Modernaire does custom from the looks of their website.I would contact them and see the options avail with what you end up for a soffit.I'm sure they have a good tech team to help.Get this right-don't worry about floor and counters right now.

It always happens. Sleep on it. If you really want the soffit smaller, make them do it. Otherwise, at least if it were me, every time I walked in Id be thinking "gee if only that soffit were smaller". Now if you happen to be more mature than me, maybe it won't be a problem.

Do the checkerboard. I like it. Do it in like, linoleum or whatever? If you dont like it no biggie. But i vote yes.

I love checkerboard floors too. I would do it!

Anna, first sit back and crack open a bottle of Wine or Scotch or Jack Daniels, just kidding, or maybe not.
As herbflavor suggests, don't worry about the floors or counters right now.
If there's no reason the soffit has to be 24" then call the contractor and tell him to make it 12".
It's your money!!
While you're on the phone with him ask him if he can frame the soffit another way to achieve the original 10" height. Perhaps he can build it out of 2x3's or he may be able to turn the 2x4's flat to gain an inch that way.
In the end I'm not sure that 1 inch will make a difference. My hood is mounted 30" above our range. I am 6" tall and while my hood only has a 22" projection, I have no "head banging" problems.
Also as herbflavor suggested, ModernAire will most certainly be able to modify the hood and shortening it's height by 1 inch will only be noticeable to you.
Either of these options will likely cost a few more bucks so figure out which you're most happy with.
Remember the idea is not to get it done. The idea is to get it done right.
Keep us posted on you're progress.

When your GC yells at you again pretend you're a cat and think "blah, blah, blah" and remember - your reno, your money, your way!
I'm pretty sure my GC got made at me a couple of times but never showed it because I told him right at the beginning that it was my reno and my money. But don't let anyone else take over the decisions. I'm assuming that is frustration talking. If you don;t like the way something is now you will hate it even more later because it isn't your vision.
You need to be strong and yea, it is frustrating and tiring.

1. Never worry about stuff at night. Take the worries out of your head at night and pick them up in the morning. Problems that seem unsolvable at night often really do get better after a good nights sleep and fresh eyes.

2. In the middle of my last kitchen remodel when I was stressing over the countertops, my husband had a heart attack followed by emergency bypass surgery. It was amazing how little the stupid kitchen mattered anymore.

If you don't have to go visit your husband or child in the hospital, jail, or rehab - get down on your knees and thank your lucky stars that a stupid kitchen is your biggest problem in life.

3. Remind me of this when I vent next week, lol. It does feel like you've got one hand on a runaway train. You can't let go but you sure don't enjoy the ride. You just gotta keep running. This part will be over like a bad dream, but your beautiful new kitchen will be there for a long time.

Hang in there!

It is decisionitis and can be ever so exhausting. One thing at a time - the most immediate one being the soffit remedy. As others have said - you hired the GC to do a job for you and you are paying him = he does what you want. It may cause some (temporary) aggravation to the guys doing the work but who cares!! They are not the ones who will be living in the space and paying the big bucks to have it done. It's not really that hard to reframe the soffit to 12" and I'm sure Modernaire can adjust the hood to make up the 1".

No crumbling kitchen although it feels crushing to make these decisions sometimes.

Fix the soffit/hood dilemma then move on to the next decision.

31 inches above the range is just about right -- why does this bother you?

I did a checkerboard floor -- brown and cream 6 inch tiles -- and I love it.

Anna, I have not followed your remodel closely, but have you previously made many changes of plan during construction? If ''yes'', then that is something to think about. Changes have a cost, you might be costing yourself money and time. If ''no'', then carry on - decide how you want that soffit to be, have it done, accept the additional cost, and move on to the next decision - don't revisit the soffit, it is done.

Anna - I do know how you feel. I had a floor post just the other day complaining about all of these decisions and how nothing can be simple. I have a hard time with decisions on a good day, so this whole process is...well...difficult to say the least.

I my builder yelled at me, I'd probably cry, but I'm a baby. But honestly, if you make changes, and they cost the builder time, I'm assuming they cost you money. He really shouldn't be yelling at you. And what's that line about the soffit being higher than he originally told you? Did he "change" something?

Do you best to see pictures of checkerboard floors - in completed rooms. I think you'll get an idea of how it will look, and if you're really drawn to it, I'm sure you'll love it.

So, take a breath, and maybe a glass of wine, try to get a good night's sleep, and tell the builder you're paying him to do your kitchen the way you want it. I know I'm not giving you any sort of great wisdom here...just know that I think what you're going through is very common.

And I agree that you shouldn't try to do too many decision at one time. I took my builder's advice and just focused (maybe obsessed) on whatever was really at hand, and let go of other decisions I could put off until a future time. Right now my "obsession" of choice is the flooring. Once we have the cabs, floor and countertops in (or at least all here) I'll really start thinking about my backsplash. After that, it's on to paint. For me it just makes it a little more manageable.

Good luck!! SQ

Anna, I can't add much to the wonderful advice you've already gotten. But I will say..
1) .. that I feel your pain. You are much farther along in the process than I am, and I've already had some days that felt like yours (I can't make one more decision, why is nothing going the way it should, etc.) And, in retrospect, they seem small to me now. This is my third remodel, and I can confidently say that you WILL get through this and LOVE your results!
2) .. I'm bookmarking this thread so I can come back and read it when I need some cheerleading!
3) .. please let us (and yourself) know when something goes REALLY RIGHT. It will be good for all of us! :)

muskokascp - this is the best advice i have seen in a long time
Take the worries out of your head at night and pick them up in the morning

actually there was a vignette on an episode of scrubs where Brandon Fraser said he would just pluck the worries out of the character's head and that he would keep them safe in his pocket for a while. I loved that idea

I'm voting yes for the checkerboard floors, too! I love them, and would have them in a second if I could talk my husband into them...

I had them for two years when I was in college, at the place where I lived then. I loved them then and still love them now. I think they're a great classic look.

~ Mastiff

I feel your pain. I had to abruptly renovate my kitchen after we uncovered a lot of hidden dry rot in the subfloor and water damage to the joists. I hadn't even moved into the house, so I didn't even have a clear idea of how it *could* look, and I didn't have a big budget, so what I bought today is what I'll have to live with for several years to come.

Regarding the floor - I went to a local tile outlet and bought boxes of cheap 12" ceramic tiles and laid them on the floor in different patterns, then boxed then all up and took them back. I also cut up moving boxes into brick sizes and played with laying a basketweave tile rug in the center, and checkerboards, and all kinds of things. I strongly recommend doing that if you're like me and need to see something to clearly visualize it! What about a box or two of peel-and-stick tiles - you can lay them down and get a strong visual representation of what a checkerboard floor can look like in *your* space.

GCs do get the feeling that they can push you around. My flooring company was like that and I'll never do business with them again, or recommend them to anyone. I'd be crying right along with you.

Me playing with floor designs:

{{gwi:1868540}}

{{gwi:1868541}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Testing patterns

...and I love roseio's advice. I think I will clip it to my space; I will go back there when I'm in crying-mood/mode.

It bears repeating:
If you don't have to go visit your husband or child in the hospital, jail, or rehab - get down on your knees and thank your lucky stars that a stupid kitchen is your biggest problem in life.

Not that this isn't all awful: I agree it is. Because - and here's the kicker - several "scales" *can* exist at the same time: I like to think of it as each and every time you have a cold, it feels like you're feeling the worst you have ever felt in your whole entire life (this from someone who's survived, dunno the latest count, something like 5 or 6 life-threatening diseases and situations). And when I tell my child they are the best in the world, I mean it, even though I have another child: they are also the best in the world. Scales can run concurrently. Some just happen to inch out others in prominence at any given moment.

Which is why you can give yourself permission to be utterly exhausted and fed up, and also take a deep breath and carry on. Let that one run, privately; but then just jump back in and do your best.

You will make mistakes. So will the workmen. There will be endless decisions; you won't make them ideally or even good-enough sometimes. Other times they will be and with a little forgiveness all around, you'll find a way to make it work for you and even them sometimes.

I'm guessing even GC's have bad days - must be true as I seem, against my ever-desires, to have become one.

Hang in there Anna. Remember, there are no calories in crumbs! (how's that for random? It's just that a 'dream' is nothing more than fantasy anyway; crumbs are actually real! You'll build something wonderful from this, really...)

I bugs me when people say "it will all work out" -- because how do they know? Sometimes it doesn't. In this instance, it sounds like it really will. The changes may be exasperating for the GC, but it's what he does. And once you make some progress with him and reshape your dream to accommodate reality, you'll find room and energy for some of the other decisions, baby-step-wise.

did the gc forget your discussion on it and that's why he yelled at you? frustration with himself for forgetting...

AnnaC,

I wish I had eloquent words to offer hope and help.
Perhaps because today I had a horrific day at work, that
when this song played on the radio it gave me comfort.
My crisis was not death or children suffering but it
was rough. I think, and this is just me, that
it does not matter if I am going through the worst
crisis or something minor, when life hits me hard with the
unexpected it is hard to be at peace.

I find myself on a rollercoaster ride and nothing really
brings me a feeling of calm. I do know how you feel.
Honestly, I get it.

