Kitchen soffit

brons2

Hello all,

In my old kitchen, that is, the one that was in my current house before I ripped it out, there was a soffit above the cabinets on one side of the kitchen, and a single HVAC vent came out of it. After demoing the kitchen, I reached my hand behind the soffit and realized that there was nothing there other than the vent and lots of air. So I ripped it down.

However, the vent is still there and I need to figure out some way to re-route it through the ceiling joists as I have already purchased the new cabinets and they will extend all the way to the ceiling, no room for soffits anymore!

Is this something that is within the scope of the DIY'er or do I need to call an HVAC guy to put in something new? The ceiling joists are 2x12, 16" on center. There's gotta be something that allows a vent to be redeployed in a fashion that goes on top of my new cabinets, especially with 12" to spare. This is a two story house so insulation in the joists above the kitchen would be primarily for noise suppression.