The initials form pretty much where they feel like it. The ones above the soil line can be removed, or will usually wither when they are exposed to air (depending on humidity level).

Its my first time working w kitchen designers on a kitchen that we had so much options, so I never realized the inherent issues. If I were to do it all over again, I'd probably just extend the cabinets all the way up. One of the reasons we didn't was we have upper valence lighting on our current home and we love how much brighter it makes the kitchen. Anyway, I spoke to the kitchen makers and they seem to be willing to accomodate any change. I'm meeting with them onsite in a few days to go over the specifics. I'll let you guys know how it goes. Really appreciate all the feedback. I wouldve hoped that the cabinet makers would have told me the consequences before they made the cabinets...

The cure for vertical seams is "combined" cabinets. Find a manufacturer or maker that offers them and a KD who knows how. O have done them as long as 104", they are available up to 120". If - they are taller than 39, stacked, have a lot of glass- or longer than 84", then I prefer dowelled or mortise and tenon frame construction over pocket hole frames. An advantage of combining is the intermediate stiles can be as narrow as 1-1/2" gaining space. Disadvantages- make sure you can get them into the room, and care must be used at install to provide enough support.

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: