose as flexible and well behaved as Ayreshire Splendens. Finally, there is a lovely helenae hybrid called Lykkefund which is both thornless and easily trained and may well be jardy for your area - it is a huge favourite in Scandinavia.

Interresting. I never considered this issue with my vinyl windows flanking my rangetop. The exposed vinyl on my windows are 9.5" from the side of my CC rangetop, which has 23,000 btus on each burner. The exposed vinyl is 6.5" from the counter. Have you taken into account the depth at which those windows will be installed? My 1971 house had old 4" thick exterior walls so mine are set back 2.5" from the interior drywall. If your house is newer with 6" thick exterior walls, your windows will be set back 4.5" or so from the drywall. Te depth will increase if you add a tile or stone backsplash. I think this measurement matters when looking at this issue. It's not as if the vinyl will be sitting flush with the drywall waiting to catch fire. I choose vinyl windows for two reasons. Although I would have greatly preferred something better looking, I knew my DH, the world's best procrastinator, would not keep up the regular maintenance on wood windows in our rainy climate. He neglects lots of ther regular house maintenance. The major issue is that my entire house already had existing vinyl windows. Putting in new wood windows didn't make sense for us. Side note, I mentioned this on another thread. Have you planned where your required outlets will be installed given the flanking windows?

You should really try to not have painted surfaces touching each other. This may not even be an issue of closing the window too soon. Even if you let it dry a month before closing it, if paint touches paint hard enough, it's always going to peel off.

I’m sorry but those windows and shutters look like me trying to squeeze back into my cardigan after Thanksgiving dinner! I would remove them.