You didn't mention whether you are talking about undercabinet or wall-mount/chimney- style hood or something else. Anyway, Kobe hoods give a lot of bang for the buck, and are well-made, with Kobe providing great customer service to boot. So check out that brand. Another choice is Costco which sells name-brand hoods at amazing prices. Typically lower-priced hoods use mesh filters, but Costco sells hoods with baffle filters which are better than mesh filters. Plus, you are likely aware of Costco's wonderful return policy should anything go wrong with the hood. Costco used to carry the Kobe Brilla hoods which was a fantastic deal, cause that's a nice hood. But I just checked the website and the Brilla hoods aren't there any more. Costco changes its inventory frequently; may be worth a trip to a Costco store to see what they have in the store. The Costco website right now shows Ancona hoods, but I am not familiar with that brand. Again, there's the Costco return policy... P.S. the 33" height above the cooktop you mentioned should be the maximum; 30" is pretty much ideal, but 33" is OK. Just don't go higher than 33". Below, I tried to direct-link to the hoods at Costco, but Costco will only link directly to the large kitchen appliances page. So, from there, search for "hood". Hoods at Costco Kobe Hoods Website

Thanks! Same thing with Tim Gunn's show? I can hardly believe Bravo would dump it - it was so popular! Maybe the show dumped Bravo?

Could you post some photos? Just start a free album at photobucket -- and then click on each photo -- and when the HTML code appears under it -- click and it will be automatically copied -- and just paste it into the body of a message here at GWHD. ((thank goodness for that auto-copy feature! :) And let us know some direction for your choices of artworks -- formal? country? modern? Also -- with that much wall space -- you might want to consider hanging a grid of artworks -- maybe a set of 12 black-and-white photos of local architectural elements or fun shots. ((this is JUST an example!!)) Also -- sets of artworks (duos or trios) might work too. Or how about hanging wall shelves for pretty pieces of pottery? Check places like Pottery Barn or Ballard Designs websites for for IDEAS on artworks -- and do the same at art.com -- simply choose one of their categories that appeals to you -- and start browsing through the selections. IF you find ones that appeal to you -- print off the page -- just to keep track of trends that you like ..... and then can check around stores like Target, T.J. Maxx etc. Also -- check with local colleges and universities to see if they are having art sales or exhibitions ... always fun to go at look! Just some thoughts -- hope you don't mind! :) Jan

State politics is a BIG issue as far as retirement goes. Weather or not you may have Medicare, medicaid, or ANY kind of breaks or help etc. largely depends on whether or not your state government is progressive democrat or reich wing nutters out to destroy anything that could remotely help retirees and those on lower income. I did live in California most of my life, however had to come to NC to help my mother for the past 18 years. She recently passed away age 95 so we are leaving this reich wing hell hole asap. I lived in Oregon for 6 months and loved it. Most areas in California that I would like to live is FAR to expensive for us. Our old house in Newport Beach that my family bought in 1975 for $25,000 last sold for $1.7 MILLION. We could not possibly find anything there even remotely in our price range, even for rent. We just went on a 27 day cross country trip, camping along the way. Went back to my old stomping grounds and saw our old house. Would move back to Southern California in a heartbeat if we won the lottery. However we have to exist on our retirement which is only about $4,200 a month, plus fortunately cost of living raises per year. So we spent 5 days in Bend Oregon on this trip to get a feel of it, for my wife to see it and to look at homes we can afford. She absolutely fell in love with Bend and why wouldn't she bend is like Shangri-La compared to Raleigh NC. We found several homes just south of Bend ON the Deschutes River with a dock, about a 1/2 acre of land usually, 2+ car garage, plus large workshop plus HUGE RV parking garage the size of a blimp hanger and all for under $200,000. I just now was actually looking on Zillow at a couple places in Florence Oregon right on the coast for the same price range and right on the water. Oregon is literally like being on a different planet compared to NC. Nice weather,(if you are east of the Cascades) very few bugs, low humidity, gorgeous country side, blue as blue can be politically so you know the state legislature isn't sitting there doing nothing but trying to come up with ways to screw you 24/7 like virtually every single red state is. Unless you are very well off with LOTS of money in the bank and a big retirement of at least $100K+ per year then you are a damn fool to live in a red state and or vote for Tpublicans. Sadly politics rules virtually everything we do, especially if you are lower income making less than $150K a year. That is just a fact we must live with and a fact you had better acknowledge and accept when looking for a place to retire. There are no Republicans left only Tpublicans and 100% of them are stark raving insane and have no more care for the bottom 98% than they do an ant on the sidewalk. I only hope my wife and I can sell our house asap before this positively insane batch of nuts that are now in 100% totalitarian control of the NC legislature drag down the state even further.