I don’t know what kind of insulation is in our attic but it is black (years of dust and mold?) and it’s nasty loose stuff. I have to wear a mask the whole time, or I also get sick too. AJM can’t go up there because he suffers from asthma anyway. — mss

We have the standard flat all-in-one hood that fits under the soffit in our seventies-era house, venting to the outside. It replaced an old inefficient model, and has lights built-in, badly needed at that spot.

Incandragon, did you ever get an outside exhaust put in? Our last house had a downdraft built into the cooktop. Another previous house had the recirculating/filter hood fan like yours, but it worked in tandem with an exhaust fan built into the outside wall. With both fans running it was noisy, but got the steam and heat out.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose

I’ve added a photo so I can really stun you with my daring. This weekend, weather permitting, we will be hooking up the duct-work so that the air will vent outside. –mss

I still remember realizing that what I thought was the vent could not possibly be blowing out of the house — there was no pipe — and therefore must be just shunting out over my head. Not a happy day.

And was it? Or was yours a ductless one with a recirculating filter? I suppose my biggest frustration was having to undo work that I paid professionals to do. Overall, though, the work went well. We can hardly wait to finish it and try it out. –mss

We are also thinking about doing some kitchen remodeling. We have a stove that we want to keep but have been living without a vent hood for almost 5 years. It looks like we have a similar kitchen set-up. Free-standing stove, outside venting hood. I would love to know where you found one that was in the period-appropriate ballpark, who is going to install it, etc.

If you wouldn’t mind posting more about it–or emailing me privately–I would be most appreciative.

Shelly, we didn’t go for anything period-appropriate. In fact the entire kitchen is completely unlike the rest of the house and looks more like it should be in some modern downtown loft than in a 1940s cottage. However, the place we ordered our vent through, Appliance Associates, has a lot of reconditioned old/antique ranges. You might look there. They are off north Lamar across from the DPS at 814 Romeria Drive. As for installation, we’re doing it ourselves. Some of the more skilled work like the major electrical and plumbing we’ve hired out. But we’ve done most of it ourselves, partly because we’re cheap and partly because we’re picky. –mss