MY RANGE HOOD IS FINALLY INSTALLED! This has been such an odessey, I
am ecstatic.

I bought the darn thing last July. I carefully researched hoods for a
month. When I picked out the one I wanted (Broan Allure III), there
were a number of distributors, but no one to install it. I called all
sorts of appliance and home renovation places. No one wanted to
bother with a range hood installation.

Undaunted, I decided to buy it anyway and worry about installation
later. I had to drive out to a Lowe's on Long Island to place a
special order, then back again when it came in. I wanted it vented,
and that was the big hassle. I was having some masonry work done
(supposedly in August but not started until January) and arranged for
the masons to make the hole in the brick wall when they did the other
work (which they finished last week). While waiting for them to be
ready, I couldn't find a nice wall cap locally (the ones in hardware
stores were tinny), so I had to special order an enameled steel one.
Next, inside... how to trim the existing backboard, which is made of
some invincible laminate material. This is where strong friends with
saber saws and determination come in handy :> Break through the
plaster and there is a stud impinging on where the duct should go!
Argh... more angst, but cutting the stud was out of the question.
Off-center ducting was the way to go after considering other
possibilities. I had to keep taking the hood out for reference and
measuring, that I just left it out in my living room for the past
month.

Two weeks ago a friend with electrical skills spent 4 hr fishing
through the wall and setting up the electrical connections. In the
meantime, I had to find where to get a custom duct made (answer: a
central air conditioning shop, but it wasn't cheap). I had to do the
measuring etc. for the masons to break the wall in the right place
(yikes!) and having the duct and wall cap was a big help.

They finally did their thing last Friday. Somewhere along the way I
got a reference to a contractor who would install it. I took today
off from work because he worked on it this morning. We got around the
stud. The wall cap, duct, and hood damper lined up (whew!) and were
"encouraged" to nest properly. He also came with a stainless steel
wall shield to cover up the mangy wall behind the stove (including
the irreparable hole where the old fan was).

It's going to be so nice to finally have my vented range hood (with
lights!) and to get that huge box out of my living room. And, I did
learn a lot in the process.

Maybe I'll fry onions tonight!

Now, my stove looks shabby :<

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!