I only really feel "cramped" in the FR - don't even notice it in other rooms. I think it's b/c our old house had cathedral ceiling in the FR (that I hated to heat!). How high are ceilings in your current house? I think it's all in what you're used to. All the rooms on ground floor (except PR which is 3x7) are 13ft wide. Here are some pics - sorry the trim isn't finished yet, some of these pics are recent but some are during/right after construction. I have 30" cabinets in most of the kitchen, but 36" in corner, with the 8' ceiling. I have decided to run crown molding to the ceiling in that one spot (plus over the fridge where they put cabinet higher than I wanted but I decided to leave it - moved the cabinet down 3" with a filler above, but left the end panels the 84" they cut to). Think very carefully about the cabinets (you're doing your own, not ordering from them, right?) - in retrospect I think I should have paid the extra to go all 36" even though I can't reach the top shelf (I can't reach top shelf in 30" anyway). Sorry I don't know how to link to a slideshow. Here are all the pics I had in Photobucket that showed some ceiling. DR (sorry no lights) Looking from DR across foyer to LR FR looking from kitchen (the marriage wall of these 2 rooms is one 37ft long wall, continuous ceiling. The only break is the 30" waste wall in the breakfast area) Breakfast area Messy kitchen - so you can see cabinet distances from ceiling: I really need a new pic of the exterior! This is the day of set, finishing the roof. We added a front porch - but I don't have pics of that, just the half-finished (a year ago - it's finished now, all but the top course) stone wall I built under it.

Many times soffits contain not only electrical, but also plumbing to an upper floor and if you want to remove them you have to move the plumbing. Other times soffits are almost empty with maybe a few electrical wires going through (like the OP seems to have). We had 12" high soffits that we removed. Most were either empty or only had electrical that we were able to move up to the ceiling area. However, there was one area that had the waste pipes from the master bath. We were unable to move that plumbing so we put in a very shallow soffit and ran the crown molding over it where there were cabinets, but where the vent hood is you can see the soffit if you look closely. While I wish we could have gotten rid of the soffit altogether, I'm happy with how it looks now as opposed to what it looked like before. Before: Story of a Soffit Removal in Pictures: Waste Pipe that couldn't be moved (before cabinets went in): First cabinet installed: All 3 cabinets installed on one side; you can still see the waste pipe if you look closely above the cabinets: Start of Crown Molding, note that the waste pipe extends into the space b/w the vent and the cabinets. The pipe will need to be hidden here as well: Soffit between 2 taller upper cabinets that don't need it, but not behind them. It's there so the upper wall of both sets of cabinets look the same: Soffit on either side of vent: Soffit to left of vent: All crown molding, full view: All crown molding, right view: All crown molding & Light rail, full view: Note no soffit outside of cabinet run: Kitchen before paint, etc.:

If it would not grow up there naturally, I would not put it up there. So, if you had a skylight and a real plant would thrive there...maybe. If it is going to be up there in the shadows, it won't look real. If you want something, maybe some baskets or pottery as suggested.

Thank you for responding. How elderly? My dad is in his 80's. This contractor knows that my parents are not likely to go to court (at their age). I have done my best to step in to try to get the contractor to fix his mistakes at no additional cost to my parents, but he reminded me that the contract is with my parents, not me. I do need to get on that contract. About the kitchen cabinets, my father wrote to him that there is to be no space above the cabinets. The contractor never discussed anything with us, and suddenly one day those 36-inch cabs arrived and were put up without our knowledge. I then told him about the problem, and he agreed to order taller cabinets. I thought the cabs were being made, but I found out that he never ordered them. The addition was supposed to be finished at that point, so we felt stuck with what was installed. I'm sure he would have charged us for a new set of upper cabs and labor. He made a mistake for the fridge space, and he refused to fix it unless my parents paid. This was holding up installing the appliances and other work in the kitchen. My father felt like he had to pay to get the work going again to completion. I told the contractor that he cannot charge for his mistakes, and his response was: "if you want the changes, you have to pay." This week, a subcontractor was there to do work, and the contractor was not there to supervise. If it were up to me, I would have fired his sorry butt a long time ago. The addition is almost finished now (over 8 months over). This post was edited by grass-cat on Fri, Jan 9, 15 at 10:17