Mirror Mirror Off the Wall

It's a little hard to tell, but on the wall in the middle of the two doorways below is a mirror....with a light on top. There are many things I love about the '80s...but, this house came with 4 too many mirrors on the walls.  Don't get me wrong, I own mirrors, but not the kind that are glued on for-ev-er.  

So, the contractors have now taken down the mirrors, you can see the holes from the super glue.  Hope to have that patched up soon!  And if a mirror wasn't enough, there's a light on top of this one.  Why? No idea.  That'll be the next thing to come down.

Maybe put a china cabinet there for all of my bridal shower gifts?  Or a bench with a picture on top?  The options are limitless....

Before:

After:

8/6/12 Revision:

The contractors came back and re-sheetrocked the wall.  It's good as new!  At least until the painters sand it down and paint the wall.  (I'll take a better shot when I can.)

Kitchen update - Tiles

Alright people, the kitchen tiles have officially been ordered!  They're a sort of brown-grey.

Albarracín Pizarra
(scroll down on the link below, it's...I think... the tile on the right, PC-70)
http://www.cristalceramicas.com/ing/detalleproductos.asp?cod=76&codigo=226&tip=1

The tiles were the most difficult choice for some reason.  Loved these tiles, but found it hard to not match the granite with the tile.  They won't be touching each other, and if you look at any countertop, and then look at the floor, they NEVER go together.  So, I'm not sure what I was thinking.

Kitchen - Work in Progress

Man do I wish Pinterest existed when I was planning my wedding.  It is giving me ideas for everything in this house!  Check out my boards on www.pinterest.com/bel417

So, here's where we're at:

Opened up the wall between the kitchen and the den (front part of picture), and opened up the wall between the eat-in and dining room area.

Ripped out all of the cabinets and building a wall where entrance 3 existed.  Won't need to access the garage door from there since the granite will hang over to the den and you can swing around that way.

Picked out some cabinets at Lowe's. Raised panel Princeton model.  Color-espresso (not shown below). The top cabinets will have an arch, bottoms will be square.  Two corner cabinets will have glass.

Picked out granite and tiles, now just have to order those.  Granite color is below: Giallo Ornamental.

Project 1 - Kitchen

Since the kitchen is the biggest undertaking and the place where we spend a lot of time cooking and entertaining, we hired a contractor and are trying to get a bit of it done before we move.

The layout how it was didn't seem to be working, so we've opened up two walls and are closing one of the three entrances (who needs 3 ways into the kitchen?!).

Here are some pictures of what came with the house.

Eat-in kitchen, ancient appliances, ginormous window

 Closed-off galley-style kitchen with entrances wherever you turn, and cabinets that do not go up to the ceiling.  No pantry, nada.

Where to Start

There is so much to share, I decided to test out a blog as a means of communicating.  In between late nights at the office, I am packing up my urban Jersey City apartment and moving out to the 'burbs.  And in the process, trying to make our starter home everything we want it to be.

The house was built in 1988, not quite as old as me, but it definitely needs some TLC and remodeling.  Sure, we could just move in, replace the appliances, and be done.  But we decided to spend the money now to be able to enjoy everything we want for our home throughout the years.