Hey, Jubilante, could you please post some dimensions, so folks know what you're working with? Also, I don't see a door to the bathroom in the second pic....is the entrance up for discussion, or are you trying to keep it in the same place? Just off the top of my head, I would consider moving the sink to where your tub is now, and putting the shower in the bump-in to living room area. But it's hard to say without dimensions, etc.

I can see the confusion that is causing others like Live Wire Oak to say that this is too cheap. To re-clarify the issue. This is bumping out an interior, load bearning wall, that is in the middle of the house an extra 6" so that an existing waste line that is run around ceiling height will be inside the "wall" eliminating the need to make a soffit or cut out the back of a cabinet for the waste pipe. On that note the $1300 is alot of money. I have been following you many posts about the issues you have encountered. I know you don't totaly trust the GC anyway. First off the nail rail is for his benefit since he will save in labor time/expense in hanging the cabinets. So if he wants to put that into this new wall then that should be on his dime not yours. As far as cost, I know I am typically a DIY so I am speaking on those terms. For a 180" wall you are talking 12 studs based on 16" OC. You then would have a top and bottom plate as well. There may be a few more studs to connect sheetrock to the old wall. Since you mentioned that you wanted to put a niche behind the stove area, you need to frame out the niche area but then you will be taking away some of the vertical studs to put horizontal studs anyway. So I figure you are looking at like $100.00 in lumber and you then need less than $100.00 in sheetrock to cover that new wall and tie into the old. There is other stuff like corner bead and tape and joint compound. Obviously there is labor but if he is a good GC then maybe 2hrs to frame this wall out and another hr to hang the sheetrock. There will be time required for taping and spackling 3 coats. We are only talking about 15' of wall here with a few joints to tape. Especialy if the GC buys 4'x16' wallboard there will be only one seam to tape. So less time and cost. Seems like this guy is trying to recoup $$$ or something since the job has been prety much on a standstill until the venting issue gets resolved. I probably should add this to the other thread but since I am here :). How about going back to a previous thought and run the venting now through the MB closet. I think initially the back of the closet was like 14" from the current wall towards the window wall/ Is that right? Buolding this wass will eat up 6" you say. Once you transition the round to rectangular, you should be able to get 45 degree fittings. The restriction is not equal to 1/2 that of a 90 degree it is less. So you should be able to use a 45 and then run a piece of rectangular duct up to get to the back of the closet, maybe to the point inside of this back wall and then use another 45 to straighten the pipe out and then run up and through the closet ceiling into the attic. You then would loose like 4" of depth in the closet. You may loose a little bit of space as well in the bottom of the closet, from where it comes up from the kichen ceiling/closet floor until it hits the back wall and the second 45 elbow. This should be minimal and could probably be boxed out. I am not an HVAC guy but from what I have seen. I think you can use 3.25 x 14" rectangular duct to equal the static pressure for an 8" round pipe. This would allow you to put the while duct in the closet wall. I would think you could use oval as well. I have this situation in my master bedroom closet. I had an oval HVAC pipe runing off the back wall. When I re-did the bedroom, I used 45 degree oval fittings to get it into the wall from the ceiling and then did the same thing on the floor into the ceiling register in the room below.

If you have local code/permitting requirements,that would be your first step. In our area, a set of prints is not required on a project that small. You would have to have a plot plan of your existing house/property and show where the projected add on would be making sure you are the required distance away from property lines(setback),utilities,septic or sewer.A set of drawings showing framing details, electrical concerns including description of your existing service. If you have a building dept. and have these requirements in your area, they will have all the info you need. If you are hiring the services of a general contractor, on a project like this, many times the g.c. will draw up and take care of this part for you for a fee,of course.I wouldn't go to the expense of having an architect on a small and straightforward project that you have in mind. In finding a builder, besides the usual references and seeking out a quality minded trades person, state that you would like to be involved with some of the aspects of the project that you mentioned.

Pardon the massiveness (yes I made up that word) :oP of this silly hood but it had to cover a big range: I believe we're 34" off the surface, but since it's just recently been all set up, I'll go ahead and do a measurement for sure and post it this evening. We spent a lot of time on the phone with vent a hood when we had this rebuilt (we ordered a standard 1200 cfm and then took the guts out of the box and had the box rebuilt by a local stainless steel fabricator). We made sure that the power was going to be sufficient and wanted to increase capture space front to back as well as side to side. We couldn't go with a standard US measurement on a hood due to space issues and conversion from the french range size. It's mounted to both the wall and hung from heavy chains wrapped around the beams in the ceiling. Three heavy guys did pull ups from it :) It's not coming down. It was a chore though to see it hung well. It vents out the back through a wall, but it was far too heavy even in it's metal stage to use that as the only support. Then once we applied the marine plywood, plaster, trim and granite detail..well she's a heavy girl :) One thing I did (I hope it shows here...if not I'll take another photo) is to bump out the counter to meet the front of the stove. I did that to avoid the obvious "hip meets square edge" of the stove, and it also serves to keep you from losing an eye on the hood if you're tall enough :) Actually here's a pic that shows the bump out better. It flows so well this way: