Kitchen Demo continues...

Kitchen demo continues!  We finally got all of the upper cabinets down from the right side of the kitchen and now we are working on rebuilding and improving that space.  We went to Lowe's tonight to buy wainscoting to cover up the chainsaw--er, marks--on the wall and the paint to make it pretty.  Our walls are currently a taupe-ish color so we chose a light cream for the wainscoting.  The plan is to get new lower cabinets (Shaker style, in a nutmeg finish), new counter tops, wainscoting, and open wooden shelving like you'd see in old British kitchens. 

The benefit of open shelving means we can keep things better organized AND we'll have 3 shelves instead of the 2-shelved cabinets we had before so we'll increase our storage as well.  It's been awhile since I saw a pic of my "dream" kitchen in a coffee table book about the author Rosamunde Pilcher.  She's one of my favorites--she wrote "The Shell Seekers"--and I loved all the pics of Cornwall, England.

The next step is for Hubs to sand the wall and for me to paint the wainscoting before we put it up on the wall.  Then, we are waiting for our design/estimate from CloseoutCabinets.com for our lower cabinets.  We basically sketched out and measured our kitchen and emailed them the info.  Within a day or so, the guy will send us a diagram of the new kitchen and an estimate.  These are real wood cabinets and they are the kind that have a "stopper" to keep the drawers/doors from slamming shut.  It takes about 2 weeks for you to get your cabinets and a 10' x 10' kitchen with everything from doors to handles runs about $1800-$2400--depending on the style of cabinetry you choose.  Once we get our new cabinets delivered, we are going to rent a machine that will strip all of the nasty old floor tile up for us (about $65 for a 1/2 day) and then we are going to lay the new floor tiles before putting in the cabinets.  The new tiles are called Vermont slate (fitting, to be sure!) and they will match the slate backsplash we chose from Lowe's to go below the wainscoting.

Toddy really wants to switch the sink and stove (they are across from each other in the galley part of our kitchen) and move the refrigerator over to the cabinet-less wall so we have more room for cabinetry.  We'll probably have to call in some reinforcements/professionals to assist.  We'll see we have enough time to complete all of this before the family arrives for Toddy's retirement party!