Must be hard to get much work done and not stare at that stunning view!! What a wonderful place to call home you will have!

We replaced wood floors with slate, which is uneven and clefted. Cabinets would not sit flat on the slate, so we tiled up to the cabinets. The process we used was this: remove old hardwood and patch plywood install Wonderboard over entire floor, wall to wall install toe kicks for cabinets install slate tile up to toe kicks, and under where range, dishwasher, and fridge will be placed (To allow for the thickness of the slate tiles, the toe kicks were made higher than normal.) Toe kicks installed slate installed up to toe kicks and under appliances finished The main reason why many remodelers don't do it this way is that you need to have your cabinetmaker or cabinet installer come out to install the toe kicks. This wasn't a problem for our GC to coordinate, but it may be an issue for some cabinetmakers. We used a local cabinetmaker. Here is a link that might be useful: photos of the process

I registered specifically to reply to your post because I struggled for months on what to do! We undertook a major renovation last year (the one and only in our lives) that included a 48" Bluestar Platinum rangetop and a 54" Bluestar Incline hood (with promo pricing at the time). The gardenweb forums were a tremendous help! What I learned was: 1. That ventahoods are difficult to clean from a friend who has one installed in her home. ...a pain in her words. 2. While the Incline comes with an internal blower, I choose an Abbaka external hood blower. We wanted to limit noise since we removed a dining room wall to make a greatroom. What I read was the Abbaka is rated at 72 decibels. We have a single level ranch and standing on the ground in front to the vent which is 6 feet back from the roof edge, the noise level is reasonable and not distracting nor a nuisance in the patio. The abbaka comes with an ugly industrial looking rotary adjustable fan switch. We had it mounted on the cabinet wall to the left of the counter. It's hardly noticeable. We just don't use the Bluestar blower control. 3. We have a Fantec duct silencer installed inline. So, what we have experienced. First, on high, the hood is still noisy, but significantly more bearable than filter style hoods we've had in the past! I start the hood on high and only keep this speed when stir frying, etc. once the hood draft flows, we turn down the blower according to what we're cooking. Our ventahood owner friend doesn't think our noise level was more than hers. Second, the Bluestar hood baffles are easy to clean! They're big, but fit in the dishwasher. I ran a dedicated load last night just for our 4 baffles. Our 54" hood had 2 stainless rails along the edge to catch oil dripping onto the rangetop, they went in the washer, too. A couple of paper towels to wipe the inside of baffle sill was all I did. The interior of the hood hasn't been greasy and we have only minor oil splatters on the rangetop's front sill. The backsplash barely needs wiping except when I splatter sauces and stuff. Third, ventilation effectiveness. I am a home coffee roaster. I use a Hottop drum roaster and roast 235 grams ( a little over 8 ounces) of green beans. Coffee roasting results in huge amounts of unpleasant smoke. I've always roasted in the patio because our hoods were totally inadequate. Now I roast inside and don't notice any odors from the roasting. Being retired and therefor old, noise was a significant issue for me. Effectiveness and long term care was the other equal consideration. We would make the same decisions knowing what we know and have experienced! good luck on your undertaking and renovation!

Unless you have a great deal of money to spend, you are better off doing a lot of the hard work yourself and then hiring someone to help finish things off with panache. Good interior designers cost a fortune- six figures for a living room, for a modest start. Mediocre interior designers cost money too- I have no idea of how much though- but my feeling is that any money spent on a mediocre designer is money that could have been spent on better furniture and finishes. Lay out your wish list. Consult some books and bring the problems here to work out together with this very talented crew. There is not a day that goes by that I am not amazed at how the people on this board work together to create beautiful spaces. Try with one room and see how it goes. People have reported good things from distance consultations with Maria Killam, whose specialty is colors. Google her blog and check out posts about her here on GW. She may be able to give you a good color scheme. Laurel Bern's blog is one of my favorites and she sells color schemes as well. I know it can seem overwhelming, but if money is a concern at all, it seems unproductive to waste it on meh interior designers.