Never let it be said that husband never gave me anything big and shiny. Today we shan't speak about food, but instead about the tools that let us create the food. For 10 years i have worked in this kitchen sans a vent hood, sans any sort of ventilation. Cook Fish? You'll know it for the next week. Roast a chicken? Make sure you wash the jacket you left in the room lest anyone standing next to you on the train know just what you had for dinner last night.
About 4 years ago we replaced an aging and no longer repairable 6 burner range who's name I believe was Kitchen Queen. We searched long and hard, researched pros and cons and ended up with a Thermador Professional 6-burner with a griddle. I would have loved 8 burners and no griddle, but the only company making those went up a few thousand. A year later we bought the 60" vent hood to accommodate the beast as it is affectionately known. The vent hood promptly went into the garage and rested on the floor and there she lay for the last 2 years while husband, a design engineer by trade, rendered 3-D drawings and modeled all sorts of configurations and crunched weight and load ratio numbers to plot hanging the 330 pounds of hood, framing and stainless steel sheathing off our 18 foot high pitched roof. That would be framing and stainless steel sheathing that husband would have to design and have fabricated since you buy the vent hood and the motor to mount on the roof, everything in between is up to you.
Oh and the other caveat? We would do it ourselves. Frugal, proud Englishmen refuse to allow wives to hire outside help when one can 'do it ones self'.
Here in a nutshell is how to hang a vent hood.
First you build a wood frame to hold the hood up off the stove at the required height.
We're going up here to the motor on the roof. The only thing he would let me have our friend Brian the carpenter do.
Then he and I had to move this giant hunk of metal over our heads...
and onto here.
This was followed by the metal frame and several ladders, some rope and quite a few words I had not heard my polite husband utter in 9 years of marriage.
Apply some serious bolts...
Add some ducting...
And then some stainless steel cladding...
...and voila! Gorgeousness! The view when you enter the kitchen protected from evil spirits by Ganesha and Foo(d) dog.
What you wouldn't be scared of this face?
And the view from my side
Will this make me a better cook? No. Will it make me a cleaner cook? Yes, yes YES. Now I won't have to hose down the entire contents of the kitchen every month because all the cooking grease settles. Will this make me a happier cook? OMG yes! Not to mention that this hood has light. LIGHT! I have been cooking IN THE DARK for 10 years. Want to see if your sauce is right? Lift up the pan and carry it over to the light and then back to the stove. Dinner tonight is going to be late. I want that sun to set and the crickets to sing and I am going to cook IN THE LIGHT!!! I think I husband a really good meal for this one. That's item #1 off the 'Honey Do' list.
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