Hi live wire oak, Thanks ever so much for your continued support. I am lucky to have found this forum and people like you. Beleive me, we will not be making any changes without seeing the effect in 3D in walk through style like you mentioned. Like you said, I want to see what the view (outside and inside) will be to the bedroom gables if we redo the garage roof/and or bump the bedroom gables forward. If we do go this route, we will be sure to investigate tying in a roof plane for a potential foyer bump out/and or porch. I am investigating as many options as possible before spending another dime on construction. The architect that we worked with is experienced in both residential and commercial, he is a fully qualified architect and he has an amazing wealth of construction knowledge. He owns his architect firm and works in his profession full time. He was recommended to us by a structural engineer. Our architect used AutoCad for the design -- I don't think that is viewable in 3D. I imagine we could have paid for someone to have taken the AutoCad file and transferred it to something like Sketch-up. We should have pursued that. I simply did not realize until now how different a 2D elevation picture would be from the 3D real life creation. Tough lesson to learn for us! Carol

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:

- Are you a solo cook? For daily meals, will there be two cooks? For dinner parties, will there be multiple cooks? Mostly solo, with occasional interference, um, assistance in prep, etc. from others. Mysteriously, no matter which way I turn, there always seems to be somebody in the way. Perhaps there are additional people living here I haven't met yet. - Do you typically serve food family-style (at the dining table), buffet-style (dining room sideboard or kitchen counter?), or waiter-style (plate in kitchen, serve each guest individually at dining table)? Buffet style? Horrible dictu. Either family-style or plated, depending. - Any quirky needs for where and how you prep? Like my "sink on my left" fetish? I like my sink on the left, too. but perhaps I'm just used to it. I would love vertical prep space, like an 8" shelf to put stuff on as needed so it doesn't end up ten feet away. But I may not be able to achieve that. In any case, I like cockpit cooking--everything I need in arm's reach, nothing in reach that I don't need. I like to expel things out of my way when I'm done with them, so I thought a long time about a garbage can accessible through a hole in the countertop. Then I realized the danger of breeding Swamp Thing on bits that get stuck in dark crannies. In addition to getting rid of garbage, I do not like to touch or see cooking implements once I'm done with them. I want them out of my way. Sounds weird, I know. But that video of an iron pan careening into a Kohler cast iron sink at top speed held special meaning for me. - Are you a big baker? How important is a baking center? Occasional baker. My mind doesn't really work that way. But I bake for holidays or just when I feel like it. A full-blown Iron Confectioner Baking Stadium would be nice, but I'd settle for a place to keep baking stuff out of the way of other prep tools. - A big oven user? Need double ovens? Speed? Steam? Need venting over the oven? Yup, I'm an ovener. Double would be fun for those Yorkshire Pudding occasions. I'm actually liking my tiny Easy Bake. It will be horrific when company comes, but for the two of us to roast the odd chicken, it heats up fast and works well. I do need someplace to cook my Christmas seven-hour pork shoulder. - A many-burners user? Need four, six, eight, ten? Six would be nice. I'll live with four if I have to, but what really bothers me about four burners is the crowding. - Any preference for range or cooktop/wall oven? No preference, though obviously a range is generally cheaper. - Are there any unusual tools you plan to include? Grill, griddle, deep fryer, wine cooler,(swing oven, blast chiller, immersion circulator, live fish tank . . . ) I'm not much of a nanotechnologist, so if I ever get the hankering for a molecular gastronomy experiment I'll just use the basement workbench. I'm a little old school, so I need to keep out my vintage Osterizer and two no-control toasters, one of which was my parents' wedding present in 1938, on display. The blender gets the most use. I need a place to securely clamp things, like apple corers and pasta makers. The chitarra can stay in the cupboard; I think it rusted, anyway. I need a place to store two sets of pasta board and pins. One is mine and oversized; it's a piece of plywood a counter deep, with a long dowel that can hang from a cup hook on the end somewhere. My mom's I'd like out on display; it's an old breadboard with a smaller roller. Plus there's her wooden spoon that needs to hang on the wall somewhere nearby. Never had a grill, I think I'd like one. - What size refrigerator is ''necessary''? How much pantry (linear feet of shelf) is ''necessary''? An unusual size is OK but not too small. The fridge always seems to fill up with wine and salad. Of course, even with French door fridges I can never find anything. I wish they were all six feet wide and a foot deep. I do have a root cellar in the basement, where I can store overflow cans of tomatoes once we get the paint cans out of there. I should mention the spice thing. You know when you go into a supermarket and see that huge rack of spices? OK, trim it down to one jar deep. That's what I've got. It's in an upper cab now, on those little step shelf inserts, and it's horrible. I want alphabetical. Neat. Accessible. All in a row. - Is a bar/beverage area important, for mixology, chilling, decanting, jello shots? Way. I may be able to find a nice bar for the DR or LR. But mixology has to happen somewhere. - How many people do you want to seat at this dratted ''eat-in'' zone? Two? Four? Two comfortably, 3 a little awkwardly, possibly 4 with permanent sciatic damage. Just to appease the future toddler moms. - Do you prefer pots and pans to hang or be stored in drawers? I loathe hanging pots and pans. In my apartment pots and pans were in a super susan, the kind where the door is attached and you just push it in, right next to the range. Worked well, except for flat pans, which you had to stack to infinity. So, I want them hidden, but I don't want to unnest two hundred pounds of metal to fry an egg. Appliances to live on counters or be hidden away? I imagine the stand mixer has to stay out, unless you figure out a way to lower it from the ceiling on command. Toaster and coffee maker out but out of my way. The Cuisinart should be accessible--the days of jamming my hand into a cupboard to find a sharp blade really have to be over. - All things being equal, do you prefer lots of upper cabinets or fewer? Lots of windows or fewer? The light here is great, but houses are somewhat close together. I want to keep at least one window on each wall (size may be flexible), but a wall of windows would not really be that pleasant. I do like uppers, but some need to be glass and I desperately want to avoid that oppressive Great Wall of China look. - Are you a "can't live without double dishwasher'' sort? No. - How ''traditional'' a look do you want? For example, in the 1920s homes didn't really have fixed kitchen islands. I'm thinking serious vintage, with allowance for creative interpretation. My inspiration is that online collection of 1920s kitchen photos, but I'm not going to replicate an entire dysfunctional '20s kitchen--I just want the charm. I don't 100% need a fixed island, either, but I'm not opposed to one.

"We have eventually come up with the idea of removing the bump-out and making the exterior wall straight, which means we could extend that wall of cabinets about 7 extra feet, almost doubling the space for counters, cabinets, and appliance" If you do that, install windows at counter-height, not above the counter (or below it). Keep in mind that you do need some wall space for tall appliances such as: Refrigerator Range/Cooktop + Hood Wall ovens (if you have them) Pantry - although a built-in/drywalled pantry is much more functional than pantry cabinets - but built-ins need wall space as well. So, don't eliminate all walls! You might consider a smaller window if you redo the bumpout to add wall space to the Kitchen. It might cheaper to just replace the windows in the bumpout so the bumpout is usable - maybe eliminate the side windows so you could put the refrigerator in the bumpout - it would put the refrigerator closer to the DR. . (Just brainstorming right now!)