Maybe these lyrics can help until time passes and things
do sort out.

"....Now you're stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it

And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if your way should falter
Along this stony pass

It's just a moment
This time will pass."
U2

Thinking of you and hoping your kitchen sorts out and
you feel better soon.
~boxer

Thank you all so much! The handholding helps more than I can say.

Herbflavor: MA will certainly make the hood a custom size and in fact I am going to tell them to make it 16" high.

mtnredux: I decided to leave it at 24" deep. There's a pic on the MA site where a huge hood of the same type I'm ordering is partially under a 24" soffit and it looks kind of neat. So I'm going with the "it will look interesting" idea, not because I don't want to make the GC redo it, but because as you suggested, I slept on it and decided in the am that it would be okay.

April_Lorraine, mastiffmom and sioushi: I decided to go with the solid floor for the reasons that 1) once the island is in, we actually won't have a lot of floor space showing, and 2) the range and hood and island will have such big visual impact that I want to give them a nice pale surface to stand out against. I think I have to give up my beloved F&B Pavilion Blue as well (don't think it will go with the hood so much), so I decided that when I have some money again (HAH!) I will redo my foyer with Pavilion Blue and a checkerboard floor. Plus, although he wouldn't have fought me over it, DH slightly preferred the solid floor.

willtv: Thank you! It is very helpful to hear from someone taller with even less space between the hood and cooktop that you don't bang your head. And I'm ordinarily not much of a drinker but I'm having a glass of wine right now and boy, is that some good stuff. V. relaxing.

Sayde: I know 31" is within the normal range but it just seems so low to me that it bothers me! I'm sure it will be fine.

blfenton: Hahaha! One of our cats does behave that way. The other one always has this slight startled deer-in-the-headlights expression. I guess I looked more like her at the time.

rosieo: I know, I know...and I really do count my blessings every day and try to keep this in perspective (like, there are people with nothing to eat and I'm worried about this stupid sofft depth?!?). Normally I'm pretty unflappable but this was kind of a cumulative effect thing that got to me. I've compromised on lots of little details and over time it has a way of building up such that I feel that what I had planned and designed won't be anything like what I end up with. But truthfully you're right: It is, after all, just a kitchen.

muskokascp: I think I was just exhausted. You're right...one thing at a time. It's tough, though, when you consider changing one major element and you have to think carefully through how that change would effect everything else. It's tiring.

johnliu: No, I really haven't made that many changes. This was after we were waffling on the sink being next to the wall, decided to switch it with the DW, and I was so miserable over the thought of it all night that I switched it back in the morning. This GC has remodeled two baths for me plus installed a completely new one and painted my house, and for all those jobs combined, I made exactly ONE change (to replace a window molding that didn't match others in the adjacent rooms). This was just bad timing.

SusieQusie60: Hmmm...I don't seem to be able to make decisions piecemeal. I am compelled to consider the whole package. Not sure if it's because I'm a graphic designer and tend to think in terms of "overall packaging" but I have to visualize the entire kitchen and how everything works together. Which unfortunately makes me terribly indecisive! I'm probably my GC's worst nightmare, and here I think I'm so easy to work with. *g*

katkatf: Thank you! That helped a lot. I've decided this is like childbirth: It sucks while you're going through it but there's no other way to get there. Although hmmmm...I didn't have any drugs when I had a homebirth. I wonder if I could get my epidural now.

aliris: Thank you, that was a great post! It's good to know I can both feel incredibly blessed and lucky and at the same time occasionally pull my spoiled princess act (as long as I don't do it too often).

desertsteph: No, not really. I had meant to tell him earlier and just didn't. Lesson learned.

I must say that he is a GREAT GC in terms of quality and competence and reliability. His crew has been with him for a long time and they're great too. It's just that most of the kitchens he does--and he's built some very high-end homes--are the same generic thing over and over. So he thinks I'm a whackjob when I propose some new thing he's never done before. Like I told him 15 years ago in another house that I wanted a wood floor in my kitchen and he said that NO ONE does wood floors. I also told him about radiant underfloor heating and he looked at me like I was from another planet. Fast-forward a few years and he's telling me that wood floors are wonderful in kitchens, or if I do tile, I should consider radiant underfloor heating. :-) He doesn't know about my secret weapon, the GW Kitchen Forum! I told him that while he thinks I'm crazy and always wanting to do something he's never done before, look at how much he's learning. (Currently he's telling me that NO ONE does marble countertops. Heh.)

So thank you so much, everyone. All the electrical went in today and we're moving along. I'll just keep taking deep breaths and repeating "It's just a kitchen. IT'S JUST A KITCHEN."

Anna, Thanks for the update. We look forward to pictures.