I know this is an old post but I felt I should chime in for any future readers. We purchased a house three years ago that was heated with an outdoor wood boiler. We live in rural Ontario, Canada where February is typically -35 Celcius. We had never heard or seen these things before but heating sources in the rural area are limited to wood, electric heat, or propane. Here's my experience with them after three years or using one every winter: The very first time you fire up the boiler each fall there will be lots of smoke for an hour or two (just like when you light a fire in your fireplace - there is lots of smoke out your chimney upon first start). After the boiler is at temperature, and you're burning seasoned wood, there will be VERY little smoke. IF the boiler is a gassifier (re-burns the gas before it exits the chimney) then there is practically NO visible smoke at all - EVER. Most boilers have thermostats that ONLY open the dampers and turn on the down draft fans when the water temperature goes below a set value (160 degrees usually). For my boiler, in the dead of the winter here in Canada (-35 degrees C), the boiler will turn on once every 45 minutes and stay on for 10 to 15 minutes to re-ignite the wood (this is the only time that smoke would ever come out the chimney if it wasn't a 'smokeless'/gassifier unit.), then close the dampers and the fire is put out, leaving only red hot wood embers/coals. You WILL, however, smell the wood... which most people think smells nice (think of a campfire on a cold night, or cuddling up to a fireplace with a hot chocolate). However, if you dont like the smell of a wood fire, then this will put you off. The pictures that others have posted above could be 1) People burning something that they're not supposed to be burning like garbage 2) burning green/wet wood - so you're seeing STEAM in those pictures 3) the first start up on the boiler (either of the year OR maybe they turned it off while they were away on vacation and re-fired it when they returned). As a home owner with a boiler for my heat source I can say that I envy those with natural gas. A boilers is a LOT of work, a LOT of maintenance, and takes a LOT of energy/time to cut, stack, and load the wood (not to mention the ash clean out every two days). BUT.. for us, its half the price of propane and 1/6 the price of electric heat.

After looking with a laser I think the cabinets are some out of level but so is the floor :( the problem tho is that distance between upper and lower differing by an inch. Even if they make everything else look ok at the bottom, I won't be able to use the subway tile like b4 because you'll see a tile get skinnier as it goes across. So maybe have to use some kind of mosaic so it won't be as noticeable. But I hate mosaics. Makes my eyes crossed. I don't know I just wished they'd install them the same way my old ones were. Even if they weren't level. It looked ok to me and yes I guess the tile ran downhill too but you couldn't tell. I'm just going to have to wait until tomorrow and see what the contractor says. We might have to postpone the granite install (actually reinstall ) In answer to the question about the backsplash, they said it shouldn't have to come down. They were just going to add to it where there was an OTR MW and now there's just a hood going there. I would give anything if I'd have said to tear it out anyway just in case. But they should have known things don't always go back the same. I shouldn't have needed the foresight - that's their job. I would like to know if its easier to rip it out now or does it matter if its done after the granite comes. I worry that it could damage my cabinets to do it now. Thanks for all your comments. Please keep them coming !

Thanks everyone! I had a very unpleasant conversation with the KD (who kept insisting that there must have been some miscommunication, despite the fact that I had all the emails.) After some back-and-forth, the contractor just put a stop to it and said that they would order the cabinets as agreed and replace. Apologies btw: the description I gave above was off. Right now there are 2 33" cabinets on the wall, and we'd agreed to change it to a 24" short cabinet for the microwave with a double door, abutted by 2 21" cabinets. Which means it's not so simple as just pulling one out - they will have to pull both, and replace them with the three as in the drawing. I definitely need the microwave off the countertop - my kitchen space is only 7.5x14 (with the last 2 feet running into a 12x12 breakfast room.) I wanted the narrow-depth cabinets for lowers as well as uppers so that the aisle could be a full 48" - unfortunately this is a main traffic path from the front to the back of the house. We spent a lot to get that width, and I thought it through the function really carefully to allow multiple uses of the kitchen at the same time - something that wasn't possible before! The electrical isn't an issue because the room behind that wall is a utlility/laundry room and the walls are open. The plan has always been to run any additional wiring for ucl and a switch for a to-be-installed chandelier for the adjacent breakfast room once all the cabinets were in. I really appreciate all the bucking up here. I don't think the contractor was trying to steam-roll me; all he keeps saying is that he wants me to be happy and he'll "eat" whatever costs to get it right. It's my Irish guilt-ridden nature that I feel terrible about that, and that I hate having to put the workers to any more trouble - they have been miracle workers over all. (Beyond the load-bearing wall and trenching the slab, they also did a heavy-up a few weeks ago, moved our hot water heater and installed a new one, all in record time and all while keeping our fridge and gas range in service throughout.) I think the KD is the weak link here, and told the contractor that, but ultimately I have to leave it there.

Mayflowers - I dont know about the stain or the finish. So here is an update. I discovered from our designer that these are not custom made cabinets. They were made by Mid Continent Cabinets. Apparently this factory is not able to, or doesnt want to, pick out less knotty pieces of alder to remake the doors. We could ask them to remake x doors and drawers and we might get x drawers and doors that are worse, or better, or the same. This seems like very odd quality control to me, and a huge waste of everyone's time. Our designer spoke with someone at Mid Continent who said that alder is a poor man's cherry, and that we should be able to replace all the doors with cherry. She left us a sample and indeed it looks like it might work, But Mid Continent quoted us $2600 to remake all drawers and doors in cherry. Our designer said she would pay half "because she and I are both guilty of miscommunication during the initial cabinet design", even though I gave her the exact bill of materials that we had chosen a year ago with another company. As well as shown her pictures of the cabinets. Whatever. So my question to you guys - Ive heard that cherry darkens with time. Would you take the chance getting cherry drawers and doors on an alder frame? The colors match very well right now. Personally, I kind of want our designer to reimburse us some $$$ and use it to get custom doors and drawers from a builder who actually cares about quality and can hand pick the alder. And then she can wash her hands of this mess and we can take responsibility of the final product rather then being at the mercy of unhelpful companies like Mid Continent.